We wanted to authentically communicate what the partnership between Zlatan and the small company really meant, while also doing it in a way that was more “showing” rather than “telling.” We knew that Zlatan was truly invested in the company and in the product he had created, how best to show it but to have him involved boots-on-the-ground with company itself. So we gave Zlatan his first real job, at the offices of the small company, and filmed it with hidden cameras. A low key way of conveying a low key partnership, no frills, just a passion for a great product.

We implemented an editorial activation plan, orchestrating how the stories unfolded in various channels and over time for maximum activation of the brand message. As part of the plan, we gave exclusives to top tier Swedish media for the first 24 hours of launch, e.g. Aftonbladet which is Sweden’s biggest online newspaper. We offered interviews with real world participants in the videos as well as interviews with key stakeholders at the small company. We then followed up with more stories in social media and created an online on-demand behavior, where audiences were waiting to watch the next episode in the series. While we filmed all the videos in one go, we waited to release each one as demand grew higher, in a responsive manner to the audience’s fervor for this content.

Sweden, where we launched this campaign for a small Swedish brand, has a population of 10 Million, but our PR reach was 22.5 Million, more than twice the population of the entire country. As a result of the campaign, subscribers to company’s YouTube channel grew by over 3,000%. Purely organic views amounted to 1,300,000, which is a whopping 13% of the country’s population. 10 months after the campaign launched, we’ve racked up an additional 180,000 in 2017 alone, with over 1,200 comments on the videos. A global audience of 3,740,540 consumed the videos that were entirely in Swedish. The impact was huge for a small Swedish brand in a country of only 10 Million, who captured the public’s imagination with an authentic message and passionate brand ambassador within 24 hours of launch!