About the campaign

Launched in 2011, the Carling Black Label Cup made waves across the country by giving the everyday South African fan the opportunity to select their preferred starting line-up, and stand a chance to lead their team to victory on match-day, as the Champion Coach.

Other agencies involved:  Posterscope, Addynamo, Adglow, Ogilvy, Blacksmith, Msport marketing, Wunderman Thompson

Challenge

After 7 years, the event’s appeal began to fade, impacting relevance and sales. In 2018, the Cup was postponed, resulting in greater sales and relevance losses: By end of Q2 2018, the brand faced catastrophic volume losses, and a long-term relevance decline, which was most pronounced amongst under 30s. Furthermore, engagement amongst Premier Soccer League fans was at an all-time low, following violent club protests, poor in-stadia experiences, and a boring playing style resulting in few goals (relative to international leagues).

Solution

Research showed a high level of disengagement, even boredom, with local football. So, the CBL Cup was re-launched with a new mission – to Change The Game. CBL Cup was re-launched with a new mission – to Change The Game. We wanted to shape football’s future, and give fans a voice in that future. We proposed a set of Game Changer innovations - 4th substitute for goalkeeper, select the captain, Twitter selects substitution, rolling subs, yellow card timeout, Twitter selects Man of the Match, and ref microphone. Fans voted on which Game Changer they wanted via on-pack mechanic to mobile, website, Twitter, and radio call-ins.

Results

• We reached 90% of the total adult population
• Received an avg. of +24 000 daily votes. 
• 3 game changes were selected by the public - Twitter determines the man of the match, Twitter to select the substitutes, and lastly captain selection.

2019 Awards Won

DAN Innovation Award | Silver | Fulfilling the potential of media