Disability is not an inability. With this key insight in mind, we set out to create an integrated campaign to raise awareness and rally the nation around The South African Paralympic Team as they prepared to compete at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. This 60” TV spot is the proof of this insight, members of the Paralympic Team competing against arguably the toughest and most admired able-bodied athletes in the country, giving birth to our campaign: Chairs vs Champs, a showdown between South Africa’s National Wheelchair Basketball Team and The Springboks, the current World Cup Rugby Champions. Welcome to amazing.

We pitted our client’s main sponsorships against one another: The Springboks vs. our South African Wheelchair Basketball Team in a sports event never seen before. The public was barred and South Africa’s premier journalists and photographers were invited. We rolled seven cameras so that we could later turn the event into a campaign - “Chairs vs. Champs”.

The outcome: Thousands of website hits and messages of support as well as our team winning 30 medals, the best result a South African delegation has ever achieved. What’s more, thousands of consumers flooded into Sasol stations to receive free memorabilia.

This promotion was hugely successful, in just a few days our website had received thousands of hits and thousands of SMS messages of support from the South African public. The team, which consisted largely of a group of unknown athletes returned to a heroes welcome after winning over 30 medals and placing sixth overall, the best result a South African Paralympic delegation has ever achieved. Further to this the public flooded into Sasol Petrol Stations to receive their free branded memorabilia during the games.