Danone yoghurt brand Oikos used its NFL partnership to promote its Triple Zero product in a 2020 Draft campaign which revolves around football players crying.
The campaign, conceived by agency Lightning Orchard, flips the usual image of tough, macho professional footballers on its head players with an emotional campaign based around found footage of stars shedding tears during previous NFL Drafts.
The hero 30-second commercial, called ‘Flex Your Cryceps’, includes clips of Saquon Barkley, Garett Bolles, Marquise Brown, Rashan Gary, Chris Jones, Drew Lock, Gerald McCoy, Dak Prescott, Jaylon Smith, Juju Smith-Schuster, Golden Tate III, Deshaun Watson and Jonah Williams.
Many are featured tearing up after hearing they’d been picked in the NFL Draft, while others are shown flexing muscles on the field and the ad is set to a song about crying.
“It’s not crying. It’s flexing cryceps” reads the on-screen copy
The ad began airing on television and across the brand’s online channels a week ahead of the Draft as well as running on the NFL Network, on NFL.com and on the NFL mobile app.
“We know strength comes in many forms, from physical to emotional, which is why we created ‘Flex Your Cryceps’ as a celebration of the NFL-sized muscles and tears that go into becoming a professional athlete,” said Surbhi Martin, Vice President, Marketing, Danone North America. “Although the NFL Draft may look different this year, we wanted to bring sports fans joy in this moment through our ad and by hosting the Official NFL Draft After-Party.”
The campaign was pulled together in a few weeks after Oikos was forced to axe its planned on-site fan experience in Las Vegas after the 500,000-fan extravaganza in Los Vegas was called off due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“As the official sponsor of the NFL and as a key sponsor of the NFL Draft we had value that we wanted to leverage as part of our sponsorship,” said Danone North America VP Of Marketing Surbhi Martin. “We had to very quickly think about how to pivot.”
So after having the ‘crying idea’, parent company Danone’s marketers and the agency team approached NFL Films for the footage of players crying and then secured clearance from the NFL Players Association and the individual players featured in the spot.
Other strands of the yoghurt brand’s Draft activation included hosting the official NFL Draft After-Party, called ‘Stay Strong With Shaq’, on Shaquille O’Neal’s Instagram page on 23 April.
This sees the retired NBA star’s alter ego DJ Diesel joined on a virtual dance floor by players and celebrities including Isaiah Simmons, Jeff Okudah, and Tristan Wirfs.
The after-party acts as a fundraiser for the NFL Draft-A-Thon for COVID-19 relief and will see Oikos Triple Zero donate $50,000.
Fans could attend the after-party by joining @Shaq’s Instagram Live from 10pm and are invited to donate to the NFL Draft-A-Thon COVID-19 Response Fund by visiting nfl.com/relief.
Outcomes:
With the spots running during the three-day telecast, the television reach across the NFL Network, ESPN, ABC, ESPN Deportes and digital channels, totaled more than 55m viewers (according to an NFL press release) – with the average audience for the weekend of over 8.4m viewers 35% up on the 2019 draft.
In terms of social media statistics, the spots alone generated more than 20,000 views on Lowe’s own social platforms.
Comment:
The creative doesn’t specifically mention the cancelled NFL Draft fan event nor COVID-19, but the brand’s objective was to find an approach which forged an emotional connection with fans that was tonally appropriate for the current climate.
“It was an opportunity for us to display the full range, or spectrum of strength, physical and emotional,” Martin explained and added that the idea is meant to appeal to a broader audience as well as NFL fans.
Since 2017 Oikos has been a top tier Draft partner and the presenting sponsor of the NFL Draft Experience: a branded experiential space for fans at the event.
Oikos has been the official yogurt of the NFL since the yoghurt launched in 2015 and regularly features players in its tongue-in-cheek campaigns as illustrated by its ‘Yo Glutes/Bubble Butts’ campaign which ran earlier in 2020 to leverage the Super Bowl
Don’t you dare watch my @Oikos commercial with the sound off America, #YoGlutes deserve better#SBLIV #ad” pic.twitter.com/aK07ZhNnD6
— Saquon Barkley (@saquon) February 2, 2020
and its earlier ‘Best I’ve Ever Been’ work.
After the Draft, just like other sports-focused advertisers, Oikos is waiting to see what happens with the NFL season. Typically, its next step would be planning and the producing campaigns to leverage the next football season and the 2021 Super Bowl.
“As a marketer, you’re trying to scenario-plan for various different possibilities,” Martin said.
Links:
Oikos
https://www.facebook.com/oikos
https://www.youtube.com/user/OikosYogurt
Lightening Orchard
NFL
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