Cannes Lions

Beer Badge

VMLY&R COMMERCE, Mexico City / CORONA / 2023

Awards:

1 Shortlisted Cannes Lions
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Overview

Entries

Credits

OVERVIEW

Background

For years Corona has been engaging football fans at the Mexican league. After the success brought by the partnership with America de Mexico in 2021 to roll out Jersey Pay, a new payment solution for in-stadium fans, Corona turned their eyes to the 2022 World Cup, securing the biggest sponsorship of all: the Mexican national team.

But unlike the national league, FIFA prohibits brand or/logo placement on national jerseys. So they needed to literally redefine how sponsorships look. Engage new fans to be part of their official fan fests and most importantly, keep them coming back.

Idea

Corona "Beer Badge" Jersey:

A partnership with adidas to launch a limited-edition Mexico national team jersey, pre-loaded with Corona beer. Taking the Corona jersey experience from a convenient payment solution to an engaging fan loyalty program.

Available at every Corona Fan Fest during the World Cup, each limited-edition Jersey was activated right on the spot. An NFC chip embedded in the crest allowed fans to unlock 2 free beers with a single tap on a Point-of-sale card terminal.

Every tap after that also unlocked Corona offers (Like Beer at a discounted store price) and to keep fans coming back, Corona topped up every beer badge, every time the team played.

More than a promotional item, Corona Beer Badge becomes a fan loyalty pass

that will continue to be activated throughout the football calendar year, including international friendlies and qualifiers.

Retaining and Acquiring new Corona and Mexico loyal fans every time.

Strategy

Aimed at 18YO+ from all over the country.

According to social listening, there are three key factors for football fans to fully enjoy the World Cup: experiencing the event without complications, being able to share their passion and emotions with more people, and the last, most important thing; have the official jersey that shows their passion for the national team.

With this context, we decided to turn these factors into a complete experience that would allow Corona to gain relevance with consumers by bringing the product to the badge on their jersey, an unusual space that, at the same time, offered a simple and highly beneficial way to combine their two passions: football and beer.

The idea was complemented by offering fans a space within the Fan Fest to share and shout each goal with thousands of people while they received dynamic and exclusive promotions for those wearing the jersey.

Execution

With previous experience disrupting payment methods within stadiums suing tech in jerseys using waterproof RFID tags embedded in the badge, we only needed to updated our backend system to activate and preload beer credits.

Partnering with adidas gave us scale. The jerseys were available at many adidas points of sale and at our Corona Fan Fest to ensure that the largest number of Mexicans would purchase the pre-loaded jersey.

During the tournament, Beer Badge users received alerts of special promotions being released in real-time as part of the benefits. With this data, we had the opportunity to understand the behavior of football fan consumers and deliver relevant commercial offers while giving them the chance to fully experience the World Cup.

Outcome

Corona's name was not in the jersey, but it was closer than any to the heart of the fans.

Over 37.000 fans activated

87% of fans retained (coming back to Fan Fest for every match)

4:1 Return on Sponsorship

23% Lift in Beer Sales

It's projected that sales driven directly by Corona jersey experiences over the next 2 years will surpass 20MM.

Increased positive sentiment for Corona during the World Cup by 45%

800K social media conversations about Beer Badge (56% of brand buzz during World Cup)

Over 30 most important media partners talking about the innovative Corona solution

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