‘The Selfie Scarf’ – DEVK & FC Köln

 

An ambient, product-based and tongue-in-cheek activation from FC Köln’s official insurance partner which aimed to support the club’s 2019 end of season push for promotion by enabling fans to maximize their real-time, live support for the team while simultaneously sharing it on social media.

Agency: Grabarz & Partner

Territory: Germany

Objectives

In April 2019, when FC Köln was fighting to get promoted back into the Bundesliga, everyone at the club was putting in an extra effort in a final burst to secure that promotion: players were training harder using new methods and coaches introduced new cutting-edge equipment and technology.

Everyone at the club was giving it their all in the final burst at the end of the season and the club’s insurance sponsor wanted to be part of the extra commitment.

So DEVK briefed agency Grabarz & Partner to create a campaign which ensured the insurer was supporting this end of season push for promotion in a way which brought to life its brand promise ‘We Make Your Problems Ours’.

As a relatively small insurance company with limited marketing resources, the objective was to activate through a tightly focused campaign which specifically addressed FC Köln to maximize the targeted investment.

Activation

The Hamburg based agency and the insurer’s marketing team sought to tackle a supporter problem through a natural football-based solution – with a touch of comedy in the tone.

With fans also doing their bit by cheering harder for the team and increasing the real-time noise levels in the stadium so players were motivated by their support, the marketing tea identified a fan problem – supporters couldn’t simultaneously cheer the team and share their funny selfies online.

FC Köln fans, like supporters around the world, are often busy using their phones during games instead of maximising their real-time support of the team. So, reflecting the company’s ‘We turn your problem into ours’ motto, the goal was to promote develop a solution that helps the club’s fans become better supporters (in a fun way) so that the team gets the best support possible.

In line with the insurance partner’s positioning as a ‘true problem-solver’, it created a new, football-relevant invention – the selfie scarf.

Adopting a comic tone (which the agency described as ‘a twinkle in the eye’ and as being typical of the city’s sense of humour), the product, which was ‘knitted with pure fan love’, was positioned as a ‘secret weapon’ in the end-of-season promotion battle.

DEVK introduced the world’s first football scarf: one which enabled fans to take photos while cheering and thus ensuring supporters didn’t miss a single second of the match but could still take and share silly selfies during the game.

The marketers chose to the scarf as a medium because it’s the type of merchandising item all football fans are familiar with and feel is a natural fit for the soccer space.

The scarf, branded with the logos of both club and sponsor, had a smartphone slot and a Bluetooth connector and enabled fans snap pictures whilst holding it in the classic supporter position above their head.

The campaign launched on social media with a DEVK Facebook post led by a video directed by Kiefer Tauchman which showcased the scarf and gave fans a chance to enter a competition – running from 3 April to 15 April – to win one of 11 selfie scarves by posting their own messages of support for the team.

The film was also amplified across the brand’s other online channels including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The campaign also ran across a set of Germany’s most important football websites, while a CTA even asked the fans if they want the scarf to be put into mainstream production.

The ambient activation was created by a team at Grabarz & Partner which included CCO Ralf Heuel, Group Creative Director Diana Sukopp, Creative Directors Thomas Fritze and Stefan Geschke, Art Directors Sarah Fröhlich and Mariella Riedel, Copy Writers Dominique Nuszkowski and Martin Gillen, Consultants Ulrike Mallien and Julia Wilhelm.

Production was by Jana Quest Production, the media agency was pilot Berlin GmbH, with film production by 14 Frames GbR, sound handled by Studio Funk and photography by KGaA photographer Sandro Liman.

Outcome

According to the agency, this was the most successful campaign by a German insurance company ever.

Within the first week it had generated 1.7m impressions, with more than 1m views of the campaign video and generated 50 000 interactions.

By the end of the campaign, the insurer’s brand tracking data showed a 39% increase of approval to the statement ‘DEVK is a problem solver’, a 40% increase in purchase intent, a 49% increase in brand favourability, a 1033% increase in unaided brand awareness, a 5,1% increase in engagement rate.

There were also several hundred requests to put the scarf into full production (and DEVK even filed a patent for it) and FC Koln secured promotion back to the Bundesliga.