The situation we were facing was the decline and closure of various historic neighborhood clubs because of the economic crisis that’s been hitting Argentina. So our main objective was to help these clubs improve their finances so they could continue giving argentinean kids the chance to play and distance themselves from the streets.

During the World Cup, in PedidosYa, Argentina’s biggest delivery app, we asked ourselves what we could do to help these neighborhood clubs stay afloat so more kids could play in them. And we found a way. These clubs don’t just have fields where kids play football, they also have canteens where kids eat when they are finished playing. These kitchens make simple food, but tasty nonetheless, even though you won’t usually find it in delivery apps because of its humble cuisine.

So we decided for the first time in history, to integrate the canteens of the neighborhood clubs of each of the players from Argentina’s national team. This way anyone could eat the same food that Lionel Messi and the rest of the players had eaten as kids. And all for a good cause: to help neighborhood clubs continue to teach kids to play football.

The business challenge was how could we help neighborhood clubs, independent institutions that hardly cover their costs, turn a profit. We concentrated in their canteens. Which do not serve elaborate dishes, but more traditional simple ones that you won’t find in delivery apps. With the world cup fever on, argentinians were crazy about anything that was related to national players. So the possibility of eating what they had in their early days was inspiring, specially for the younger ones.

We decided to integrate the canteens from the neighborhood clubs of each player from Argentina’s National Team to PedidosYa. This way anyone could eat the same food these players had eaten as children, while at the same time helping these small clubs generate a revenue to help them deal with the economic crisis that’s taken hold of Argentina.

Our whole world cup campaign had canteen owners as protagonists and we worked close to them in making sure we could help them handle a greater number of orders. We developed special packaging, canceled their fees and offered them a full distribution system.

The campaign achieved more than 111 million impressions, a reach of 14 million and increased the brand’s positive sentiment by 35%.

But most importantly, canteens were able to increase their revenue by 540%, generating an extra income so more kids could have the chance to play in these neighborhood clubs.