Cannes Lions

Score with style

ZALANDO SE, Berlin / ZALANDO / 2021

Overview

Entries

Credits

Overview

Background

Zalando Netherlands was launched in 2010. In The Netherlands, the fashion market is €8.2bn of which 32% is online. While Zalando has a strong aided brand awareness and top-of-mind awareness, competitors are growing faster in unaided brand awareness and emotional bond. The fashion retail space is becoming more crowded every day. Therefore, as a non-local online retailer, our objective is to build an emotional bond and to stay visible in this market.

Idea

The first team of football club RKSV Sterksel had lost their motivation in football. They conceded 106 goals in 16 games last season; an average of 6.5 goals per game. Family, friends, and supporters no longer attended their matches and the number of members was drastically declining. The club was on the brink of collapsing.

To regain motivation and self-confidence, the team received star treatment: new home and away kits, casual clothing, bags, football boots, tracksuits, a makeover, photoshoot, a training session by former pros, and a players bus. And the icing on the cake: a friendly match with the RTL VIP team of influencers.

We created multiple assets: from a hero video telling the whole story, to more in-depth content with the players and coaches of the team. We even created an asset for the launch of their new kits, exactly like a professional club would do.

Strategy

This campaign focused on Zalando’s strategic pillars for 2020: sports, men, and creating local relevance. The sweet spot of these 3 pillars is the most popular sport among men (16-35 yrs) in the Netherlands: football.

Normally, it is already newsworthy that a company like Zalando sponsors a professional club. We took that to another level and came out with a press release that we’re going to sponsor a local amateur football team that was performing the least.

In all assets, it emerged that Zalando helped an amateur club to regain their self-confidence and motivation. On the dedicated landing page players go to be actual models and an OOH campaign made them true local heroes. We targeted our own content online, while we also partnered with broad and niche media partners to ensure we would reach our total audience, while also connecting with the more niche audience within the football category.

Execution

To achieve the best result, the campaign was constructed in 3 phases: tease, release and please. The run time of the campaign was 3,5 weeks.

We started with influencers showing the new RKSV Sterksel jersey. We didn’t mention Zalando anywhere, creating an online buzz first.

We then officially launched the campaign with a multiple asset strategy and created assets for various media touchpoints. From a hero video telling the story of Sterksel, to more in-depth retargeted content. We created a dedicated landing page where the players got to be models, and a local OOH campaign making them true local heroes.

For even more impact and credibility, we worked with influencers, radio station SLAM FM, and relevant media partners such as VICE and Voetbal International. A perfect mix of touchpoints that generated the right reach within our target audience, but also partners that ensured our credibility within the football category.

Outcome

The campaign was extremely successful and scored way above benchmark. However, we believe the true success of our run was not the great campaign results, but the fact we really helped RKSV Sterksel and made an impact for the club. They regained their motivation and confidence, played better in the first matches (even getting results), and found several new sponsors for the club.

Campaign results:

- 34 million impressions

- €4,3 million earned media value

- Brand heat +6.6ppt in The Netherlands (brand heat = % of high-quality engagement with the brand)

- Engagement Rate +200% on YouTube and +119% on Facebook / Instagram

- 3ppt increase in emotional bond (MoM) to 59%

- 2 ppt increase awareness sports category (QoQ) to 78%

PR Results:

Shownieuws

Radio:

SLAM FM

Print: