Mastercard has celebrated its long-standing support for the UEFA Champions League with a film starring the company's global ambassador, Lionel Messi.
The film, presented by Messi himself on his Instagram profile, is available both in Europe and the rest of the world, and for football fans it is also available on Priceless.com.
In an emotional film produced with the help of artificial intelligence, one of the best footballers in the world and four-time UEFA Champions League winner looks back on his youth, explores the significant influence that football continues to play in his life, and reminds us of the passion, which we cultivate to this inspiring and important game.
The great passion for football among Europeans is also demonstrated by the recent Mastercard Sport Economy Index study, conducted by Mastercard throughout Europe. It showed that football was the most watched live sport in 2021 and is again in first place for fans in 2022, as they more than half (51 %) plan to see sports live this year. The survey data also reveal that last year almost every seventh European (69 %) and more than half of Slovenians (55 %) watched a football match live, and 32 % Europeans also play football. At the same time, half of the respondents believe that the popularity of football will increase even more this year.
Artificial intelligence innovation
One of the biggest challenges in making this film was getting into it young Lionel Messi, which the creators achieved by using a new method of VFX special effects "Neural Rendering". This mode allows the use of artificial intelligence (AI), which has produced a "synthetic rendering" instead of the usually used graphical special effects.
"This technology is fantastic," he added Messi. "When I showed the film to my family and friends, they couldn't believe how they did it - I got goosebumps when I saw myself on the screen interacting with myself as a boy."
The creators sent thousands of images of the young Messi to artificial intelligence for processing. They provided her with photos, video and audio recordings of Messi in his younger years, as well as videos of individuals who look like him. The AI was able to use this data to create a final digital image and later incorporate it into the live footage seen in the film. The VFX process was thus used for the first time in an ad for such a realistic display, with Thiago Porto, VFX specialist and head of technology at The Mill, playing an essential role.
