Saipan

The brief

Sunrise Films needed an American audience for an Irish film about a falling-out at the 2002 World Cup. In the United States that subject has no built-in recognition. There was no paid media budget to buy attention, which meant every impression had to be earned.

Steve Coogan gave us a name American editors already knew. The rest had to come from finding the angle that made a twenty-year-old football row matter now.

What MCC did

We pegged the pitch to the build-up to the 2026 World Cup, which turned an old story into a timely one and gave desks a reason to run it this year rather than file it away.

The premiere was anchored to CraicFest, New York’s Irish film and music festival, which supplied a credible cultural home for the launch instead of a standalone screening with nothing around it.

We targeted 1,297 media contacts and worked the tiers deliberately: a Variety exclusive to set the trade record, the Wall Street Journal Arts Calendar to reach a general readership, and a BBC best-films feature to carry it across both markets. The campaign then extended into the streaming launch across Amazon, Apple TV, and YouTube.

The result

447.6 million print and online impressions. 77 pieces of coverage. 5.77 million broadcast television viewers.

All of it earned. No paid placement carried any part of this campaign.

“One Irish film, a 2002 feud, and nearly half a billion American impressions, earned, not bought.”