After signing a 10 year agreement with UEFA Champions League, Paramount+ was searching for a creative platform that could not only drive awareness that the Champions League was on Paramount+, but could aid growing awareness of soccer within the United States.

To accomplish both these objectives, we went against the grain of sports marketing. Instead of showcasing slick highlight packages and incredible displays of athleticism to get people into the game, we instead focused on the fans, and highlighted the incredibly unique rituals and viewing behaviors that they partake in to watch Champions League within the United States

For the first time in two decades, Lionel Messi wouldn’t be playing in the UEFA Champions League. He’d be watching it. In America. So we wanted to tell him how.

With the help of the UEFA Champions League Today hosts, Kate Abdo, Thierry Henry, Micah Richards, and Jamie Carragher, we aired a surprise message letting the GOAT know how to tune into the tournament he dominated for twenty years when we knew he, and the rest of America, would be paying attention: during the Super Bowl. And to make watching it as easy as possible, we even gave him a promo code for a month of free streaming, which just so happened to work for the millions of other people who also happened to be watching.

Research shows that of the 55.3M soccer fans in the U.S, 70% are also avid fans of the NFL, although that doesn't mean they're all watching the Champions League...yet. In this we saw a tremendous opportunity to reach a new and emerging soccer audience.

This potential new fanbase is also obsessed with the big names in sports, so we decided to take advantage of the fact that the biggest name of all, Lionel Messi, is leaving the Champions League for MLS in the U.S.

For the first time ever, Messi would be watching the Champions League along with fans across the US, so we looked to America's biggest stage to reach him.

The UEFA Champions League knockout stages began on February 13th, 2024. So we saw Super Bowl LVIII (on February 11th) as the perfect launch moment for our message for one person, Lionel Messi, letting him and millions of Americans tuning in, know that Paramount+ is the only place to watch the UEFA Champions League in the US.

Prior to its first airing, the film was teased by Champions League broadcast hosts during a live pregame broadcast. It then aired for the first time on national CBS broadcast during Super Bowl pregame programming.

To ensure we directly targeted Messi (and to be efficient with our ad dollars), the spot aired again locally in-game in Miami (where Messi lives) and New York during the Super Bowl.

On social, “Super Goat” was posted across Paramount+’s Instagram and Twitter, and further amplified on Champions League broadcast host Kate Abdo’s social channels.

With the help of “Super Goat” and the promo code for “just one person,” Paramount+ had its most streamed UEFA Champions League Round of 16 ever, registering double-digit year-over-year growth in Average Minute Audience (AMA) from the 2023 Round of 16. Behind the momentum of the Round of 16 success, this continues to be the most-streamed UEFA Champions League season ever on Paramount+.