Mission Nadal

Insight

When the world's number one tennis player Rafa Nadal was injured and was unable to play, it was a travesty!

Kia saw an opportunity in this disadvantage and wanted to turn the crisis upside down by turning it into a communication campaign with one clear objective: to exploit its sponsorship of Nadal during his injury period and increase brand linkage with its client's core values, quality, power, humility, effort and courage, while enhancing its audience engagement towards a common interest, supporting Nadal on his return to the courts.

Strategy

Kia would support Nadal on his way back to the courts based on one sentence: "People demonstrate friendship in hard times, not during good times". Kia wanted to show Spanish consumers its unconditional support to the best Spanish tennis player ever and convey this message with all fans through a shout of encouragement via social media channels. This campaign would leverage the relationship of the brand with Nadal.

Execution

Working with Innocean Europe, Kia uploaded an online video encouraging Nadal's supporters to collaborate with their shouts of encouragement and turn them into the strength to help him get back to the top. The website, misionnadal.com was created and once Kia had gathered the necessary helium, it launched Nadal's racket to the very top of the stratosphere, powered by a balloon.

Results

Kia gained incredible awareness from the campaign, with all TV stations across the country covering the launch in their news. In addition, 76 online media published Mission Nadal content, it had 1.6 million views on Facebook and more than 50,000 views to the campaign website.

A total 1,315 fans collaborated with their shouts of engagement and the launch had more than 150,000 views on YouTube.

But perhaps most importantly, Rafa Nadal has done nothing but win since his return to the tennis courts.