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.
Campaign Success
On the 31st of August we launched the auction for Kris’s seat on www.alssupporter.be with a - teaser movie. Several national media picked this up : national TV RTL news (900.000 viewers), Sporza (1,8 million viewers), newspapers ( total of 3 million readers), radio channels,... National football players like Simon Mignolet 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)
Kris’s seat was auctioned for the game Belgium-Cyprus on the 10th of October. Amongst 1878 bids, the highest bidder donated 1000 euro for this seat, which is 32 times the price for a regular ticket.
Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results
By using a mix of national and targeted media, we touched sports fans’ hearts with Kris’s story.
2,3 million Belgians saw Kris 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
Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service
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 and lacks funding for research. Activating a wide target audience with a striking message was needed. We hijacked one of the most popular topics 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.
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