Carling Black Label recently won the ‘Best Integrated Sport Marketing Campaign’ award for its campaign ‘Be the Coach’ at the Virgin Active Sports Industry Awards.
The winning concept was based on a key insight into SA football fans: they desperately want to be heard by the coach, in fact, they want to be the coach of their team. So much so that the hand-rolling movement from fans in stands impatiently demanding a substitution for an out-of-favour player has become an iconic South African gesture.
Responding to this, we gave the supporters of the country’s two biggest clubs, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, the right to select their starting XI’s for the new Carling Black Label Cup final and to make line-up changes during the game.
10.5 million votes for team selections were cast via USSD codes found under bottle caps on CBL beers in the seven weeks, and the metrics on all the social media and online platforms also showed triple digit growth.
As for the match itself, 85,000 fans attended the sell-out game and millions more watched on television and saw Orlando Pirates win it on penalties.
Andrea Quaye, Carling Black Label’s General Manager, comments on the success of the campaign: “This unique sporting property has turned the tables of sponsorship on its head and continued to change South African beer drinkers’ perceptions of the brand. Carling Black Label’s proposition was brought to life in trade and captured the imagination of soccer loving supporters with the biggest and boldest through-the-line campaign in the history of the brand.”
Carling Black Label fans can look forward to the next Carling Black Label Cup campaign, which kicks off in May this year. To find out more, watch the case study video below.