Name Games

There’s been a player called Zé – short for José – in every World Cup-winning team in Brazil. Beer delivery app Zé Delivery used this insight to hijack a cultural moment, asking Brazilian player Vinicius José ‘Zé’ Paixão de Oliveira Junior to change his jersey shirt name to Zé. Spurring more than 68,000 Zé Delivery downloads, it shows how to take advantage of a pattern to build brand awareness.

In another World Cup-themed campaign, Heinz hired a football fan named Heinz to be its representative. With Thomas Heinz documenting his experience live through social media, this ‘human billboard’ reached more than 7 million people and helped bypass sponsorship rules – showing how to steal attention from competitors without investing in pricey sponsorship deals. It took the Grand Prix in Outdoor Lynx and a Silver in Outdoor Lions.

Uber Eats decided to advertise the fact that it delivers more than food by using humour. It enlisted celebrities like Jennifer Coolidge, Noah Trevor and Gwyneth Paltrow to try to eat some of the things it can deliver – from lightbulbs to diapers to Paltrow’s famous candle – and achieved a reach of 12.8 billion. It shows how to tackle barriers presented by a brand’s name when it expands into new areas.

French hero Charles de Gaulle’s connection to Europe’s largest airport is widely known. But less known is de Gaulle’s connection to Fondation Anne de Gaulle, named after his daughter, who had Down syndrome. To change this, the airport was rebranded as Anne de Gaulle for the International Day of Disabled Persons. A bold move that led to earned media impressions worth €1m, and a total reach of 50 million people – as well as the implementation of new measures to improve the airport’s accessibility. It shows the potential that ambitious, logistically tricky ideas have to ignite conversations – especially when it’s for a good cause.