Febreze: THE AZERBAIJANI OLYMPIC WRESTLERS

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Sponsorship

Advertiser: P&G

Product/Service: FEBREZE

Agency: GREY NEW YORK

Agency: MSLGROUP

President/Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren (Grey NY)

Executive Creative Director: Per Pedersen (Grey NY)

Creative Director: Jeff Stamp/Rob Perillo/Rob Lenois (Grey NY)

Associate Creative Director: Erik Tell (Grey NY)

Associate Creative Director: Marie Ronn (Grey NY)

Co-Chief Creative Officer: Jeff Odiorne (Grey NY)

Associate Director Of Broadcast: James Mcpherson (Grey NY)

Agency Producer: David Cardinali (Grey NY)

Assistant Producer: Zachary Flemming (Grey NY)

Account Director: Jean Donahue (Grey NY)

Account Supervisor: Diana Silfen (Grey NY)

Account Executive: Emily Darby (Grey NY)

Business Manager: Beverly Beach (Grey NY)

Executive Producer: Dawn Laren (Moxie)

Executive Producer: Lizzie Schwartz (Moxie)

Director (TV): Jared Hess

Director (Digital): Luke Franklin

Editor (TV): Elizabeth Krajewski (Beast)

Editor (TV): Adam Smith (Beast)

Editor (Digital): Rebecca Beluk (Beast)

Media placement: Live Stunt - Azerbeijani Olympic Wrestling Lockeroom - 26 October 2011

Media placement: PR Outing - London Eye - 28 October 2011

Media placement: Viral Videos - Online - 5 April 2012

Media placement: Microsite - Online - 20 April 2012

Media placement: TV Commercials - NBC (During Olympic Coverage) - 1 June 2012

Media placement: Facebook Fanpage - Online - 1 June 2012

Media placement: In-Store Signage - Walmart/Target - 1 June 2012



Summary of the Campaign

Febreze, the odour elimination brand from P&G, asked for an Olympic campaign for the London 2012 games. But instead of featuring the obvious star athletes in their ads we decided to track down the biggest odour challenge of the Olympic games, and become their official sponsors.



After an extensive, and at some times horrifying, search of every sport and their odours, we found 1 clear winner: Wrestling. And no country takes wrestling more seriously than Azerbaijan.



This proud nation boasts wrestling as its national sport and welcomed our offer of a partnership. And thus the 'Febreze Official Sponsorship of the Azerbaijani Olympic Wrestling Team' was launched.



With a small budget we focused on free media: getting papers, press, news reporters, bloggers, etc. to pick up the story and push it out to the masses. We made their job easy by creating a campaign that was simple (and fun): Febreze sponsors the Azerbaijani wrestling team and their smells. If people wanted to dig deeper we supplied 11 different documentary shorts about the team and the experiments, as well as fun clips and online content that could easily be shared.



In London thousands of people got to experience first hand that Febreze eliminates even Olympic sized odours, and more than 1,000,000 Febreze fans follow the Azerbaijani wrestlers and Febreze on their road to odour elimination glory in the Olympic games. Thanks to the intense media attention, and an easily PR-able case, we’ve reached well outside our normal target audience, turning Febreze into one of the fastest growing brands of P&G.



The Situation

Febreze, the odor elimination brand from P&G, is part of the P&G Global Partner sponsorship of the Olympic Games. Febreze asked us to create a campaign that brought to life the Olympic sponsorship for them in a relevant way. The challenge was to breakthrough with a campaign in an environment where more than 50 brands from P&G were communicating the same thing and where other big brands were vying for the same attention for the Olympics.



The Goal

Febreze wanted a campaign that would break through, without the massive media budgets that other Olympic advertisers enjoy. The goal was to create an unexpected campaign that would appeal to and get picked up by media, bloggers and shared virally.



The campaign was seen as a way to engage and activate Febreze fans in the social media space. The target was global, and included markets with no mass media support. Giving PR and viral effects of the campaign particular importance.



Additionally the campaign should be relevant to the brand plus build equity for Febreze as the undisputed odour eliminator.



The Strategy

Inspired by the quirky heroes of past Olympics, Eddie the Eagle, the Jamaican bobsled team and Eric the Eel, we identified a non-conventional sponsorship strategy. Instead of sponsoring the obvious big star athletes we decided to track down the biggest odor challenge of the Olympic Games, and become their official sponsors.



After an extensive search we found the clear winner: wrestling. And no other country takes wrestling more serious than Azerbaijani. This proud nation in the Caucasus boasts wrestling as its national sport and welcomed our offer of a partnership. And thus the 'Febreze Official Sponsorship of the Azerbaijani Olympic Wrestling Team' was launched.



If Febreze could defeat their odours, it could defeat any odour.



Execution

We flew the Azerbaijani wrestling team to London to conduct a series of experiments to see if Febreze could eliminate their Olympic-sized odors.



First we asked the team to work up a massive stink though a tough training regimen, a trip to the sauna, lots of eating and of course wrestling. We treated their gear and gym with Febreze, then invited blindfolded and unsuspecting people to smell the team’s sweaty jockstraps, wrestling boots and unitards. Not knowing what was in front of their noses we asked them what they smelled? People said things like 'a strawberry milkshake' and 'passion fruit'. The experiments were documented and turned into online documentaries, TV commercials and other digital content. The Azerbaijani wrestlers also interacted with the public in live stunts, PR outings and wrestling classes creating awareness for the sponsorship in London.



Documented Results

This campaign is still running throughout the London 2012 and beyond so the results are preliminary. With the unusual sponsorship of the Azerbaijani wrestlers Febreze managed to put a creative spin on the corporate P&G Olympic Partnership.



The biggest odour challenge at the Olympics was defeated and people in London were given a first hand experience of the efficacy of Febreze.



The sponsorship generated 11 different documentary shorts that were shared with more than 1,000,000 Febreze fans on Facebook.



As part of the global Febreze campaign, 1,100,000,000 media impressions were generated, and Febreze grew its share in a soft market with more people attributing odour elimination to the brand than before.