This isn’t a multi-million-pound sponsorship activation - it’s a proudly tactical, seriously low budget brand activation, turned around in days.

Designed to hijack the hype around the Women’s Euros that overwhelmed Britain in the summer of 2022, as the England team sprinted towards the final and the ultimate glory of winning.

For Domino’s, it was far more than just a PR stunt. The summer is the quietest time of the year sales-wise. But major football tournaments (or soccer tournaments to some of you) present an opportunity to drive a spike in sales, as spectators tune in at home in their

The Domino’s audience in the UK is broad… from Gen Z through to mums ordering pizza for the family. But certain cultural passion points translate into areas of key commercial emphasis – football being the biggest.

Sporting moments bring tens of millions of Brits together in living rooms, with friends, family… and pizza. Big sofa occasions like the UEFA European Championships (known as the Euros) are important opportunities for Domino’s - the nation’s favourite pizza brand - to drive consideration and sales.

Traditionally these have heavily skewed towards male sporting championships, but the summer of 2022 was the summer that women’s football finally captured the attention of the masses.

Domino’s wanted a slice of the Euros action – to hijack the conversation, create an unofficial brand association with the biggest tournament of the year and drive a spike in sales.

We discovered that one of the stars of the England squad, Lucy Bronze, had worked in a Domino’s store a decade earlier. Whilst men in football receive six-figure club sponsorships from the age of fifteen, for decades, women received nothing. It took until 2018 for the England women’s team to receive full time pay. Until that point, they held down jobs they could fit around their training. For Lucy Bronze, that was making pizzas at the Domino’s store in Leeds.

As the team progressed through the tournament, momentum and love for our national squad grew and grew – dominating the front of every daily newspaper, with TV and radio shows dedicating hours to hyping up the nation to get behind our Lionesses.

We picked the perfect moment to lean into the conversation and changed the name of the store Lucy Bronze once made pizzas in, renaming it in her honour.

With tournament matches back-to-back, the sports news agenda was moving at pace, so timing a stunt with the hottest message and news hook was crucial. Analysis of the England team was closely tracked and overlayed with media reporting quantity and sentiment.

The Lionesses smashed through the Group stages. A rocky quarter-finals game against Spain almost saw England defeated – but they clinched it. It was in the semi-final where the extraordinary happened. Defender and former Domino’s employee, Lucy Bronze, scored and doubled England’s lead against Sweden safely placing the team into the final.

Lucy elevated to national hero status within minutes and became a household name across the UK.

This was our moment to strike.

We renamed her old Domino’s store after her – changing all the store-front signage for the remainder of the tournament. Delivery drivers wore celebratory ‘bronze’ helmets, in honour of the nation’s newest national treasure.

The Sun newspaper positioned itself as the official newspaper of the Lionesses, championing their journey throughout the tournament. As the UK’s biggest circulating daily newspaper, we negotiated a print exclusive – landing a full page of branded imagery in the paper, and a lead story on the Sun Online homepage.

From here, media interest exploded – we distributed a news release and stills photography to print, online and broadcast newswires, moments after the Sun exclusive timeframe ended. Our team fielded enquiries from every major news and sports outlet across the British media landscape, converting this interest into branded press coverage.

The stunt also achieved huge momentum on social media – kick started by locals in the area posting about it on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. This was quickly picked up by media outlets and national sports desks, as well as by sporting talent, celebrities and TV personalities.

Without the luxury of a big budget investment to be an official sponsor, this activation hijacked the tournament and the conversation surrounding it, in an authentic and grassroots way that delivered huge national impact.

The activation drove a 33% increase in sales, based on year-on-year comparisons.

Not bad for an investment of just ten thousand pounds.

Branded editorial coverage in print and online included:

The Sun – full page exclusive

The Daily Mail

Mail Online

The Daily Mirror

Daily Star

Metro

Guardian

OK! Magazine

Branded editorial media placement in broadcast included:

Sky News

Sky Sports

Talk Sport

The Jeremy Vine Show

The Last Leg

In total, 100+ editorial coverage hits equalling a reach of over 65 million people in the UK.

The stunt got picked up around the world too, with mentions on ESPN, Fox, CBS, TNZ and in news outlets in 27 countries around the world.

There are extremely strict rules surrounding the UEFA European Championships - brands are banned from doing any marketing around the event, unless they’re an official sponsor.

As a result, it is nearly impossible to leverage… there are massive financial penalties for brand that makes any reference to the tournament.

With this tactical, low budget stunt, we were able to hijack the momentum around the Euros and celebrate the women’s team – grabbing both national and international attention. Without breaking a single rule.

Did we spend a few million quid on an official sponsorship and glossy production? NO.

Is this entry at home amongst all the purposeful, tear jerkers you’re probably ploughing through right now? Definitely not.

But did it cut through into British popular culture in an unexpected way, deliver a ton of media exposure can be directly attributable to a sales increase? Yes!