Title	SWEDEN'S BIGGEST SHOOTOUT
Brand	SVENSKA SPEL
Product/Service	GAMING OPERATOR
Category	A08. SPONSORSHIP
PR Agency	JUNG RELATIONS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Entrant Company	JUNG RELATIONS Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Joel Pallvik	Jung Relations	Pr Advisor/Creative
Mårten Strassburg	Jung Relations	Project Manager
Max Hafelt	Jung Relations	Junior Pr Advisor
Måns Dohns	Jung Relations	Art Director
Julia Anjou Olofsson	Jung Relations	Project Assistant
Hampus Klint	Jung Relations	Art Director

The Campaign

CHALLENGE Ice hockey is the national sport of Sweden, and Svenska Spel, a government owned gaming operator, is well-known as its main sponsor at the elite level. However, the awareness of the sponsorship of youth hockey is almost none. How can Svenska Spel take their youth sponsorship to the next level beyond putting a logo on the uniform to gain more awareness? STRATEGY Shootouts are increasingly more important in hockey. Losing in a shootout is very painful, which previous shootout defeats in the World Championships showcase. It’s essential to start shootout training at a young age. To prevent future shootout losses, and show that Svenska Spel sponsors youth hockey, we created the first-ever national shootout championship for young players, hosted by Sweden’s greatest player of all time, Peter Forsberg. EXECUTION A well-known jury selected the best young shootout players from all over Sweden, which was intensely covered by the media. Following weeks of shootout training, the final took place during the World Junior Championship, where the winner got to challenge the famous Peter Forsberg in front of a huge audience and national sports media. RESULTS The results were overwhelming: Several TV stations covered it and more than 100 articles reached well over 10 million. Targets were surpassed by >500%. By taking the sponsorship to the next level, 7 out of 10 in the audience praised Svenska Spel’s sponsorship of youth hockey. But most importantly, we’ve laid the foundation for Sweden to never lose in a shootout in the future!

The Brief

Qualitative targets: - Build awareness of Svenska Spel’s youth sponsorship of hockey via earned media - Creating engaging content through proprietary channels Quantitative targets: - 20 articles in local press - Two nationwide articles - One nationwide TV-spot Target group: - Hockey parents, coaches, players - General hockey fans With hockey being the national sport of Sweden, we knew that we'd have to do something new to break thru the hockey clutter, and create newsworthy content – both locally and nationally.

Results

Results were overwhelming: Targets were surpassed by >500% with over 100 qualitative clippings in top tier TV, print, radio, and online, combining a reach of well over 10 million (Sweden’s population is 9.5MM), It even went international on the world’s largest hockey blog. No article was rated negative while 20 articles were rated neutral. This gives an extremely high Impression Score as many articles communicated our key message of Svenska Spel’s sponsorship of Swedish youth hockey. By taking the sponsorship to the next level, 7 out of 10 in the audience understood and praised Svenska Spel’s sponsorship of youth hockey, showing our key message clearly got thru. The most heart-warming results however cannot be measured: How we created a nationwide topic that was lauded by the hockey loving Swedes. But most importantly, we’ve laid the foundation for Sweden to never lose in a shootout in the future!

Execution

We had a well-known jury from the Swedish Hockey Federation select youth players under the age of 15 from different counties around all of Sweden. This was done with great fanfare during the highly media covered national youth tournament for hockey players under 15. These talents would come to defend their county colours. By setting the districts against each other, we transformed the selectees into local heroes and created newsworthy content for local media. To add national newsworthiness, we had Sweden's greatest hockey player of all time, Peter Forsberg, become the face of the campaign. Following weeks of shootout training, intensely covered by media, the final took place during the World Junior Championships in front of a huge audience and every Swedish sports media. One talent after the other was eliminated, and the winner got to challenge the famous Peter Forsberg in an epic battle in front of packed stands.

The Situation

Svenska Spel (“Swedish Games”) is a government owned gaming operator that is well known as the main sponsor of Swedish Ice Hockey at the elite level. However, the awareness of their sponsorship of hockey at the youth and grassroots level is close to none. Svenska Spel wanted to increase this awareness, and simply putting a logo on a hockey helmet isn’t enough. Instead, they wanted to take their sponsorship to the next level by showing and doing something instead of just adding a logo.

The Strategy

RESEARCH & PLANNING In hockey, every game has to have a winner and a loser. Our research showed that shootouts are increasingly more important in determining the winner, and losing in a shootout is the most painful way of losing, which Sweden did in the 2009, 2010, and 2011 World Championships. Our research also showed that it’s essential to start practicing shootouts at a young age. Based on the research, and with painful shootout losses in mind, Svenska Spel decided to make Swede’s the best shootout players in the world, while at the same time communicate their sponsorship of youth hockey beyond logo exposure. Therefore, we started at the grassroots level and created the first ever national shootout championship!