Moscow is segmented into rings around a central point in the city (the Kremlin) that dictates no advertising of any kind allowed within the central few rings in order to maintain the integrity of the city’s heritage. Therefore any branded activity needs to be executed with consideration to this and not in an overt way. By talking to our audience in a social environment and in the Korobkas they play on, we not only defined a voice that would resonate and spoke to them in a space that they ‘play’ in, but also bypassed the stringent city laws around commercial advertising. The Korobkas were free reign, as were the social channels in which the audience connected.

Starting from a place of maximum reach in social, we crafted a campaign of organic reach through listen and respond modeling. Social teams in the city encouraged FOT’s to participate off the back of points of campaign ignition – L’One music video and Kirill Laptev film. Considering location-advertising restrictions in Moscow, social was the only way to go and formed the backbone of our communications, not only throughout the short recruitment drive but also for the duration of the campaign.

Following launch, the tournament reached full capacity - 3,050 registrations in two weeks. As a result of the noise in Moscow, over 1m people visited throughout the campaign and 4,000 people attended the tournament’s finale with L’One.

- 1.7m YouTube views

- 1.6m L’One track downloads and listens on iTunes and YouTube

- 6.9m Facebook + VK reach

- 100k Instagram likes

This resulted in a moment of excitement in Moscow’s heart, Gorky Park, triggering a month long wave of football excitement and reigniting passion that FOT’s have for the game and their belief that kids from the streets can make it.