Live like a champion

The World Cup is one of the biggest events all year round and in 2018 we wanted to make use of that momentum for our brand. Although, JBL was not a sponsor of the event, and FIFA is very protective of the image rights of the tournament. So, we implemented a strategy that used our biggest football ambassador – Jerome Boateng – and we built a story around him. A story that revolved around a young fan of his – Max -, obsessed with Boateng’s JBL headphones. We created a digital story that resumed the TVC. In this story, Max follows Boateng to Russia in search of his headphones. The whole narrative hinted to football, our ambassador – and World Cup participant for Germany – Boateng and was told in different media leading up to the World Cup. The social, digital and display ads ran strategically after the TVC, together with a radio spot, creating an integrated campaign environment around our brand and the big tournament. We also ran the campaign videos on match day in different venues around Germany, making #RoadToBoateng undeniably connected to the World Cup and a story Germans followed closely before and during the tournament.

We wanted to reach as many people as possible and build the awareness around JBL and the World Cup without crossing any lines – and so we did! We saw an incredible adherence to our campaign videos with more than 1 million full video views of our key campaign asset (higher numbers on YT) and more than 45 thousand clicks to know more about the campaign and the product (within 5 million of reached consumers online). In total, the users we’ve reached spent 600 hours watching our ads.

The reactions online were staggering with 20 million impressions and more than 70 thousand social engagements (likes, shares, comments) in all of our platforms. Last but not least, our canvas advertising environments had an opening rate of 74%, way higher than the benchmark for this kind of format.