THE DEVK SELFIESCARF

TitleTHE DEVK SELFIESCARF
BrandDEVK VERSICHERUNG
Product/ServiceDEVK INSURANCE
Category D05. Excellence in Audience Targeting or Distribution Strategy
Entrant GRABARZ & PARTNER Hamburg, GERMANY
Idea Creation GRABARZ & PARTNER Hamburg, GERMANY
Media Placement PILOT BERLIN, GERMANY
Media Placement 2 UNRULY GROUP Hamburg, GERMANY
Production 14 FRAMES Cologne, GERMANY
Production 2 FC-TV Cologne, GERMANY
Production 3 STUDIO FUNK Hamburg, GERMANY
Additional Company DEVK VERSICHERUNGEN Cologne, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Ralf Heuel Grabarz & Partner Chief Creative Officer
Diana Sukopp Grabarz & Partner Group CD
Thomas Fritze Grabarz & Partner Creative Director
Stefan Geschke Grabarz & Partner Creative Director
Sarah Fröhlich Grabarz & Partner Art Director
Mariella Riedel Grabarz & Partner Art Director
Dominique Nuszkowski Grabarz & Partner Copywriter
Martin Gillen Grabarz & Partner Copywriter
Julia Wilhelm Grabarz & Partner Account Manager
Jana Quest Grabarz & Partner Account Manager
Christoph Sträßer Grabarz & Partner Production
Michael Güntner Grabarz & Partner Agency Producer
Malte Bringsken Grabarz & Partner Agency Producer
Sebastian Greiner DEVK Versicherungen Head of Corporate Communication and Online-Marketing
Christiane Niehaus DEVK Versicherungen Senior Specialist Creation/Media
Kiefer Tauchmann 14 Frames Gbr Director
Jan-Hendrik Dreyer Grabarz & Partner DOP Lighting Cameraman
Michael Meiters 14 Frames Gbr Producer
Natascha Heydorn pilot Berlin GmbH Media Manager
Thomas Schlosser FC-TV 1. FC Köln GmbH & Co.KGaA Producer

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

To bring our small insurance company with a limited ad budget into the relevant set of our target group, we developed an entertaining branded product innovation – with a twinkle in the eye. But actually, it solves a problem football fans all over the world have. Since fans spend more and more time with their phones than supporting their team, it’s the first time a fan product makes it possible for them to cheer and share their experiences online at the same time. Introducing: The DEVK Selfiescarf.

Background

Cologne FC is battling to return to the first league. Once a very successful and proud club, they’re now buried in the second division. Their fans have never lost their typical Cologne-style sense of humour and support their team with vigour, but also with a twinkle in the eye. That’s why DEVK is so proud of being their sponsor. However it’s indeed a worldwide problem that more and more fans are rather busy with their phones during games than supporting their team. Since our campaign motto is „We turn your problem into ours “, our goal was to promote this motto within the target group. In order to give the team the best support possible, we developed a solution that helps the fans to become better fans in a fun way.

Describe the creative idea

DEVK is a sponsor of 2nd division football club Cologne FC. Our campaign motto is: „We turn your problem into ours“. To promote this motto within the very specific target group of Cologne FC fans and to give the players the best support they can get, we’ve developed, designed and built an innovative fan product: The DEVK Selfiescarf. The first football scarf that takes pictures while you cheer. On the front side a typical 140cm Cologne FC football scarf to support the team. On the back side with a built-in bluetooth button and a specially designed smartphone holder that fits all common phone models to take selfies. At first it all started in good fun. But then, it received so many requests to be put into series production, we decided to file a patent for it.

Describe the strategy

To promote DEVK’S campaign motto, we had to keep one important aspect in mind: The target group is very specific, local and geographically limited to Western Germany. We also wanted to add purpose to our sponsoring and position ourselves as a caring brand. That’s why we talked to fanclub members about the challenges digitalization brings with it. And identified one problem: a lot of fans in the stadium just don’t support the team anymore, because they’re always busy taking selfies. Knowing that this is a controversial topic, we used a specific tonality that is typical for the city: funny, loving, charming but also passionate and with the right sense of urgency. Because the club was in the promotion battle for the first league, we decided to position the Selfiescarf as a „groundbreaking“ innovation that will help the club to get back to the belle etage of German Football.

Describe the execution

From the first draft to the actual prototype, the Selfiescarf was developed, designed and built in house. A limited edition of scarves was then produced in cooperation with partners. Coming with a specially designed packaging, we gave the scarves to the true core of the target group: members of fanclubs. They could then test the Selfiescarf in the stadium at an important home game. To promote the product, we spread an online film via social media and targeted it at all Cologne FC fans on Facebook and Germany’s most important football websites. After the end of the campaign, we decided to put the scarf into serial production.

Describe the outcome

What started as a funny little stunt, not only became the most watched, shared and commented piece von DEVK content ever, but also became the most successful campaign by a German insurance company ever – within only 7 days. With our targeting strategy that solely focussed on Cologne FC fans, a very specific target group, we gained 1,8 million impressions, more than 1 million views and almost 52,000 interactions. It also brought our brand to unknown heights – resulting in a 5,1% engagement rate, a 49% percent increase in brand favourability and a 1033% increase in unaided brand awareness. Additionally, an increase of 39% of approval to the statement „DEVK is a problem solver“, proves how much the campaign helped promote our motto. Since we had hundreds of requests to put the scarf into serial production, we can proudly say that our target group has never engaged more with our