TRANSFER THE FAN

TitleTRANSFER THE FAN
BrandBUNDESLIGA
Product/ServiceFANHOOD OF THE BUNDESLIGA
Category A08. Leisure
Entrant DUVAL GUILLAUME Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation DUVAL GUILLAUME Brussels, BELGIUM
Media Placement DFL DIGITAL SPORTS Cologne, GERMANY
Production ADULT IMAGE Brussels, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Koenraad Lefever Duval Guillaume Creative Director
Dries De Wilde Duval Guillaume Creative Director
Arnaud Bailly Duval Guillaume Creative
Kareld De Mulder Duval Guillaume Creative
Dorien Van Antwerpen Duval Guillaume Account Manager
Jessica Danese Duval Guillaume Account Director
Marc Van Buggenhout Prodigious TVC Producer
Erik Bulckens Adult Director
Tatiana Pierre, Charles Kinoo, Brechje Depourcq Adult Producers
Pieter Van Alphen Adult DOP
Simone Rau Adult Editor

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

With 'The Loyalty Test'-campaign, we decided engage football fans during the annual winter break of the football season and put 3 self-proclaimed die-hard ones to the test.

Background

The Bundesliga is Germany's primary football competition, the football league with the highest average stadium attendance worldwide and watched by millions of football fans around the world. During 3 weeks of winter, the competition is interrupted and attention shifts towards the transfer window (‘mercato’) with clubs willing to offer a lot of money for star players to change colors.

Describe the creative idea

During our 'loyalty test', we made fake football agents offer 3 die-hard fans of the most popular Bundesliga clubs a transfer from their team to a rival club. A hidden-camera stunt to illustrate the love, passion and dedication supporters have for their club – something money can’t buy.

Describe the strategy

The campaign objective was to activate the global football loving community around the restart of the Bundesliga season after winter break. Within this context, we used the official Bundesliga Facebook page as a central element in the campaign. It allowed us to: - Launch a call to action to #ShowYourColors and inceltivize Bundesliga supports out there to stand out - Divide and tailor distribution of our video content towards a primary specific group of fans of all the Bundesliga clubs, and a secondary broad target group of football fans all over the world.

Describe the execution

The stunt itself took place in business hotel in Düsseldorf, 3 die-hard fans were invited for a "TV interview" about fan loyalty but walked into a hidden-camera prank. They were offered to switch teams and be ambassador of their most rival club. They were offered big amounts of money and even a car. The whole prank was filmed by 8 different cameras. Friends and fellow supporters were also part of the prank.

List the results

- The #ShowYourColors call to action received 30.000 responses by Bundesliga fans on Facebook. - Globally over 130 million fans engaged with the campaign. - Bundesliga gained 1 million new fans on their Facebook page during the winter break. - The film was commented over a 160.000 times.