Winner of the Libertadores da América cup for the first time, in July 2012, Corinthians, one of the most popular soccer teams in Brazil, with a 112-year-history, set off last December for the FIFA Club World Cup. Prior to this, in November, Gatorade got a conversation between the team, about to face the big challenge, and the millions of fans in Brazil and worldwide. The campaign’s message was that the fans would be the fuel of the team that never stops. The challenge was to create visibility for an official partner of the club’s in one of the main sports events of the year without, however, contravening sporting legislation and the sponsorship by a competing brand (PowerAde-Coca-Cola-FIFA).

• First, Gatorade recorded a video with the Corinthians coach, Tite, inviting all the fans to send messages of support to the team. The message was viewed over 600,000 times on YouTube, was reproduced on TV by some of the leading sports programs in Brazil.

• At the same time, the videos were sent on to Corinthians players. At the team’s Training Center, at the gym and even in the changing room, a TV screen showed the videos.

• When the flight left for Japan, thousands of Corinthians fans went to the airport to wish the team good luck. In the team meeting before the big final against Chelsea, in Yokohama, Tite showed a video of the best fan messages, and also of messages from the families of each player.

• After championship the brand decorated the bus that carried the Corinthians players, and its logo was fully exhibited.

Only in the first week, more than 800 hundred videos from all over the world came in. Again, the athletes got so involved by the campaign that decided to answer the fans. Gatorade had a 20% growth in relation to the past year, braking two consecutive sales records. 2% growth in market share in two months. US$ 15M in spontaneous media. More than 2M views on YouTube. Facebook fans jumped from 600.000 to more than 1.3M. And Corinthians became 2012 FIFA Clubs World Champion.