Kia has been supporting the number one world tennis player for over 7 years, Rafael Nadal. Suddenly, a crisis. Nadal suffers a serious injury, and withdraws from competition, his future is now uncertain.

Kia wants to help Nadal and show him their support at the most difficult time of his career. They also want to keep the association with the player and increase its brand awareness during Nadal’s time off the courts.

The idea was to bring Rafa’s racquet back to the very top, up with the stars, powered by a balloon charged with the energy of the voice’s of Rafa’s supporters.

We first uploaded a video on to the internet encouraging Rafa’s supporters to collaborate with their shouts of encouragement.

We gathered the shouts of encouragement from his followers and turned them into the strength to help him get back to the top. We created the website Missionnadal. Once we gathered the necessary helium, we launched the racket to the stratosphere.

This PR campaign has helped us build the brand image of relationship and support of Kia and Rafa Nadal.

We were proactive in idea generation in response to a sponsorship crisis (Nadal injured and not being able to play)

This campaign has leveraged the relationship of the brand with Nadal, a relationship built on trust and credibility earned over years of supporting him.

We sent press releases to the media, which echoed the event / campaign and it was published and broadcast.

Our campaign was covered extensively on all television news programmes and online media.

We first uploaded a video on to the internet encouraging Rafa’s supporters to collaborate with their shouts of encouragement.

We gathered the shouts of encouragement from his followers and turned them into the strength to help him get back to the top. We created the website Missionnadal.

Once we gathered the necessary helium, we launched the racket to the stratosphere. We sent Nadal's racket to where he deserves it, at the top, among the stars. All TV channels covered the launch.

More than 50.000 visits at www.misionnadal.com

1.215 shouts of encouragement collected

3.700 liters of Helium

1.600.000 views on Facebook

150.000 views on Youtube

76 online media worldwide covered the news PR ROI: 45.000€ media investment became 372.000€ of earned media & most important, Rafa wins every tournament since his back to the courts!