Movistar has been supporting Peruvian soccer as an Official Sponsor for over 18 years, offering support always even when nobody believed in the National Team. This commitment earned it the recognition as an unconditional brand and, as such, it had to continue building on its territory of “Unconditionals”.

When the World Cup ended for the Peruvian national team, many brands that had joined the party stopped cheering and started cooling down. Movistar had to prove that its support was not short-lived, especially when Coach Ricardo Gareca announced the sad news at a press conference that he was returning to Argentina to think about his continuation as the man in charge of the National Team, maybe even considering coaching the Argentinian team. This became an opportunity for Movistar: An unconditional fan cannot just sit back and do nothing; The unconditional support is needed to be shown.

Ricardo Gareca announced after the 2018 Russia World Cup, that he would no longer be the coach of the Peruvian National Team. He was going to Argentina to think about whether he would renew a new contract with Peru or not. 99% of peruvians wanted him back.

Movistar, official sponsor of the peruvian Team, decided to listen the clamor of the entire nation and give a voice to all those fans. We thought about publishing a print ad in “Clarin”, the most readed newspaper in Argentina: But we had 2 obstacles: We were in Peru and he in Argentina. And second of all, the budget. With approximately only US $ 1000 we had to get his attention. That's why we bought 100 classified ads that would occupy the same space (But that finally cost 2000% less). We included the hashtag #GarecaVuelve and we started the conversation on social media.

Ricardo Gareca’s estrangement was taken by the Peruvian fans as a breakup and, as any broken-hearted person would do, the impossible had to be done in order to win him back, taking the wish to bring him back all the way to Argentina.

Movistar thus becomes the voice of these Peruvians and, as an (unbranded) incognito fan, it carries out a series of mass actions aiming at creating content and talk with the hashtag #GarecaVuelve (Gareca Come Back) in order to attract the attention of Argentina’s “Tiger”.

The strategy sought to get the message across to the coach, generate high bounce rates and organic coverage both locally and internationally, and then have the brand capitalize on everything achieved by unveiling its participation and more strongly associating itself to the concept of “Unconditionals”.

Two stages were planned:

Intrigue Stage: Non-traditional Format - Classified Ads in print media

Objective: Trigger conversation in Argentina and Peru.

On July 24, 2018 a hundred ads were bought in Section 58 of the Classifieds in Argentina’s main newspaper, “Clarín”, and the following was published: “GARECA, come back to Peru, 32 million Unconditionals fans are waiting for you to take us to Qatar 2021 World Cup. Don’t think about it. Come back. #GarecaVuelve”.

Unveiling Stage: Digital

Objective: Raise awareness.

After the conversation generated on social media both nationally and internationally through the classified ads and the confirmation of Gareca’s contract renewal, on August 10 a spot was launched on social media, focusing on the people who had used the hashtag #GarecaVuelve during the previous days and amplifying the reach to a target audience made up of soccer enthusiasts throughout Peru, who represent 60% of peruvian fans.

Strong coverage and high bounce rates in the media were achieved in an organic way, both locally and internationally. Major sports media such as ESPN, CNN, New York Times, Fox Sports, BBC, Reuters, among others, picked up the news.

The campaign became #TrendingTopic in Peru and Argentina with the hashtag #GarecaVuelve.

It got 51 million dollars in earned media, a 4.5-million reach on day one of the campaign and 5.4 billion impressions generated.

With the campaign, the positive sentiment towards the brand grew to 75%, versus the annual average of 11%.

Source: SimilarWeb report performed by the VMLY&R network / Forward media center

Source: Agencia 121 – Study on sentiment