The Toronto FC (TFC) was one of Major League Soccer’s most under-performing teams and Canadians had lost faith in the club.

Concerned over the slow season ticket sales, the team signed soccer star Jermain Defoe from the English Premier League to revitalize the club. This warranted a high-profile campaign that would excite the soccer-apathetic majority in Toronto of his arrival.

For this to work, TFC had to dominate the sports conversation. We set out to create a cultural property that would be leveraged by writers and broadcasters and permeate everyday conversation. This wouldn’t be easy; soccer is eclipsed in the media by hockey, baseball, and basketball. Guided by our insight that to make soccer news hit the front page it needs to become “footie news” across the pond first, our approach was to help the story write itself by creating language that was ownable, fun, and accessible to the public. Over the course of two weeks we unleashed an online & broadcast teaser campaign, and an integrated assault (print, digital, broadcast, out-of-home) to give Defoe a hero’s welcome on the morning of his big reveal. It bloody worked. We shattered website traffic and social mention records, sold out of season tickets, and made its home-opener the most-watched English-language MLS match in history.

More importantly, we created a cultural property that crossed borders and made it into headlines and tweets by reporters, pundits, fans, and brands months after Defoe’s introduction in Toronto, across Canada and abroad. A bloody big deal, indeed.

Our launch was designed to spark discussion and fuel mainstream media coverage. By dropping four 0:10-second spots over several days on TFC’s social media channels, we elicited high organic sharing by footie fans. Having the spots in high rotation on leading sports networks dialled up anticipation and prompted further discussion. The morning of his press conference, an integrated assault (print, broadcast, digital, out-of-home) made Defoe’s arrival known. His face was plastered on high-traffic pedestrian routes and on the front page of the city’s popular commuter daily newspaper. The 0:30 spot for TV & pre-roll made the campaign message even more bloody pervasive. A double decker bus emblazoned with the line drove around the city, increasing the message’s exposure to a wider cross-section of Torontonians. After the event, the bus served as a photo-op for media, and the vessel that would take hard-core fans to the TFC pitch to continue celebrations.

Canadians got bloody excited. Anchors chuckled at the spots during newscasts and a dozen national publications used the message in their headlines. The phrase was popular in the commentator booth during TFC’s record-shattering home opener broadcast (+150% increase in viewers). TFC racked up over 70,000 social mentions in 7 days (+240% above average) and website traffic grew +400% (55% being new visitors). Ticket sales rebounded, with the cumulative percentage of sold season tickets rising 77% (15-92%) in one week. We created a cultural property that became synonymous with TFC, and also a part of the social fabric of Torontonians.