Title	MADE BY DENMARK
Brand	HUMMEL
Product/Service	OFFICIAL DENMARK FOOTBALL JERSEY
Category	E05. Sponsorship & Brand Partnership
Entrant	ENVISION Aarhus, DENMARK
Idea Creation	ENVISION Aarhus, DENMARK
PR	GEELMUYDEN KIESE Copenhagen, DENMARK
Production	ENVISION Aarhus, DENMARK
Production 2	M2FILM Århus, DENMARK
Production 3	GORM AGENCY Frederiksberg, DENMARK

Name	Company	Position
Rasmus Saaby Bentzen	Envision	Creative
Peter Boe	Envision	Creative
Tomas Olesen	Envision	Planner
Jesper Herholt	Envision	Designer
Jacob Jagd Engberg	Envision	Creative
Charlotte Scheel	Envision	Project Manager
Casper Lind	Envision	Shooting Director
Bjarke Hvorslev	Envision	Editor
Rasmus Pilgaard	M2 Film	Director
Morten Lund	hummel	Marketing Manager
Jonas Skovborg Johansen	hummel	Marketing Project Manager

Why is this work relevant for PR?

This work is about a piece of polyester! A piece of polyester made so meaningful and relevant that we captured the attention of an entire nation and then some – and created record sales of the new Denmark jersey for the UEFA EURO 2020. In other words, this work is relevant for PR as it goes all-in on creating an idea so powerful and unskippable that the earned media became the main driver of an extremely successful launch campaign.

Background

After a year of empty stadiums, Denmark was going to the UEFA EURO 2020 and Danish sports brand hummel wanted to create the ultimate jersey for the team and fans. A jersey that: 1. Celebrated the strong sense of community in football. 2. Became a must-have for all fans of the Denmark team. 3. Achieved all of the above through an idea designed to earn media. The sense of community in football, and sports in general, is an integral part of the hummel brand as stated in the payoff: "Share The Game". At the same time, a new official Denmark jersey holds extremely high sales potential and especially so when the team is going to a huge tournament. In other words, the job was twofold: Strengthen hummel's position as the social sports brand by creating a unique jersey symbolizing this. And make the most of a unique sales potential.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Standing united, singing your heart out, is the essence of being a football fan – just like sharing and togetherness is the essence of the hummel brand. So, the idea was to find a way of transforming this moment of unity among football fans into a new official Denmark jersey. We didn't just want the fans to co-create the jersey. We wanted them to sing the jersey! And make the jersey an image of their support and devotion. So, one of the last times fans filled the Danish national stadium in Copenhagen, pre-corona, we turned it into a massive recording studio and captured the roar of 35,000 fans singing together. Afterwards, we converted the sound of togetherness into a unique sound wave and then into red fabric – very much like a 3D printer of emotions. And created a jersey with the echo of fans in every single fibre.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Football fans buy football shirts no matter what, right? Just do a new one and they will buy it, regardless of design or marketing. Well, yes and no. A small group of hard-core fans and football shirt aficionados buy all shirts. But a small group is not enough to reach the full sales potential of a new official shirt for the national Danish football team. Far from it. So, hummel had to find a way to make the new shirt a must-have for all Danish football fans upon its release in early Spring 2021. At the same time, hummel wanted to stand out as the social sports brand who truly understands the strong sense of community within football. To achieve this, the strategy was fairly simple: Don't tell the fans they're important – show them, involve them, co-create with them! In short, create a jersey "Made By Denmark".

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

PR was contemplated from a very early stage. Almost two years before launch, a film crew was hired to document the making of the jersey. When sound specialists rigged Denmark’s national stadium with state-of-the-art microphones and recording gear, every single detail was filmed for later use in the PR process. Also, one of Denmark’s most important media houses, TV2, was invited to follow the process exclusively to ensure an extended coverage on all platforms. Two weeks before launch, PR specialists started informing a large number of different TV and radio shows, news sites and lifestyle magazines about the new jersey and under strict news embargos video footage, photos and quotes from national players were shared. In collaboration with editors and journalists, we invited suitable guests to participate in TV and radio shows. All of them informed about the story behind the jersey.

List the results (30% of vote)

At 9 AM on Monday the 22nd of March the new hummel jersey was breaking news in all important news media and the coverage continued massively until Denmark’s next game four days later. The launch was covered by the two main news shows on national TV, the top three talk shows, the top two tabloids, the top two sports sites plus the leading men’s lifestyle magazine. In short, hummel powerfully cemented the position as the social sports brand that celebrates the great community of sport. And made record sales for a new Denmark jersey: Sales: 163% – compared to record sales in 2018 (FIFA World Cup-jersey).