Southampton FC, in collaboration with its official partner TLCBET, has created 18 videos titled 'Journey to The West' to woo Chinese fans. The club used two Chinese influencers who travelled from Beijing to Southampton alongside the club's filming crew and staff members and created branded content for TLCBET after interacting with local fans they met on the way. The crew was on road for 14 days, beginning from the Trans-Siberian Railway, which took 6 days in total. They then travelled across Russia, Germany, Holland, France, and England, culminating in Southampton’s home stadium, St. Mary’s, for a home match against Newcastle United. Chinese sports digital marketing agency, Mailman worked with Southampton FC and TLCBET throughout the trip and invited influencers, provided the filming team, and produced and edited all the videos for publishing. According to a statement, the videos have garnered 68+ million impressions and 4 million video views across Chinese social media platform Weibo, WeChat and football app Dongqiudi (DQD). David Thomas, commercial director, Southampton Football Club, said: “We are delighted with the success of the trip and the opportunity to work with a club partner in China. "We worked very hard to ensure that we created engaging and interesting content that would resonate well within the Chinese audience. As a club, we always work with our partners to ensure the content is impactful and the figures show that we certainly achieve this during the journey.” Mike Chong, TLCBET director, said: “The idea started during our first meeting when lots of ideas were flying around about the Journey to The West. At that moment, we knew it was going to work. "The trip is something that everyone at TLCBET is truly proud of and couldn’t be happier with the overall content. The planning, delivery and engagement that has been shown through this campaign are fantastic and we look forward to working with Southampton FC on future activations.” Justin Tan, vice president of strategy, Mailman said: “It was an exciting collaboration. Our focus is on creating great content that engages the audience. We are very pleased with the results of this activation.”
Beijing FC has used Chinese influencers to generate four million views for its "Journey to the West" video series aimed at attracting fans in the Far East. The 18-part project was created in collaboration with TLCBET, one of the club's sponsors, and saw the crew travel from Southampton to Beijing's St Mary's stadium over a period of 14 days.