Title	THE ANTHEM SHIRT
Brand	JBC
Product/Service	JBC
Category	B01. Use of Ambient Media: Small Scale
Entrant	WUNDERMAN Antwerp, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	WUNDERMAN Antwerp, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Pieter Staes	Wunderman Antwerp	Creative Director
Manuel Ostyn	Wunderman Antwerp	Creative Director
Veroniek Hesters	Wunderman Antwerp	Account Director
Cedric Trefois	Wunderman Antwerp	Art Director
Tomas Van Loon	Wunderman Antwerp	Copywriter
Dorien Wendelen	Wunderman Antwerp	Designer
Caroline Van Ranst	Wunderman Antwerp	Producer
Menno Van Riet	Wunderman Antwerp	Sound Engineer

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

The Belgian team was heading to Russia with a very talented generation. The entire country was living up to the World Cup and every brand wanted to get some attention. Through our unique singing shirt people experienced the start of every match first hand: the national anthem. By launching a very original promotional campaign, JBC got more attention than a lot of official sponsors of the Belgian team and boosted both traffic and sales.

Background

Situation Belgium was heading to the World Cup with a very talented generation of players. Everybody in the country was talking about the Belgian team and every brand wanted to get some of the attention. Brief JBC asked us to come up with a creative idea that would grab people’s attention and show JBC as a sympathetic family brand that brings people together. But without actually using the players as JBC wasn’t an official sponsor. Objectives JBC wanted to get their share of attention during the World Cup and boost traffic and sales prior to and during the tournament.

Describe the creative idea

JBC launched the Anthem Shirt, a football shirt that sings the national anthem. We inserted an audio chip and touch sensor underneath the crest of every shirt. Whenever people put their hand on their heart like true patriots, the shirt sings the Belgian anthem.

Describe the strategy

Belgian fans are really passionate when it comes to supporting our national football team. There is only one moment when almost everybody stays silent: during the national anthem. The problem is that hardly anyone knows the lyrics. A real pity, as Belgium was entering the World Cup with a golden generation. So, we decided to turn this weakness into an opportunity to unite Belgian fans and give them a true patriotic experience every time our team played.

Describe the execution

A few weeks before the start of the World Cup, we introduced The Anthem Shirts. To launch the shirts, we introduced The Fanbassador. In a social video, this young fan confronted Belgians with their painfully poor knowledge of the national anthem. In a second video, he visited the house of the parents of one of our star players to hand over a shirt. Next to that, we sent a special box with The Anthem Shirt to football players and sports and fashion influencers. All communication led fans to a JBC store or jbc.be where they could get their own shirt with every purchase of 50 euro.

List the results

The shirts were originally made for the next generation of fans, but a lot of adult fans showed interest as well. So, in total we made more than 53.000 shirts for all fans of our Belgian team. The campaign reached more than 6 million people, generating more than 280.000 euro in earned media. Traffic went up with 16% and transactions increased with 21%. Resulting in an increase in revenue of 10%.