Jesus Our Supporter is a breakthrough PR idea to engage soccer fans out of the stadiums, television or broadcast transmissions. We choose the most relevant and biggest religious symbol of South America as a canvas - by lighting-up the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks Rio de Janeiro with the famous red and black stripes of Flamengo's home jersey. It was the first time a brand had permission from the catholic church to do that.

adidas is Flamengo’s soccer team sponsor. Appearing in their first Copa Libertadores final in 38 years, the team was about to face defending champions River Plate. adidas had to make sure that the whole of South America was aware of the monumental nature of the occasion and its unconditional belief on the Flamengo side, in order to leverage the sales of the home jersey.

We choose the most relevant and biggest religious symbol of South America as a canvas - by lighting-up the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks Rio de Janeiro with the famous red and black stripes of Flamengo's home jersey. It was the first time a brand had permission from the catholic church to do that.

Our main target were Flamengo supporters. However, adidas had to make sure that the whole of South America was aware of the monumental nature of the occasion and its unconditional belief on the Flamengo side, in order to leverage the sales of the home jersey. In terms of cultural context, religion and soccer are closely-knit within South America.The use of religious symbols and objects are part of the way people support a team; you can hear people praying in stadiums and, in Brazil, there’s no bigger religious symbol than Christ the Redeemer. So our approach was to show Christ the Redeemer as a Flamengo's supporter too.

Regarding the huge size of Christ the Redeemer (38 mts) and the fact that the statue is even more visible at night due to the spotlights, we choose to use a live projection directly on the statue, with a motion that simulates the swaying of the fabric in a realistic manner. On the eve of the final match, after the use permission from the catholic church, we did a video projection mapping and on the statue base, an event for influencers and guests with a priest blessing posted in real time on adidas and Flamengo social networks.

After only 24 hours, the image of the Christ with the official jersey was everywhere on the internet across the globe. With only a US$ 25.000 budget, the execution was seen across 5 continents and more than 115 countries, gaining US$ 3 million in earned media. The jersey became the number 1 best seller product at adidas e-comm globally during the first 2 days of the campaign.

The total cost of the project was only US$ 25.000. It included the use permission of Christ the Redeemer statue, the video projection mapping, the participation of influencers and an event for guests with a priest blessing.