Hardchorus

While Adidas' Kaka and Nike's Ronaldo were signing £160 million worth of contracts (about R1.76 billion), the Puma team were developing the LOVE=FOOTBALL concept in an attempt to engage directly with everyday fans, regardless of team or player preferences. Consumer research into aspects of love and football produced a unique, yet dual, insight: Fans' love for the game tends to either fulfil the lack of personal relationships (50% of 15-34 fans are single) or create tensions in existing relationships.

Football fans' spare time will always be about football. They intensively express their passion for the game online: this is a fact; there are more blogs about football than blogs about hot girls or the recession. For the first time in 11 years the day of LOVE, Valentine's Day, clashed with the day of FOOTBALL. It was an unmissable opportunity for Puma to amplify the LOVE=FOOTBALL concept.

Sites identified

Puma identified football sites and stadiums as the two areas where raw football love is unleashed, whilst fan videos and anthem chanting were the means of expressing this love. The creative idea was The Puma Hardchorus. A quirky video featuring real hard core fans chanting love songs that could be sent as a personalised Valentine V-card. In the week leading up to Valentine's Day, media partnerships, editorial seeding and behavioral targeting across football sites and blogs/forums delivered effective reach.

Nearer V-Day, YouTube and Google targeted football and Valentine searches while Facebook Connect amplified social reach. On V-Day fans could perform their own hardchorus at karaoke booths across European stadiums and feed the video content to YouTube. To thank the original Hardchorus casts, Puma broadcast their performances on national TV during their teams' Valentine's Day matches.

Views top 5 million, from 121 countries

As a result, within two weeks, Hardchorus was viewed 5 million times on YouTube and pumahardchorus.com. Fans from 121 countries, representing 50+ clubs, praised Hardchorus with 3000 YouTube comments and 700 videos. The global online buzz (600 blogs, 2,000 Tweets) drove national media coverage and delivered 100 million free contacts. 50 000 V-cards were sent, earning 10 million free contacts via Facebook Connect. 50 000 fan addresses were added to Puma's database, while Puma's Facebook Football friends increased by five a day.

Hardchorus doubled weekly concept store sales and delivered 1.8 million unique visitors to Puma online. The success of the campaign inspired the "Hardchorus Eurovision Song Contest." Hosted by Terry Wogan, fans from England, Italy, France and Germany sing their version of the Eurovision entry. The winner was announced the day after the official contest's results at the end of May.