As proud sponsor of the national Danish football team, Danish sports brand hummel was going to be part of the World Cup in Russia.

Being a socially conscious brand – with a mission to change the world through sport – we decided to use this occasion to communicate the brand values by taking a stand against one of the human rights issues in Russia: The widespread discrimination of LGBT+ persons. First of all to make an actual difference. Secondly, to create awareness of the brand.

The core of the idea was to show support utilizing one of the brands most basic products: A football shirt. So, we took more than 160 football shirts in all colours and pieced them together into a giant rainbow mosaic in the shape of a football shirt – standing 13 metres tall.

The original idea was to set up the installation in Russia during the World Cup. However, we soon came to realize that this would be dangerous, not just for us but also for the Russian LGBT+ community. So we changed location to a harbour area in Denmark – right across from the television studio transmitting the World Cup from Russia.

Then, we took to PR, influencers and social media to share the stunt with the world. Furthermore, a limited edition of the shirt was put up for sale and all profits donated to The Russian LGBT+ Sports Federation.

The strategy was very simple. As we could not set up the installation in Moscow, we changed location to the most relevant place we could find at a safe distance from Russia: A wall facing the outdoor World Cup studio where thousands of football fans gathered for every game. From here, the giant rainbow installation was guaranteed massive exposure.

But we wanted to do more than make a statement – our ambition was to make an actual difference. So we designed a limited-edition shirt (similar to the ones used in the rainbow installation) and with “change the world” in Russian written on them. Then, we released these shirts to influencers and sold them in the brand’s official web shop so we could use the profits to support The Russian LGBT+ Sports Federation.

On top of it all, we used PR, influencers and social media to make the message travel globally.

With the giant rainbow jersey safely in place, the task was to spread the message.

We did this using:

PR – press releases were sent out to both LGBT+ niche media and broader media.

Influencers – rainbow shirts were sent to Danish influencers.

SoMe – an emotional video was made to create reach and shares.

All communication led people to hummel.net where they could purchase a rainbow shirt – showing their support and donating to the cause.

Meanwhile, the collaboration with The Russian LGBT+ Sports Federation expanded with a football tournament for the LGBT+ community in Russia during the World Cup.

The campaign ended during the Gay Pride festival in Copenhagen with a visit from the president of The Russian LGBT+ Sports Federation. The president gave a speech and met with the Danish Prime Minister. And, of course, picked up the profits from the sale of the rainbow jerseys.

The campaign created global awareness of the brand and, not surprising, particularly in the LGBT+ community.

Overall, we obtained an estimated reach of more than 100 million people.

This equals an estimated PR value of more than 1,292,541 USD.

And with a very low budget, the Media ROI was 21.

And not least: The campaign generated a significant donation to The Russian LGBT+ Sports Federation.