SWAP MY SEAT FOR ALS

TitleSWAP MY SEAT FOR ALS
BrandALS LEAGUE BELGIUM
Product/ServiceNON-PROFIT
Category A09. Charities & Non-profit
Entrant ALS LEAGUE Leuven, BELGIUM
Idea Creation PUBLICIS BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
PR PUBLICIS BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
Production DIGITAS Brussels, BELGIUM
Production 2 PRODIGIOUS Brussels, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Rom&John Publicis Brussels Concept Providers
Massimo De Pascale Publicis Brussels Art Director
François Massinon Publicis Brussels Copywriter
Marc Richard Vander Heyden Publicis Brussels Creative Director
Kermit Cota Publicis Brussels Creative Director
Wim Corremans Publicis Brussels NL Copywriter
Christophe Vantricht Publicis Brussels Designer
Maïté Camerman Publicis Brussels Account Executive
Fréderic Sodermans Publicis Brussels Account Manager
Pierre Pironet Pierre Pironet Photography Director
Benjamin Speyer Benjamin Speyer Director Of Photography
Sylvain Payelle Sylvain Payelle Cameraman
Hervé Vanderhaeghe Hervé Vanderhaeghe Assistant director
Bart Callaerts Prodigious Editor

The Campaign

In a football stadium, the price of tickets can vary depending on the location. The more you go down, the more expensive it becomes. And the best places, right at the edge of the field, are reserved for people with a handicap. To help fund research against ALS, Kris Van Reusel, a patient with ALS and a fervent supporter of the Belgian Red Devils, sacrificed his seat in the stadium by putting his prized place up for auction for the last game of the qualification campaign for the World Cup in 2018. All proceeds went to the ALS League.

Execution

On the 28th of August we launched the auction for Kris’s seat on www.alssupporter.be with an emotional teaser movie. Several national media picked up the story and interviewed Kris : national TV RTL news (900.000 viewers), newspapers ( total of 3 million readers), radio channels,... Football players like Simon Mignolet, the national goalkeeper, covered the story on their social media channels (+ 20 million followers). The teaser video was shown in the national soccer stadium during the game Belgium – Gibraltar (+ 30.000 fans). The KBVB, the national football association, spread our story on their social media channels, newsletters to fans/fanclubs (+300.000 contacts) A partnership with Belgium’s biggest 2nd hand platform, 2dehands.be, was set up to drive extra traffic to the campaign site. On the 3rd of September, our teaser movie was broadcasted in its entirety during the half-time break of the soccer game Greece-Belgium (1,8 million viewers)

By using a mix of national and targeted media, we touched sports fans’ hearts with Kris’s story. 2,3 million Belgians saw Kris in action on major national tv channels, 3 million Belgians read his story in the newspapers. 400.000 Belgians heard Kris on national radio stations, hundreds of thousands of people were reached via online & social media channels. The entire national football team shared the campaign (+ 20 million followers). During the campaign period, the traffic to the ALS website (www.als.be) increased by 28 percent, clearly showing an increased interest in ALS. A stunning 47% increase of donations to the ALS League were made during campaign period. Finally, the seat for the Belgian Red Devil’s final qualification match was sold for 3200% more than the original price. Before our campaign only 1 in 10.000 Belgians knew ALS by name, now 1 in 2 know Kris’s story. The right message was spread by the right people and media, optimizing the momentum of a great sports event.

The Situation

ALS is a very rare disease and still incurable. In Belgium, there are currently only 1.000 ALS patients. As a result, the disease doesn’t get the attention it deserves. To get people talking about it, buzz was needed. And what better way to generate buzz than to link it to a topic everyone is already talking about? So we hijacked the most popular topic of conversation in Belgium and gave ALS a podium. We linked the disease… to football. Before our campaign, only 1 in 10.000 Belgians knew the disease by name, now 1 in 2 know Kris’s story.

The Strategy

How to attract attention to a disease that’s almost unknown? By linking it to one of the most popular topics in belgium : football. The objective was to reach sports fans and get them to talk about ALS, become aware of the disease and how it drastically changes the lives of patients. Without any available media budget, we drafted a well thought-out PR plan. First objective was to get Kris’s story on national television, radio and newspapers. With success: national TV stations such as RTL and Sporza (during the live show of the game Belgium-Greece) picked up the story, national radio channels such as Studio Brussel and Radio 2 did interviews with Kris, newspapers picked up Kris’s story and so on. Simultaneously, we reached sports fans via more targeted channels : social media channels of national soccer players, the teaser video was displayed in several soccer stadiums, on social media.