Hublot, the official time keeper of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, is maximising its international exposure during the four-week global event with the launch of its ‘Hublot Loves Football’ campaign.
The Swiss luxury watchmaker has unveiled a series of photographs depicting its “team of international football stars” including Pele, FIFA president Sepp Blatter, National Brazilian team coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, English national team coach Roy Hodgson, Chelsea manager José Mourinho, Colombian player Falcao, Swiss player Xherdan Shaqiri and Italian Marcello Lippi.
According to Hublot, the artistic portraits of “the giants of football” who have chosen to be Hublot’s “ambassadors and friends” invite the the public to “discover them in a new, unique and different way”.
Joese Mourinho
“The result is a series of striking and exceptional portraits which reveals them as they’ve never been seen before,” said the watchmaker.
“All of the images tell a story by capturing moments of closeness between the ambassador and the Hublot team.”
For example, Pelé was photographed on a stair landing in a fashionable Ipanema hotel in Rio “revealing his kindness and attesting to a strength and fitness extraordinary for his age” while Mourinho was photographed surrounded by clocks in a shadowy basement during a visit to the Hublot company in Switzerland.
Each photo, taken by Swiss freelance photographer Fred Merz, also include Hublot’s symbol for the FIFA World Cup − a football painted and decorated by Brazilian artist Romero Britto.
According to Hublot, the ball links all those involved in the project with the brand’s official FIFA World Cup watches, which are presented in cases in the shape of the football decorated by Britto.
The Big Bang Unico Bi-Retrograde Chronois features a “bi-retrograde function, along with a central chrono, a movement with patent pending” while its Classic Fusion watch reflects the gold of the coveted FIFA World Cup Trophy with a case, bezel and dial fashioned from pink gold and a tone-on-tone drawing of the trophy.
Hublo Big Bang Unico Bi-Retrogade Chronois
Hublot has also launched its dedicated ‘Hublot Loves Football’ website which features its watches as well interviews with Hublot executives and brand ambassadors and links to the brand’s social media posts on the sporting event.
In addition, the watchmaker will be highly visible on the pitch as Hublot will be visible on the referee’s boards when they show substitutions or stoppage time.
The World Cup is the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world.
According to FIFA, the total audience reach for the 2016 FIFA World Cup South Africa was over 2.2 billion people.