What have football jerseys and cars in common with? Well, apart from being loved by its owners, up to a point of being almost sacred possessions, the sweaty t-shirts usually promote popular car brands. To appear in such a prominent spot, companies have to spend millions of dollars. Understandably, the sales of football jerseys are still on the rise and can pay off even the most expensive footballers in the world—just like in the case of Cristiano Ronaldo whose Juventus jersey helped the Italian team sell staggering 520,000 shirts within the first 24 hours of the merchandise being released, according to CNBC. So, for large car manufacturers, such as Chevrolet, it is pretty common to appear on football jerseys of multiple clubs all over the world.
So, while cities of Latin America are being impacted by the highest traffic congestion, the American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors, Chevrolet, decided to give up their hugely prominent jersey spots on the “World Car Free Day”. Why? The company wants to raise awareness about the responsible use of motorised vehicles. How? By actually removing their original logo design and having it substituted by another popular vehicle. This time not motorised.
Chevrolet let Commonwealth//McCann Santiago challenge the jersey design of two of the most important soccer teams of Chile and Ecuador respectively—Club Universidad de Chile and Liga de Quito. By removing the original golden logo on the players’ chests and substituting it with a bike icon, the clubs’ main sponsor wants to encourage the public to use the alternative means of transport more often.
“In our purpose to help our clients’ brands to play a meaningful role in people´s life, we seek to provide creative ideas that cause an important impact in audiences of Chevrolet” added José Ignacio Solari, CCO at McCann Santiago. “Through campaigns like this, we motivate brand strategies with purpose, which generates a positive popular culture for the sustainability of all as a society”.
The initiative was promoted during matches of the two clubs and also during the Chilean discussion about the enactment of the law aiming for vehicle cohabitation, which encourages responsible use of vehicles. Both the law and the initiative explore how different ways of transportation could live together to ensure more environmentally sustainable city models.
The campaign, during which ‘Chevy’ supported another vehicle, was accompanied by a hashtag #DíaMundialSinAuto (or #InternationalCarFreeDay) and achieved +73% positive references, +25Million impressions in the whole the region, and reached U$1,000,000 in earned media. The clever campaign gained the attention of public figures from the government of each country and also swayed the soccer players of both teams to its side.
The footballing stars joined in organically and managed to take the initiative even further by using their own social media accounts while inviting the public to leave their cars at home. Even Darth Vader took to public transport for the special day. Just watch the video below!
Credits:
Agency: McCann Santiago / Commonwealth//McCann
Name of the Campaign: El Día que Chevrolet auspició otro Vehículo
Chief Creative Officers: José Ignacio Solari, Samuel Estrada
Creative Directors: Ricardo Corsaro, Johanna Vaca, Marco Tapia, Jaime Cornejo, Ítalo Fierro, Diego Romero, Andrés Romero
Copywriter: Jaime Cornejo
Account team: Florencio Colombo, Alexandra Ortiz
Planner: Ignacio Pérez
Production Team: Taxi Films
Director: Diego Arzuaga, Tomas Neely
Post-producción: McCann Content
Client: Macarena Bravo, Daniel Tarragó, Isabel Hrepich, Oswaldo León, Gabriela Vintimilla, Cristina Ordóñez