Lucozade Sport wanted to impact its core audience of hard-core, grassroots footballers during the FIFA World Cup without the budget or rights to bring the brand to Brazil.

Our charge was to bring Brazil home for England’s biggest fans, and become the most “talked-about” sports drink during the tournament.

We knew that grassroots footballers would be highly motivated to participate in an incredibly realistic, World Cup-type of experience. Understanding this insight, we created a state-of-the art Lucozade Sports Condition Zone (CZ) in London’s iconic Canary Wharf, featuring a climate-controlled atmosphere that mirrored the same conditions England’s national team would be facing during its opening match in Manaus. Once the event was announced, spots sold out in 48 hours.

Players could see through real time analytics how their body chemistry changed during intense play. Near field communication technology ensured that all key data integrated with Facebook, allowing participants to share personal stats with friends.

We generated massive, continuous attention via Britain’s major media outlets and social media activity, achieving 32M impressions. More than 4000 visitors, comprised of media, footballers and spectators, showed up over a three-week period. Research showed that we drove pervasive World Cup conversation toward Lucozade Sport and increased likeliness to buy the product. We brought to life the brand’s claim that it “Enhances Hydration, Fuels Performance,” and drove a 12% sales increase, creating a record summer for Lucozade Sport.

We created the Lucozade Sport Conditions Zone: a bespoke, enclosed environment in Canary Wharf where consumers played 5-a-side in the same conditions the England team faced in Manaus. A range of statistics were recorded and analysed, focusing on the importance of hydration.

Before the first football was even kicked, we thought strategically about the types of data would tell the best Lucozade brand-centric story to media and to consumers via social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Personal data could be compared to professional players, adding to the realism for participants and those involved through social media channels.

1.75 million people watched the pre-promotion video on Youtube. 2,268 people took part. The event generated over 300k social engagements, 32 million impressions and 7.5 million reach with an 8k uplift on Lucozade Sport social platforms and 14,500 new database sign-ups.

We hit our 50 percent “share threshold” with several posts, and sales results proved out the effectiveness of the overall campaign, including our social media efforts.

Specifically, there was a 12% increase in sales and 71% of participants agreed the event increased their likelihood to buy Lucozade Sport in the next 3 months.