FIFA

The project

How do we reveal the official mascot of the FIFA WWC tournament to media – and make a meaningful connection between penguins, football and Aotearoa? We engage with children and the media to bring Tazuni’s story to life.

Our approach

Hustle & Bustle worked with the FIFA WWC and host city Dunedin City Council to create a strong media moment launching Tazuni, the official mascot of FIFA WWC 2023, to the public. Based on a species of penguin endemic to New Zealand and Australia, her name is the combination of the 'Tasman Sea' and 'unity'. Hosted in Dunedin, we developed two distinct media stories that drew on Tazuni’s unique origin story and her love of football to engage a broad list of media and ensure mass coverage of one of the tournament’s milestone announcements.To support this, we also directed and project managed social content creation to deliver video assets for FIFA to use across its global channels. 

Storytelling

The first media story was taking Tazuni to Taiaroa Heads on Otago Peninsula to explore and celebrate New Zealand’s unique penguin wildlife, where we could unpack Tazuni’s origin story and learn from local iwi the significance of the penguin and shared fun facts around the species.This content was designed specifically for children’s media, in a bid to engage a younger audience and ignite awareness of and excitement about Tazuni and the upcoming FIFA WWC tournament in a child-friendly way. A second, larger media call was held at Dunedin’s iconic Logan Park, a stone’s throw away from Forsyth Barr Stadium, where Tazuni was officially revealed to a large media crowd, including key broadcast TV and Radio, local and national reporters covering news and sport. Officiated by FIFA WWC’s CEO Dave Beeche, Tazuni joined local female footballers from Dunedin’s development squads to provide key visual opportunities for media