2021 SHORTLIST

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MESSI 644 

Entrant Company: Budweiser

FINALIST

Best Athlete Storytelling

Messi 644

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

To connect the King of Beers with the King of Football, we celebrated Lionel Messi’s record-setting achievement of most goals scored with a single club—one of his last remaining unbroken records.

How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?

We brought a real-life moment online to the platforms where sports conversations happen, giving fans an opportunity to further engage and celebrate Messi’s achievement. As a new partner to Lionel Messi, the Budweiser 644 Campaign owned 51% of the online conversation, far surpassing his legacy partners in Adidas and Pepsi. Our provocative stunt extended a brief moment in sports entertainment to a weeks-long conversation around the greatest footballer of all time. With over 30,000 engagements, we had the Internet talking about the King of Beers and the King of Football.

Sports news is fleeting. The biggest story one day becomes forgotten the next. We went beyond a congratulatory point of view on an athlete’s success to creating a larger conversation throughout the weeks after the event, generating $20M of social media value at a fraction of the investment.

 

Objective: Own the conversation around Lionel Messi’s record-breaking 644 goals scored for a single club to strengthen the brand’s association within Global Football (soccer).

Strategy & Execution: Today, younger sports fans are increasingly consuming highlights online over full games of their favorite sports. These snackable moments are driving the excitement and fandom behind the next generation of sports fans, so we took a soon-to-be iconic moment in sports history and turned it into a major moment of conversation online for the brand.

When Messi hit his 644th goal, we released a digital film that told the story of his journey to greatness through a custom Messi Bottle. We then brought the conversation online by creating 644 uniquely numbered bottles 1 through 644 and sent one of them to each goalkeeper he scored against. This gave fans the chance to see a generation of elite goalkeepers reflect on their part in Messi’s journey across social channels. Goalkeepers shared videos of themselves receiving their gift from Budweiser and Messi and discussing their experience against the greatest of all time.

Results:

  • 51% of share of voice (Adidas 43%, Pepsi 6%)
  • 30,000+ total engagements
  • 1200+ earned articles, coverage in 84 countries
  • 3+ billion earned impressions
  • $20M+ of social media value

PRODUCTION

Budweiser

Deutsch NY

 

CREDITS

Richard Oppy
VP, Global Brands (Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois, Michelob Ultra)
AB InBev, Budweiser
 
Steve Arkley
VP Global Marketing, Budweiser
AB InBev, Budweiser
 
Andrew Oosterhuis
Global Advertising Director, Budweiser
AB InBev, Budweiser
 
Chad Lafeldt
Global Marketing Director, Budweiser
AB InBev, Budweiser
 
Eelco van der Noll
Head of Global Partnership Marketing, AB InBev
AB InBev, Budweiser
 
Dan Kelleher
Chief Creative Officer
Deutsch NY
 
Heather English
Creative Director
Deutsch NY
 
Jeffrey Rozman
Sr. Art Director
Deutsch NY
 
Chris Wernikowski
Sr. Copywriter
Deutsch NY
 
Michael Philbin
Sr. Copywriter
Deutsch NY
 
Ashley Centrella
Sr. Art Director
Deutsch NY
 
Chris Kelley
Sr. Designer
Deutsch NY
 
Joe Calabrese
EVP, Director of Integrated Production
Deutsch NY
 
Andrea Segura
Sr. Producer
Deutsch NY
 
Sarah Manna
SVP, Director of Art & Print Production
Deutsch NY
 
Taylor Kigar
Associate Producer
Deutsch NY
 
Matt Baker
Chief Strategy Officer
Deutsch NY
 
Andrew Quay
VP, Group Strategy Director
Deutsch NY
 
Alex Rakestraw
Senior Strategist
Deutsch NY
 
Andrew Arnot
Group Account Director
Deutsch NY
 
Madalyn McLane
Account Director
Deutsch NY
 
Hannah Duchardt
Account Executive
Deutsch NY
 
Rich Gladis
Project Manager
Deutsch NY
 
Maria Taris
Director of Integrated Business Affairs
Deutsch NY
 
Stacy Schwartz
Group Director, Integrated Business Affairs
Deutsch NY
 
Nikki Balekjian
Sr. Business Manager
Deutsch NY
 
Jim Helton
Editor/Sound Design
Final Cut NY
 
Geoff Hastings
Assistant Editor
Final Cut NY
 
Dillon Stoneburner
Assistant Editor
Final Cut NY
 
Sarah Roebuck
Executive Producer
Final Cut NY

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