Most of the executions were done abroad, so PR was key for Cris-Sal to reach its Ecuadorian audience. Also, due to the shocking nature of the idea, news coverage was achieved easily and organically.

Cris-Sal, Ecuador's #1 brand of salt, wanted to be part of the World Cup qualifier (without paying to become an official FIFA sponsor). But, neither the Ecuadorian Football Federation nor the fans would ever allow it. The reason? Salt is believed to bring bad luck.

In Ecuador, this superstition is believed to the degree that the even the word "salado" (salty) literally means "someone with bad luck." IE: That player "is salty" (has bad luck).

Ecuador's "main sport" is football. That's why, the goal was to bring attention on the brand during its most important event.

Cris-Sal did what any other product in the region could never do and became the official supporter of Ecuador's rivals.

Being a national brand, supporting another country was unprecedented, shocking and risky. Fans who watched the games live, were shocked with Cris-Sal presence and message.

Local culture believes that salt brings bad luck, therefore, if Cris-Sal were to sponsor Ecuador, our team would loose. If that's the case, then sponsoring other countries' teams would make Ecuador win.

Our key message was: "Cris-Sal is supporting other teams to make them lose."

The most iconic executions of the campaign were done in countries like Paraguay, Argentina, Chile or Colombia, and, since our main target are the +15M of Ecuadorian football fans, local PR was the main tool for the idea to reach them.

Photos of each execution were shared before the match directly to the different news outlets and influencers for them to organically share (except the sideline ads that ran during them). Unlike most of the branded content, these were news.

We started at the beginning of the qualifiers up until the last match (March 29) all around the region. All the media executions were displayed on Ecuador and in other countries, and shared with the Ecuadorian audience through media coverage of each execution.

#1 Media Outputs

• $2.8M Free Press*

• +2% Consideration Increase**

#2 Target Audience Outcomes

• 96% Positive Sentiment**

• +94% Engagement Rate***

• Most Talked Brand During the Qualifiers*

#3 Business Outcomes

• +14% Market Volume (since the begging of the campaign)**

• +5.43% Market Volume (top of the campaign)**

• +4% Sales Increase**

• +7% Market Share**

*PR Department

**Kantar-Ibope report

***Media Department

Cris-Sal is Ecuador's leader in salt. After almost 50 years without the need to advertise their product, in 2020 they found the need to go big due to the presence of new (and cheaper) competitors.

Since football is the only sport that has such a huge amount of attention in Ecuador, being part of it was key in building a brand that everybody knew, but were yet to love.