Swedish underwear and sportswear brand Björn Borg launch an integrated cross border initiative spearheaded by holding a brand-owned ‘Borg Open’ tennis match by the banks of the Tijuana River on the US/Mexico border.
This politically charged June campaign, developed with Swedish creative agency Round & Round, aims to show how sport can unify rather than divide.
The initiative saw Mexican tennis star Mariano Argote play against Peter Clemente of the USA and, through voiceovers, reveal how both players have been instrumental in improving one another’s game.
The campaign copy includes the lines: “The world of today is full of conflicts and rivalry that lead to frustration, causing people and nations to build walls between each other. But why building walls, when we could get to know and learn from one another instead? That’s why we have established a tennis match on the U.S. – Mexican border. Borg Open – is an initiative to manifest an open world where sports have the power to unite people.”
In keeping with the spirit of the initiative, the spot also came in a Spanish language version.
The brand, agency and production team put themselves at risk to create the film and the spot’s audio even features a VO from legal counsel warning the director Klaus Thymann of potential arrest.
While an endnote reveals that while US Customs and Border Patrol denied permission to film, they received numerous approvals from Mexican agencies for production.
After the actual game and the shoot, the sports brand used social media to try and engage Trump directly by tweeting the video along with a request to Donald Trump Jr for his email.
Hey @DonaldJTrumpJr Can we have your email? We have an idea for #TennisAcrossBorders, and we think you'll love it! https://t.co/DklQro1umU
— Björn Borg (@bjornborg) July 11, 2017
The initiative was further amplified across the brand’s own social spaces with the hashtags #BorgOpen #TennisAcrossBorders: including Facebook,
and with direct, political messages on Instagram too.
“Borg Open is our way to state that we, as a sportswear brand, believe in an open world,” explains Björn Borg CEO Henrik Bunge.
“Unfortunately, the activity is not likely to make those people who promote raising walls change their opinion. But, with our heritage, we know that not only tennis nets, but sport in general, has the power to unite people. We hope to inspire people to reach out to their neighbours and do sport together instead of building walls.”
Comment:
Tennis is not typically a controversial sport and not a sports space regularly used as a vehicle for politics or social campaigning (although it has had more of its fair share of gender equality debating), but we are living in a divisive political era in which an increasing number of brands are realising (often reluctantly) that they need to pick a side.
And Trump’s border between USA and Mexico has been a major marketing theme in 2017 and it has inspired a fair few inventive ideas.
In the world of mainstream marketing, Mexican beer brand Tecate used Trump’s proposed divider wall as a prop that aimed to unify during campaign season, while in the sports sponsorship space we have seen 84 & Lumber’s 5-minute epic (and much discussed) Super Bowl spot,
as well as the Hawkers sunglasses athlete ambassador debacle post election which saw up-and-coming sunglasses brand Hawkers jump on the topical bandwagon immediately post Trump’s win by tweeting that Mexicans should buy and wear their glasses to hide their tears when the wall is built between Mexico and the United States. An act swiftly followed by the brand’s athlete ambassador and (Mexican) F1 driver Sergio Perez lambasting the brand, quitting his endorser role and rounding on his former commercial partner (see case study).
Later, Perez teamed up with the rights owner of the F1 Mexican Grand Prix for a #BridgesNotWalls campaign (see case study).
And now it is Swedish sports and underwear brand Björn Borg that has put the border in the middle of its marketing and brand strategy.
We admire this ad and while it’s a bit of a shame its only racked on 31,596 views in its first month, the 1.1m Facebook views makes us feel a little cheerier.
One of the brand’s other recent sports sponsorship initiatives saw it tie up with official Wimbledon ice cream partner Häagen-Dazs for a tournament tie-in (see case study).
(We do wonder quite how any switched-on half-decent brand marketer could fail to know what Donald Trump’s email is though.)
Links:
Björn Borg
https://www.youtube.com/user/insideratbjornborg
https://www.instagram.com/bjornborg/
Round & Round
