This is a story about how Fantasy football brand Dream Team had to build a relationship with a new audience, grow market share and deliver growth for the UK’s largest newspaper. Research revealed that the fantasy football playing base had actually been cheating on their beloved teams. They were picking footballers from rival teams despite their deep-rooted hatred for the opposition. This was the inspiration for ‘It’s not cheating when it’s your Dream Team.’

Across owned channels, press, eCRM, search, social, TV and radio, we showed fans in varying degrees of distress at the revelation that they’d cheated on their football teams. The campaign connected with the audience through its irreverent tone and personality, building a community that would stay firmly loyal to Dream Team for seasons to come.

The results were staggering. We picked up 636,596 players and acquired a social reach of 16m impressions. Of those players, 191,445 went on to subscribe to Sun+, generating an annual revenue of 5m. And the community built by Dream Team established a brilliant platform for the launch of new services, including Sun Bets.