To allow Prime Video to become credible on sports entertainment in France upon the release of a documentary about PSG, we had to make noise. We did it by targeting the hardcore fans of PSG with a trailer full of errors broadcasted on Twitter. On the platform, football fans love defending their club's history and making those who had the misfortune to make a mistake about it eat dust. To amplify this campaign, we used PSG’s hardcore fans known as influencers to reach the right community. It was enough to blow up Twitter in less than 2 hours.

• Situation:

In 2021, as part of the strategy to attract a sport-loving audience, Prime Video launched the 2nd season of a docu-serie about the history of the most famous football club in France : Paris Saint-Germain after a first season with mixed success. A docu-serie with richer content than ever that was a perfect asset to touch the hearts of sports lovers.

• Brief:

To create a combination between Prime Video and sport by generating as much noise as possible around this 2nd season of the docu-serie with football fans.

• Objectives:

Marketing objective:

To make the docu-series as watchable as possible, to create some traffic on the platform and to acquire new customers.

Communication objective:

To legitimate Prime Video as a strong player in football broadcasting by demonstrating how the brand understands the french football fans perfectly.

For the launch of the new season of a docu-serie on football, we decided to trick the PSG fans by turning the official trailer of the series into a trailer full of mistakes that would undoubtedly make the fans react. By striking their die-hard passion for the PSG club, we knew that it would take nothing more than that to take Twitter by storm and for them to become ambassadors of the docu-series.

Once the buzz started, we published some clues on our Twitter account before posting a video that not only revealed the trick to the purposely upset the fans, but also announced their participation in a contest.

The reward was a unique gift for the loyal fans who publicly defended the history of their club and demonstrated perfect knowledge of the PSG: a limited-edition scarf branded with the colours of the series.

When you want to make noise, you have to target those who make the most noise, both in the bleachers and on social media: the die-hard fans of the Paris Saint-Germain.

To ensure Prime Video would be considered by the Paris Saint-Germain fans, the platform had to offer them something extra special. Sharing a retrospective series with exclusive images was not enough. Instead, Prime Video gave the fans the opportunity to publicly defend what they care about the most: their club.

By misusing information about the PSG’s legendary players, its results and iconic dates, we knew the fans’ reactions would reach far beyond the borders of their own club to touch all football fans in general.

Because in the end, we do know all about football, but more so we know how the fans operate.

We worked with a PSG historian to identify different levels of mistakes from very easy to less obvious ones. It allowed us to launch the fake trailer and appeal to the die-hard fans without revealing it was a hoax. As we started getting mocked on social media, we added influencers to amplify the operation. Soon, Twitter was on fire and we had to reveal it was a hoax. Not only did the die-hard fans become ambassadors without knowing it, they also took part in an unexpected contest.

To prove we do know our football and can be associated with the die-hard fans, we rewarded all those who found the mistakes in the trailer with a unique and emblematic gift: the scarf with the PSG series’ logo.

The campaign generated results beyond expectations. Without any media investment:

- 3 TT France in less than 2 hours

- 350K views (9x higher than the Official trailer)

- +2MM impressions

- 4.5% engagement (28x higher than the Twitter standard)

- Thousands of comments on the videos

- 3 articles in the mainstream press (Konbini, Booska P, France Live)