Dare to Sponsor
Special Olympics Belgium
Issue 49 | December 2018
Agency
LDV United
Creative Team
Creative Directors Kristof Snels, Dennis Vandewalle, Dries De Bruyn Creatives Thomas Thysens, Olaf Meuleman Design Jeffrey Uten Developer Yawuar Serna Delgado
Production Team
Film Production Company Caviar
Other Credits
Account Team Innie Tran, Dimitri Mundorff Strategy Tomas Sweertvaegher, Lorien Verachtert
Date
March 2018
Background
Special Olympics is an organisation founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
Her sister Rosemary was born with an intellectual disability but that did not stop the girls from swimming, sailing, skiing and playing football together.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver saw that sports could help foster social inclusion.
Since then the Special Olympics movement has flourished but without any Government support and without membership fees.
In 2018, Special Olympics wanted a B2B campaign that would attract new sponsors.
Idea
How do you convince companies to sponsor athletes with an intellectual disability rather than the big sports stars? By turning the roles upside down.
The idea was not just to show what they could do for special athletes but what the special athletes could do for them.
And showing them as a good investment because they work just as hard as the other athletes and are just as capable of playing the lead in a commercial or a print ad.
#daretosponsor dared sponsors to sign up a special athlete by copying existing sponsorship campaigns. For example: a special athlete’s image was put on a can of Coca-Cola in imitation of the Belgian Red Devils campaign.
Instead of Roger Federer in an ad for Gillette, a special athlete was shown shaving. And his picture was posted up on a billboard right outside P&G’s headquarters.
Banner ads were placed on marketing websites before CEOs and CMOs were mailed a drinks can featuring a special athlete, inviting the recipient to #daretosponsor.
Results
The campaign had a total reach of over 16 million views and an earned media value of more than 719,000 euros.10 major brands were persuaded to start partnerships with Special Olympics, including Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola (Aquarius), BNP Paribas, Mylène, Red Bull, Telenet, McCain, Johnson & Johnson and Nestlé. Over 800 athletes were enabled to continue training and competing in Special Olympics.
Our Thoughts
Why write to a company Chief Executive and argue for sponsorship when you can shame him (and occasionally her) into it? That’s the really smart part of this idea, turning what was supposed to be B2B and making it B2C.
It raises awareness of the Special Olympics and generates public support for any brands espousing inclusivity. The brands that signed up were equally smart in realising that the media interest in this campaign gave them opportunities to look good too if they signed up rapidly and publically.