Mazda, a Japanese brand that has built its identity on the values of challenge, fairness and respect, asked us to increase its brand awareness among 25-50-year-old Italian males.

16m Italians correspond to this profile, and all of them are soccer fans and Mazda is the main sponsor of Fiorentina.

How could we communicate Mazda’s values of challenge, fairness and respect, in a world such as soccer, overwhelmed by scandals and corruption?

We transformed this problem into an idea, creating a new media capable of communicating Mazda’s positive values to 16m soccer fans: a Purple Card, the only card that rewards fair play, bounding it forever to Fiorentina’s and Mazda’s corporate colours.

We created a jury composed by the directors of the main TV News and sports’ press. Each month, the Purple Card is awarded to most relevant Fair Play gesture among the ones highlighted on Facebook. Every month, during an event reported by all the sports’ media, a famous sportsman is awarded by Mazda. In this way Mazda has a new testimonial of sports’ fairness every month, which perfectly embodies the brand’s values.

When the season ends the sportsman who performed the most relevant gesture among the Purple Card winners will receive a Mazda3, becoming Mazda’s main testimonial of fairness.

Mazda, by exploiting its Fiorentina sponsorship in an outstanding way, has managed to bond its name to the fairest Italian soccer players, becoming the synonym for positive values, building its reputation among all soccer fans.

According to the original plan the campaign awards each month a famous sportsman among the ones highlighted each Sunday. The Mazda3 was presented for the first time in Italy, at the Motorshow of Bologna together with the Purple Card Fair Play Award, with the presence of Fiorentina soccer players. We also communicated the operation with side field advertising posters at Fiorentina’s Franchi Stadium, Meazza Stadium in Milan and Olimpico Stadium in Rome. We invited all fans to visit cartellinoviola.it website and the project’s Facebook page

During the month of April 2013, ACF Fiorentina printed on its team shirts, the Fair Play Mazda3 Award logo, instead of Mazda’s one.

In Italy, every month a sportsman becomes Mazda’s testimonial.

Mazda can count on 19 testimonials between soccer players,who appear on all sports’ press.

For the final ceremony we created a Special Purple Card dedicated to Zanetti's career: in this way Zanetti has become the main testimonial of Mazda Fairness, for free.

Mazda has become part of the soccer world slang,communicating its core values to over 16m fans.

Thanks to the Purple Card Facebook page,the access to the Mazda3 mini-site increased to 24%, and we had +18% in one month for the corporate Mazda site hosting the mini-site.

The Purple Card monthly prize-giving ceremonies were thoroughly reported by all the sports’ media. From November Mazda has registered 70m media impressions for free.

The Promo / PR Ad titled PURPLE CARD was done by JWTRome advertising agency for product: Sponsorship (brand: Mazda) in Italy. It was released in the Apr 2013.