Setanta Sports made a fighter wake fans and turned replies into fuel

Setanta Sports had rights to a major UFC fight involving Georgian fighter Merab Dvalishvili, but the broadcast landed at 6 a.m. on Sunday. A normal tune-in campaign would still leave the hardest job, waking up, to the audience.

The team reframed the scheduling problem as direct participation. More than 500 fans signed up on a website to receive a wake-up call from Dvalishvili an hour before the fight.

After the fight, the clever part continued. Hundreds of fan voice messages were recorded, turned into animated tributes, and sent back to Dvalishvili, who kept and replayed them. The One Club entry says the fight became Setanta Sports' most-streamed event.

Make the bad airtime personal

The campaign made the inconvenient time feel like membership in a shared ritual.

It captured authentic fan audio instead of asking copywriters to simulate emotion.

Sending the messages back to the athlete closed the loop and made the audience useful to the story.

If timing is the barrier, turn the reminder into a ritual that only the brand can host.

Answering The Machine was a 2025 Ad Black Sea shortlist winner in Media. The idea is transferable: when a live event has a participation obstacle, the reminder mechanic can become the emotional asset.