Winner
Verizon Value and Golin
Text-To-Sign
Everyone loves an underdog – whether it’s a loyal fan priced out of a sporting event or a scrappy challenger brand that can’t come up with sponsorship fees.
Verizon’s Total Wireless leveraged that underdog empathy for a massive win with Latino fútbol fans, who were discouraged and outraged that the cost of tickets to the COPA America games shot up into the thousands of dollars. In effect, those fans had lost their voice, unable to bring their passion inside stadiums. Total Wireless seemed similarly shut out: Recognized by just 25% of consumers, it lacked a sponsorship-size budget. So the company found a way to give fans back their voices, turning people’s homemade signs into in-stadium messaging with Text-To-Sign.
With the creation of Total Sign Guy, the campaign encouraged all fans to text the company, with messages ranging from team and player love, such as “Remember Colombia, 5-0” and “Messi the GOAT”; disappointments, such as “Shakira has better moves than this team”; and even a handful of marriage proposals.
Using social media and an exceptional understanding of the game’s fan base, Text-To-Sign generated exceptional results, with coverage in 14,000 media stories, the majority of them Latino-dominant. It garnered 11 times more reach than any of the official sponsors. Importantly, it tripled awareness in the Latino community in just three weeks.
The effort wowed the judges. “This is great challenger thinking, and we loved the hijacking of a major sports moment with powerful results,” said one. “Brilliant PR,” added another, “galvanizing fans in a fun, unifying way that puts the brand in a positive, relevant and likable light.”
Honorable mention
USA Fencing and Finn Partners
From the Ivy League to Every Living Room: How USA Fencing Pierced Its Way into Culture on the World’s Biggest Stage
Fencing needed some help to meet its Olympic moment. Leading up to the Paris Games, the sport shook off the last exclusive vestiges of Ivy League dust and let people know its powerful history: It is one of only five sports played at every Olympics since 1896. This aggressive effort transformed the sport into a must-watch event, bringing Olympians to news outlets with activations emphasizing the sport’s beauty, grace, tradition, innovation and diversity. Those included a fencing lesson for Snoop Dogg on TikTok and a “baguette fencing” event with Cookie Monster on Sesame Street.
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