The idea was to make an Alcatel mobile phone ring during an official press conference where a Corinthians' player would answer it, interrupting the interview and subtly giving some information; a new reinforcement for the team was coming, a scoop right in front of all journalists.

The implementation was negotiated between Alcatel and Corinthians, who elected Rodriguinho, a mid-field player, as its spokesperson for the press conference. The timeline went as the conference started, the interview began and journalists started to make questions. While Rodriguinho answered them, his Alcatel mobile phone rang, he interrupted one of the journalists and then answered the call, and then he started to subtly reveal that a reinforcement player was about to come to the team. When he hung off, journalists were on fire making questions about who was the reinforcement and if it was related to a new team member. He didn’t give away the news completely, letting PR and viral waves of guessing take over the Internet.

One simple phone call resulted in more than 165,000 interactions, comments and suggestions on Corinthians’ new reinforcement. More than 30 specialized sports media channels covered the scoop, including the 3 biggest sports websites in Brazil: GloboEsporte.com, UOL and Terra. Also, the action was the most commented news along the week on the Brazilian advertising channel Adnews. Over 6,500,000 people were impacted only on social media and more than 10,000 new fans were attracted to Alcatel’s official fanpage on Facebook in only one day. Success was such that Alcatel’s sponsorship brand migrated from the jersey’s shoulders to the back of Corinthians’ mantle.

Out of those 165,000 interactions, 29,5% talked about the intention of acquiring an Alcatel mobile phone similar to the one Rodriguinho answered at the press conference and impressive 70% of the comments showed positive reactions to the brand, which was practically unknown before the event.

Is there a way to use a PR asset, such as press conferences, for activation purposes? For Alcatel, yes, there is. So we took this usual editorial and journalistic event as a smart way to activate a branding partnership, giving journalists that new piece of information they always look for, and which any other type of media hasn’t discovered yet. Through this contextual scoop, we turned the press conference into a powerful way to promote and activate the brand's new model, Alcatel A5 LED, and its partnership with a major Brazilian football club.

The specific target for this case was 18-25 millennials, Corinthians supporters and their most engaging fans. Target media PR planning included specialized sports and football vehicles, influencers and the largest news portals in Brazil. A secondary target included former Corinthians players and their social networks. The approach was unexpected, although very contextual, taking everyone by surprise by transforming a usual PR asset into an innovative way to promote and spread Alcatel news.

Alcatel, Brazil’s fourth leading mobile manufacturer, had spent most of it's annual budget sponsoring Corinthians’, one of Brazil’s biggest football clubs.

So, the brief was to announce the partnership with the club in an efficient way, with a low budget and showing one of Alcatel’s products.

The objective was to make the news spread around football community, impacting Corinthians’ fans of every region in Brazil.