BUPA Latin America leveraged the 2021 Copa América for a Covid-19 vaccination drive through a campaign that showed getting jabbed as the route back to full stadiums and to full-throated atmospheric football matches.
Running during August 2021, the campaign – which was created in collaboration with agencies VMLY&R and Geometry Colombia – invited and incentivised all Latin Americans to get vaccinated through creative based around authentic raw recordings of tuneless footballers.
The work from the global healthcare insurance provider was based on the understanding that while listening to a country’s national anthem sung loudly by tens of thousands of fans is something moving for football fans and non-fans alike, football players themselves are not known to be the best vocalists or most tuneful singers.
During the pandemic fans have been forced to watch games played in empty stadiums from home on TV and thus the only sounds they heard were those of tuneless soccer stars singing their national anthems prior to international match kick-offs. The absence of in-stadium crowds singing loudly and drowning the players out meant watching football was something of an assault on the ears. And the brand and agency marketing team also knew that Copa América matches were scheduled to be played behind closed doors.
Thus BUPA’s campaign featured real raw recordings of many of the teams competing in the Copa América – including Ecuador, Chile and Colombia – belting out their anthems: the message being that the only way to drown out the terrible singing of the players was to get vaccinated and open the grounds back up to the ‘better singer’ fans.
The campaign rolled out primarily across BUPA Latin America’s own networks, digital and social platforms led by Instagram and was spearheaded by a trio of videos from Colombia, Ecuador and Chile which all linked to the BUPA website which offered more information on Covid-19 vaccination locations, information, policy coverage and lifestyle tips for managing at both work and home during this pandemic.
The objective was to reach as wide an audience as possible and to combat the misinformation, myths and unfounded beliefs around vaccination which were driving an element of fear, uncertainly and reluctance to get jabbed
According to Edwin Pineda, Creative Director at Geometry Colombia, the idea behind the campaign and its success hinged on working with the real recordings of the teams singing.
“Unlike domestic tournaments, in international competitions the teams represent an entire country and, as a consequence, they unite both committed football fans and more causal supporters so we could maximise our reach,” explained Pineda. “The opportunity arose around the Copa América because we knew that it would see just a few players’ voices singing anthems off-key and out of tune. An idea which originally came from VMLY&R Commerce’s Global CCO Manuel Bordé.
Comment:
The campaign ran at a time when scientists, pharmaceutical companies and governments around the world were making enormous efforts to develop and produce vaccines and yet millions were sceptical about getting jabbed.
The detailed insight here shows a deep understanding of sport. The idea isn’t simply based on the generalisation that games played without fans lack a level of emotion, but rather hones in on one specific detail of this.
Little wonder that, according to Pineda, the campaign drove a 79% increase in share of voice for the client during the tournament.
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