The latest instalment in Carlsberg’s rich Euro 2016 activation sees the official beer brand team up with French football legend Marcel Desailly to re-imagine the French revolution in an international TV spot called ‘If Carlsberg did La Revolution’.
The latest strand of its expansive tournament creative sees the UEFA partner link up with the former France captain and AC Milan and Chelsea defender – who plays the role of French hero in this fresh ticket giveaway initiative.
This Euro 2016 marketing phase is led by a short film trumpeting the unity and solidarity of all passionate soccer supporters (who want tickets)
Created by agency 72andSunny Amsterdam, the comic commercial reworks the 18th century revolution, but instead of the people being angry with the French monarchy they are disgruntled with the lack of available tickets.
It sees Desailly takes charge of the revolt, swipe tickets from French VIPs, share them with fans from various competing nations (with flags) and rework the famous Marie Antoinette line by proclaiming ‘Let them drink beer’.
The creative features multiple football insider visual jokes and references: for example an octopus predicts tournament underdogs Iceland to win and a new version of a vuvuzela (both referring to the memes and trends associated with the South Africa 2010 World Cup).
The spot was penned by 72andSunny’s Lee Boulton, art directed by Rodrigo Martirena and Roger Belles and directed by Oskar Bard through Hobby Film.
OMD bought and planned the media.
‘Our campaign is designed for the fans. We were inspired by great history and heritage of the tournament hosts. We felt it was time for a revolution in the game, so this UEFA Euro 2016 we’ll be doing football better for fans,’ explains Carlsberg’s senior marketing manager for football Richard Whitty.
‘We are determined to do football better for fans in France and the world over. In the spirit of Liberté, Egalité, Footballité we’ll be giving away more tickets than ever before for this summer’s UEFA Euro and offering up opportunities to help more fans than ever before experience the tournament.’
At the campaign launch, Desailly (who won UEFA Euro 2000 and the World Cup with France) believes his nation has a good chance of winning this summer, but admits Germany is the side to beat.
‘Germany are currently the aristocracy of world football, they are the world champions and they are the side other nations will want to overthrow,’ said Desailly.
‘France have an excellent squad of young players and they could bring joy to the French public this summer if they click. They can win the tournament if they play well. I think England has revolutionised their team with a manager who knows his direction, and now have a generation of players in Dele Alli and Harry Kane that could march through the tournament.’
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This latest campaign phase follows on from previous strands that have seen Carlsberg rename several UK pubs in its ‘Pubstitutions’ initiative, deploy a team of Charity Chuggers in London to give away tickets to members of the public offering to volunteer 90-minutes of their time (see case study), as well as a Chris Kamara led tube stunt (see case study) and a greatest Euro goals recreation campaign with F2 Freestylers (see case study).
Few brands have activated a Euro tournament with so many different strands so far ahead of kick-off and the campaign will continue with further phases right through the tournament.
For example, part of the Carlsberg campaign will see fans participate in voting for each game’s ‘Carlsberg Man Of The Match’ and for the all-new ‘Official Carlsberg Goal Of The Round’ and ‘Goal Of The Tournament.’
Official sponsor Carlsberg also had to adapt to the host nation’s ‘Loi Evin’ (a law forbidding alcohol and tobacco-related sponsorships at sports events) and to get round this obstacle the beer brand turned to its well-known ‘Probably…’ tagline instead of the word ‘Carlsberg’.
Thus, from the pitchside LED displays, to the player interview backdrops, it was the word ‘Probably’ that appeared in Carlsberg font and corporate colours instead of the brand name itself.
Another aspect of Carlsberg’s host nation activity was re-engineering the vuvuzela horn – which first found football fame at the South African World Cup – to form a breathalyzer of sorts.
This branded fan horn only works if the fan playing it is below the legal alcohol limit.
The vuvuzela, either a fan favourite or an intense irritant, returned to the football landscape in a campaign developed by agency CP&B Scandinavia to promote the beer sponsor’s drink responsibility strand.
Links:
Carlsberg YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/carlsberg
Carlsberg Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/CarlsbergUK/?brand_redir=9401782383
Carlsberg Twitter:
72andSunny Amsterdam
UEFA Euro 2016 Website:
UEFA Euro 2016 Twitter:
UEFA Euro 2016 Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/uefaeuro
UEFA Euro 2016 YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/UEFA.tv
UEFA Euro 2016 Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/uefaeuro/
UEFA Euro 2016 Vine:
