To call attention to Walmart’s prices, we used numbers Brazilians cannot look away from. We created a new type of media by transforming player numbers on a soccer team’s jerseys into the prices of products sold at Walmart. Offers were advertised for 90 minutes to all the fans in the stadium, as well as to the entire northeastern region of the country during live broadcasts of the game on TV and radio. The action spread around the world, as it was featured on sports programs, became news on sites in numerous countries, and even became the subject of spontaneous memes featuring famous soccer players. As such, we saw an opportunity to create a User Generated Content platform to ensure the action continued online between games. We created Players Price, a tool that allowed fans around the world to create their own memes by putting Walmart prices and products on the

Walmart’s offers showed up on the field on Fluminense de Feira jerseys during the finals of the Championship. Walmart sent us the offers available each week in their stores and we printed these offers on players’ jerseys. Ex: a team’s goalkeeper usually plays wearing number 1, but during our campaign, the goalkeeper wore jersey number $1.58, which was an offer for Spaguetti Vitarella. The next week, after the offer was changed, he played wearing another number of a different product offer. This was done with each player, who played in each game wearing a different offer.

The team’s great performance helped increase the brand’s exposure even more. With televised games playing on prime time, we were able to show Walmart’s offers not only for those who were at at the stadium watching the games live, but also for everyone else who followed the games on television or radio.

This action generated an increase in customer flow at the brand’s stores in the region, and some of the products shown experienced increases in sales of more than 40% in the days following the games. All in a year in which the Brazilian economy was in a deep recession and retail sales as a whole fell by 7%. This idea turned into a new communication platform for Walmart. The company has already closed contracts with new teams, such as Caxias do Sul FC and Sport Clube Campina Grande, to repeat this action in other regions that are important to the brand. The idea also helped Walmart build its relationship with those living in the region, as it supported a local team that, despite being popular and well-loved, is lacking in resources and visibility.