Atletico Mineiro, one of the biggest football teams in Brazil, was on its way to becoming national champion for the first time in fifty years. Its fans were expecting to make this celebration as big as possible, except for one detail: Atletico was doing so well, it would win the championship a few rounds before they could officially receive the winner’s cup - how could fans celebrate such an important moment without the trophy? And how could they wait for the trophy to finally celebrate?

That’s where Tramontina, the biggest Churrasco/Barbecue Utensils company in the country and an culturally important part of any celebratory barbecue came in. With a very clear goal - to sell more barbecue grills - they used their cultural relevance and knowledge around all things barbecue to make up for the missing champions cup and elevate Atletico’s party to the best it could be.

Tramontina had a simple, yet powerful insight: one of its grills, and the one that needed to be sold the most, kind of looked like a trophy. With steel arms added to it, it could light up the celebration that Atletico’s fans were waiting more than fifty years for.

That’s right - Tramontina wanted to use its own “cup” to fill in for the Brazilian Championship’s trophy, helping give Atlético’s fans the party they deserved and becoming the spotlight in the biggest football championship in Brazil. Thus was born the “Trophy Grill” - the first one to represent the victory and allow the celebratory barbecue to happen around it.

Tramontina’s biggest obstacle was infiltrating the football territory and creating a connection with football fans during the last straw of the championship, when games were almost over, people were used to the sponsors and a team was set to win. What the brand learned after talking to Atlético’s fans and through social listening was that after a 50-year wait and a whole pandemic, they were as eager to celebrate as they were to win. If people wanted a big celebration, then Tramontina’s role should be to maximize the party as much as it could. The brand’s strategy was thought to do just that; first, with a teaser phase, hyping up expectations for the big day; then, by putting The Grill Trophy in the center of the party, lighting up Atlético’s first national win in 50 years.

The rollout of Tramontina’s strategy followed Atlético’s schedule in the championship - the better the team did, the faster the brand had to act in order to give the fans the trophy they deserved in the right timing. There were two steps to making the celebration happen the best way it could: teasing the “Trophy Grill” and the Victory Day.

In the first step, the brand grew buzz around its surprise by posting secretive, mysterious videos on both owned and Atlético’s social media, making it clear that they were up to something related to the national championship that was ending soon. After the hype, came the revelation: at last, Tramontina’s cup was raised to the thousands of fans that were celebrating on the streets in person. Registers of this moment, both organic and promoted by Tramontina, spread across social media like fire as people talked about the new national champions.

The results were big. As big as Atlético Mineiro’s first win in fifty years.

Sales of the grill grew +289% during the campaign - a figure that was never seen before for that product.

The subject got more than +409M impressions on social media, creating +80M impacts and +56M engagements. But more than that, the Trophy Grill was able to create a name for itself within Brazilian football culture: after the hype of the championship was gone, people still talked about it and wanted to celebrate their own football victories using one of them, and so Tramontina became part of other professional and amateur championships. By the end of the football season, Tramontina turned a grill into the newest icon in Brazil’s football history and created a new staple trophy for any championship.