Fans love Showmax's Premier League launch marketing stunt with Eric Cantona

Streaming platform Showmax launched its Premier League mobile subscription with a surprising marketing stunt starring Eric Cantona. Image supplied

Showmax kicked off the new Premier League season by hijacking the live broadcast of the popular Matchday Live build-up show.

When fans around Africa tuned in to watch hosts Julia Stuart and Owen Hargreaves interview notorious former Red Devils' captain Eric Cantona to kick off the start of the new season, they were in for a surprise.

The Frenchman stormed off the set, declaring, "The revolution will not be televised; the revolution will be live!”

Big results

Skip to 5:30, where it’s revealed that Cantona had colluded with streaming platform Showmax to talk about its innovative Premier League mobile subscription.

The stunt drove big results, with #EricCantona trending across the globe, and #ShowmaxPL and the campaign hashtag #ForEveryoneEverywhere trending on X for hours in South Africa as well as in Kenya.

“The stunt drove a 72% increase in PR coverage week on week, drove more than R35 million in PR value and was mentioned more than 27,000 times on social media.

The stunt has been covered on major football sites across the world including SPORTbible, Daily Mail, and more,” says Multichoice chief marketing officer, Yatish Narsi.

Iconic sportscaster and Showmax Premier League ambassador Robert Marawa, who was in on the prank, shared a behind-the-scenes clip of the filming of the stunt on his X profile, which was reshared 450 times by hyped fans who had tuned in for the Eric Cantona interview.

Tell me I'm NOT the only one seeing this...��

— robertmarawa (@robertmarawa) August 16, 2024

Fans loved it

Fans took to X to express feelings of shock, surprise and then delight when it was revealed to be a stunt.

If unserious was a person, it would be Eric Cantona because yini le?��#ShowmaxPL #ForEveryoneEverywhere pic.twitter.com/VoLkSoFQ8X

— Paballo Maseko❄️ (@Paballo_maseko_) August 16, 2024

The Premier League in your pocket

Narsi says, “The reason for the stunt is Showmax’s value proposition. To echo Cantona’s sentiments, the revolution is here! The revolution is about having the Premier League on your phone and at an affordable price.”

“For R69 per month (R34 per month if you’re a Capitec Bank customer), hundreds of millions of people will finally be able to consume the greatest football league on the planet, for a fraction of what it costs to attend a live match in England while cheering on super-star African players, in real time,” he adds.

“It’s the Premier League in your pocket. Welcome to the revolution!”

When a legend speaks, we listen... even if it's just a stunt. �� Cantona's message was clear: the beautiful game belongs to everyone, everywhere. #ShowmaxPL#ForEveryoneEverywhere pic.twitter.com/vYNA0WJefx

— ShowmaxSport (@ShowmaxSport) August 17, 2024

The campaign for MultiChoice was conceptualised and executed by T+W, Grid, 22Ours, Encircle, Retroviral.