Since Goetze shot Germany to the Soccer World Cup Win in 2014, he has been a national icon. But due to a mysterious metabolic sickness, injuries, and lack of training, he was dismissed from the national team just weeks prior to the 2018 World cup, crushing not only his own hopes of a comeback but also those of countless German fans.

Samsung as a sponsor of both, Goetze and the German soccer team, nevertheless chose to stand by him: in a sharp contrast to typical sports ads the brand turned its World Cup commercial into a self-contemplating message from Mario that resonated strongly with the German audience in the context of our ever more success driven, uncompromising times.

The spot contains footage of national coach “Yogi” Loew as well as references to Goetzes botched season, which are instantly recognizable for Germans due to his celebrity status (8M followers on Instagram).

At the center of the creative idea sits the song “Hurt” in the iconic cover version of the late Johnny Cash. While the track's lyrics speak of struggles, doubts, and personal defeats, they still maintain a glimmer of hope or at least the promise of redemption. Not only did the words match perfectly with the acute state of Goetze’s career after his dream of playing again in the Soccer World Cup was shattered, the song also presented itself as a disruptive alternative to the high-energy tracks often used in sports commercials and helped in clearly positioning Samsung as an authentically human, sensitive and empathic brand not fixated on heroes and success stories.

The strategy was to position Samsung as an authentically human, sensitive and empathic brand not fixated on success stories or just wanting to bask in some sports hero’s glory, thus clearly differentiating itself from the rest of soccer sponsoring brands.

Although that decision had to be taken quite unexpectedly in the context of the upcoming World Cup due to the fact that nobody imagined Goetze to be cut from the national team, Samsung approached the strategy wholeheartedly. It seized on the opportunity since it was relatively safe to assume that the absolute majority of all other soccer sponsoring partnerships would venture into the usual territory associated with sports advertising.

The spot was shot just eight weeks before the start of the Soccer World Cup and aired on all major German TV channels during the whole tournament – even after the German national team was eliminated in the first round. Cinema spots were also booked during the same period, significantly extending the national coverage. Finally, a YouTube masthead containing the extended online version of the video exposed the story to an even wider online audience.

Even more important than all the successful figures (see below) was the overwhelmingly positive reception of the commercial’s message by the German public as well as media.

It was heralded as a new and more reflective attitude towards pressure and failure and welcomed by millions of Goetze supporters as an outstanding empathetic gesture of Samsung towards their personal hero.

Overall, that impact might be best summed up with a quote from Germany’s leading news magazine, DER SPIEGEL, which took reference to the campaign in an article about the political, societal and economic challenges Germany was facing in the summer of 2018: “It seems that with his attitude, Mario Goetze is one important step ahead of its country.”

220 M overall media reach

#1 on Amazon Music

+150% streamings on Spotify

+377% streamings on Apple Music

+ 894% Shazams – a clear indicator of the spot’s impact in TV and cinemas