The Brief

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. The brand was invisible. We had to develop a promotional 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. Note: The word ‘paddock’ is used in Aussie slang to describe both a grazing pasture and a football field.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We activated the support of Australia’s biggest and most-followed celebrity soccer fans, 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 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. With a Twitter following of less than 1000 people, we had to reach 1 million Australians.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

We got the smallest team sponsor the largest share of voice, reaching 32,000,000 people in earned media (it was the largest share of voice of ANY Socceroos sponsor) 74% uplift in suit sales in the following month (highest monthly increase ever). A 2452% expansion in M.J. Bale’s social media footprint. 15 re-tweets from the official Socceroos Twitter account despite having zero access to this channel in the sponsorship agreement.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

We made our product and its provenance the heart of the activation 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. The idea quickly caught their attention and they became (unpaid) ambassadors by sharing it with millions of their followers. This in turn propelled the story into mainstream media, creating unprecedented consumer demand for our suits. We were the only sponsor who changed the very way they made their product to show their support for the national team.