Title	L'EQUIPE OF OUR DREAMS
Brand	L'EQUIPE
Product/Service	L'EQUIPE
Category	A02. USE OF PRINT IN A MEDIA CAMPAIGN
Entrant Company	DDB PARIS, FRANCE
Advertising Agency	DDB PARIS, FRANCE

Name	Company	Position
Alexandre Hervé	DDB Paris	Executive Creative Director
Julien Kosowski	DDB Paris	Copywriter
Vianney Quecq D'henripret	Ddb Paris	Art Director
Jean/Luc Bravi	Ddb Paris	Account Supervisor
Olivier Massanella	Ddb Paris	Account Supervisor
Beatrice Roux	L'equipe	Advertiser Supervisor
Damien Darroman	L'equipe	Advertiser Supervisor

Results and Effectiveness

Sales increased by 20% on the 24th december, usually the worst day of the year for L'Equipe. The operation drove 600k more people on lequipe.fr. #lequipedereve became trending topic on 24th december. Sports fan massively commented and shared spontaneously their sport dreams on Twitter and FB, asking for more. The main french radios and TV mentioned it, and it became the news : competitor's journalists debated on the chances our stories had to become reality. Eventually, Renaud Lavilenie did break the paul vault world record 2 months later, just as anticipated. Which exacerbated the media noise.

Creative Execution

We took over the the media – the newspaper itself. And created a special edition that was given for free on Christmas day together with the 'normal' one. A rather cool Christmas present. What we had to do is to take journalists on board. Have them write our 'dream' stories for them to sound true & credible. And the best sports journalists in France played the game, they turned their job around – from writing reports and analysis, to writing fiction. That's how the front page of L'Equipe, on 24th december, showed Renaud Lavilenie who had just broken Serguei Bubka's mythical record at pole vault. All the articles were then used on the website where 'L'Equipe of our dreams' was also downloadable for free. The week before, a press, poster and radio campaign listed the greatest disappointments in French sport across ages, promising sports fan a revenge on Christmas day.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

L'Equipe is the leading french sports newspaper. A reference everyone who loves sports comes to read at some point. But just like all the press in France, its sales are struggling. The client asked us to find a way to sustain sales & engage sports fans with the brand in a quiet period – over Christmas – when sports activity is close to zero. It all started with a simple insight. Why do people buy L'Equipe? Because they love champions, achievements, outstanding destinies. Great stories. So we decided to offer them the best sport stories they would ever read. 'L'Equipe of our dreams'. A special edition of L'Equipe packed with the stories a sports fan has always dreamt to read, more than he could experience in a lifetime. A paper packed with excitement, with 'WOWs', 'NO WAY!s', with joy. Ronaldinho comes back in the Seleçao and wins the world cup, Kobe Bryant equals Jordan with a 6th NBA title. And a lot more.