The Campaign

M.J. Bale, an independent menswear brand, had taken out a low level sponsorship of the Australian soccer team at the World Cup. But, in their deal they had no naming rights, no endorsements, no branding, no access to the Socceroos’ social media following. The brand was invisible. We had to develop a PR idea that would maximize our minor sponsorship and engage passionate Socceroos fans to generate more suit sales. Our strategy was to activate the support of Australia’s biggest celebrity soccer fans and news outlets, by turning them into our PR ambassadors without paying them a cent. To do this, we took tweets of support sent by celebrities and news outlets when Australia qualified for the World Cup and grew them in hectares of grass at our farm. Then, we fed this grass to our sheep, sheared them and turned the passion-infused wool into official team suits, then put them on sale to the public. Our product and its provenance was the heart of the PR idea. The entire process became personalized content tailored to and driven by each celebrity and news outlet. When the idea caught their attention, they shared it with their millions of followers. This amplified our reach to 32,000,000 through social and earned media channels, leading to a 74% uplift in suit sales. Note: The word ‘paddock’ is used in Aussie slang to describe both a grazing pasture and a football field.

The Brief

The campaign’s objective was to increase awareness of the M.J. Bale brand and its sponsorship of the Australian Socceroos to drive increased suit sales. Our relatively tiny sponsorship budget meant there was no paid media at launch. Awareness had to be gained via the strength of the idea earning interest from both media and consumers. With a Twitter following of less than 1000 people, we had to reach 1 million Australians. To reach this number, we needed an idea that would turn our influencers into ambassadors and gain awareness via their own channels.

Results

With an innovative, targeted PR strategy and just $15,000 of grass seed we achieved: 32,000,000 people reached in earned media (largest share of voice of any Socceroos sponsor) 2452% growth in our social audience – starting with less than 1000 Twitter followers we reached 2.2 million people through social alone. News and images about the campaign syndicated nationally by both News Corp and Fairfax; Australia’s largest two news networks, plus Fox Sports, Ch 10 The Project and SBS News. In total over 52 individual editorial earned media articles explaining the idea and showing pictures or footage of the sheep eating the tweets. And as a result there was a 74% uplift in suit sales in the following month (highest monthly increase ever).

Execution

made our product and its provenance the heart of the PR idea. The entire process, from choosing the farm, planting the grass seed and releasing the sheep into the paddock of tweets became personalized content tailored to and driven by each celebrity and news outlet. By selecting tweets from one major media outlet in TV, radio and online respectively, we were able to offer them exclusive, customized content that didn’t feature their competitors. The idea quickly caught their attention and they became (unpaid) ambassadors by sharing the story with their millions of followers, readers, listeners and viewers. Of all the Socceroos sponsors, we were the only brand who changed the very way they made their product to show their support for the national team.

The Situation

M.J. Bale, an independent menswear brand, had taken out a low level sponsorship of the Australian soccer team at the World Cup. But, in their deal they had no naming rights, no superstar endorsements, no branding, no access to the Socceroos’ huge social media following. With no paid media, all awareness needed to be generated from the strength of the idea. We had to develop a PR idea that would gain maximum leverage from our minor sponsorship, expand our social media footprint and engage passionate Socceroos fans to generate more suit sales.

The Strategy

Our approach was to harness the support of Australia’s biggest celebrity soccer fans and news outlets, by turning them into our brand ambassadors without paying them a cent. When Australia qualified for the World Cup, we took tweets of support from these celebrities and news outlets and grew them in hectares of grass at our farm. Then, we fed the grass to our merino sheep. After we sheared the sheep we turned this passion-infused wool into cloth for the official team suits, then put them on sale to the public.