STING "REMAKE THE BOXER"

TitleSTING "REMAKE THE BOXER"
BrandPEPSICO
Product / ServiceSTING ENERGY DRINK
CategoryA11. Sports
EntrantBBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN
Idea Creation BBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN
Media Placement BBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN
PR MINT PR AND IMAGE CONSULTANCY Lahore, PAKISTAN
Production LASHARI FILMS Lahore, PAKISTAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Faisal Durrani BBDO Pakistan General Manager
Ali Rez Impact BBDO Regional Creative Director
Assam Khalid BBDO Pakistan Strategic Planning Director
Assam Khalid BBDO Pakistan Creative Director
Omer Azeem BBDO Pakistan Head of Strategy
Jamayal Tanweer BBDO Pakistan Business Director
Moiz Khan BBDO Pakistan Creative Group Head
Hamza Amjad BBDO Pakistan Creative Manager
Ayesha Akram BBDO Pakistan Account Manager
Ahmad Zafar BBDO Pakistan Senior Visualizer
Alize Munir BBDO Pakistan Community Manager
Syeda Faryal Ali BBDO Pakistan Content Writer
Shahzaib Hussain BBDO Pakistan Group Art Director
Aneera Fareed BBDO Pakistan Community Manager
Ali Zaidi BBDO Pakistan Account Director
Ahmed Wohaib BBDO Pakistan Account Manager
Khairaza Khan BBDO Pakistan Content Writer
Tazeen Asa'ad BBDO Pakistan Senior Account Executive
Haseeb Akram BBDO Pakistan Art Director
Tariq Khan BBDO Pakistan Graphic Designer

The Campaign

With an impeccable career of 31 wins and the title of world’s youngest Olympic boxing medalist, UK boxing legend Amir Khan faced a setback after being defeated by Canelo Alvarez. The news claimed his career was over. At a time when nobody backed Khan, Sting decided to remake the boxer's reputation and to re-energize him back into the ring. Tapping into Khan's Pakistani heritage, Sting invited him to Pakistan and showcased an entire city as a gym and its people as coaches. The Mughal city of Lahore, and its residents, stepped up. A digitally led campaign by the name of #StingChallenge was launched, inviting Pakistanis to challenge and train Khan.

Creative Execution

Following a short teaser, an online film was launched that marked the beginning of Khan's #StingChallenge. The film showed the boxer training in the old city of Lahore using unconventional means: parkour on the rooftops of this old Mughal city, training with local wrestlers, jumping over rickshaws, shadowboxing with clotheslines. The film ended with a call to action: "Dare to challenge Amir Khan". Following the video every week a challenge post would be created which called out the digital audience to help train Khan by giving him challenges. The audience came up with incredibly creative challenges using local techniques (such as boxing to the tune of a traditional drum beat) and Khan met them head-on. Khan performed a total of 6 challenges that were high in demand. The consumer promotion rewarded top 5 winners with tickets to Amir's next fight.

The campaign was one of the most successful ones that PepsiCo has ever run. It not only firmly re-established Sting in the market as an energy drink, with a boost in credentials by 6 massive points, the online film alone gained a cumulative of 13 million views online and was the fastest to reach 10 million in PepsiCo's history. Total campaign views were over 16 million. Total impressions of the campaign crossed the 100 million mark. In a complete knockout of the competition, sales increased by an incredible 30 PERCENT during and following the campaign. The brand's efforts also brought back Amir Khan into the boxing ring, and he is competing again. Not only had we remade a brand, we had also re-energized a boxer.

Our campaign entertained the audience by making them part of a coaching experience: user-generated content contained challenges for down-and-out UK boxer Amir Khan in order to help him train in the old city of Lahore, which he was invited to use as his gym. Starting with a launch film, Khan went on to respond directly to tweets and comments by taking on challenges, generating even more online entertainment content.

A teaser campaign established the appearance of a mysterious figure "running around Lahore." Followed by a highly successful launch film which established our creative idea. Digital billboards and outdoor boards around the country further emphasized the message that Khan was in Pakistan to train. Each week, a challenge post would be created and uploaded on Sting's social media, inviting the audience to become Khan's coach. Through social listening we would identify which of the challenges was in high demand, and Khan would take it up. As a result, each challenge met created more online content and invited further challenges. The challenges were targeted towards 18-23 year olds, sports enthusiasts, energy drink fans. On facebook a simple comment would suffice as a challenge entry whereas in twitter people were required to use hashtag #StingChallenge to post a challenge.

Links

Social Media URL