For 72 hours the whole football world was outraged by 12 wealthy teams trying to break off from UEFA Champions League to form a league of their own, a league that will guarantee them both a place in the championship without fighting for it and a lot of money just for their participation. They called it Super League.

And the Super League was destroying the spirit of fair European competition in pursuit of money. And all the fans knew it.

Former and active football players, coaches, celebrities and all the teams fans were enraged. They started protests in the streets, on their social media and on live TV.

All the UEFA Champions League sponsors were silent.

All but one.

As a UEFA Champions League main sponsor for almost 30 years, Heineken had to make a fast statement.

For 72 hours the whole football world was outraged by 12 wealthy teams trying to break off from UEFA Champions League to form a league of their own, a league that will guarantee them both a place in the championship without fighting for it and a lot of money just for their participation. They called it Super League.

Former and active football players, coaches, celebrities and all the teams fans were enraged by the news, protesting in the streets, on their social media and on live TV. As a UEFA Champions League main sponsor for almost 30 years, Heineken had to make a fast statement. And so we did. In less than 48 hours we mocked the newly formed league with a simple social media post that reinforced our long lasting responsibility claim: Don’t drink and start a league. Enjoy Heineken Responsibly. Proud Sponsor of UEFA Champions League since 1994

The best brand reaction comes hand in hand with perfect timing.

This needed to be a perfectly coordinated response to the burning news of the Super League and support the long partnership of UEFA Champions League. The strategy was speed: come up with a response fast, approve it fast, publish it fast and give the audience a guiding light wrapped in a comic relief in the middle of the biggest football crises in the past decades.

In less than 48 hours from the Super League news break we posted our message on all Heineken social media channels in 50 countries. The ironic take on the Super League landed so well within the football audience that the message was spread in more than 70 countries. In less than 60 hours the message was live also in outdoors across main cities.

Building on the brand responsibility on going campaign while proudly admitting to be the Main sponsor of The UEFA Champions League resonated with everybody and reinforced our standpoint.

A simple post generated 4466% more engagement of Heineken Social media pages and more than 384 million impressions – more than viewership of an UEFA Championship Final. That same post also gave Heineken $3,7 million in earned media and made the Heineken stock price grow 6% on the day it was published.