You ever came across these usual football commercials? The ones showing super-cool people cheering in a super-cool way for a super-cool product? This film is different. What makes this piece relevant for Film is its unusual structure and rhythm that follow the emotional ups and downs of a football game. Its cinematic tone is more akin to a theater play than a classic film, thus it’s crafted like a theatrical illustration of celebration playing with very simple but bizarre, football-like contrasts and repetitions: cheers and silence, happiness and sadness, good and bad, empty and crowded, win and lose.

After the very successful 2006 World Cup in Germany, the UEFA EURO 2024 is the next major football event that Germany host. Usually the country is extremely football-crazy and football games are being watched and celebrated together in bars, on public viewings or at fan zones and watch parties. But due to weak performances by the German national team at the last major tournaments and to fan protests being on an all-time high thanks to the World Cups in Qatar and Russia, football currently does not have an easy standing. So Deutsche Telekom, being an official partner of the UEFA and a brand that stands for connection and togetherness like no other, wanted to increase Germany’s football anticipation again. The solution: Portray football as what it is. Not a glossy, lifestyle product but a quite simple and dualistic, yet highly emotional sport that can bring people and a whole nation back together. The aim was to target every kind of football fan, from the hardcore, every-game watcher to the seasonal footie fans by showing them what kind of power football has when creating an atmosphere of togetherness and unison, and in contrast just how quiet and sad it can get when football and German fans aren’t in full swing.

The UEFA EURO 2024 would not be possible without the fiber network by Deutsche Telekom. This is shown by a series of bonkers and contrasting scenarios: what it’s like with fiber and football. And what it’s like without. The film opens on a town square in Germany filled with football fans chanting and jumping ecstaticly. Then the same scene abruptly shifts to complete emptiness and deafening silence. Then back to the crowd and jubilation, then back to the same area desolate with only a small dog roaming around. The next contrasting scenes feature the outdoor area of a bar, the indoor area of a bar and an elderly naked man sadly sitting in a pub without football broadcast. Then the same scene shows him fully clothed enjoying the pub again. The film ends with a television falling down to reveal the films message and summary: “No fiber. No football”.

Deutsche Telekom, as a former state-owned company, uses its technical infrastructure to bring one of the biggest live events to Germany and the world on screen. As one of the main sponsors and partners of this year’s UEFA EURO 2024, the client wants to communicate all parts of that sponsorship, including media partnership, broadcasting and telecommunication services in their home market and make sure that their campaign stands out from the rest.

The challenge was that there will be a lot of ads celebrating football at the same time as this film airs. All the *** and *** and whatnot will show people enjoying a football game with their friends and have a jolly good time. That’s why this piece of work tried to create something that steers away from the usual advertising tropes and that is more entertaining and memorable than the competition.

The film aired on TV for three weeks. It had a Germany-wide TV net reach of 66.5%. In the standard advertising media test by Want@d GmbH it reached the top 15% in all key performance indicators benchmarks, e.g. 68% in brand acceptance, 55% in brand perception, 54% in interest in information, 50% in interest in use and 48% in purchase intention, which made “No fiber. No football.” the most successfully tested Deutsche Telekom ad of the last four years.

The work was solely designed for and tailored to the German market across several aspects. The cast mirrors the cultural diversity of Germany. The locations are transporting a traditional German vibe. The simple to the core and dry like a toast in the desert voiceover refers to the rational and sometimes stiff character of Germans. And lastly, within the film everyone is united by celebrating football and cheering for their national team in a choreographed movement, which has been developed with a professional choreographer on set to make all the extras become an utterly weird, single ecstatic organism. This was inspired by fan choreographies in German stadiums, where tens of thousands of people are coming together every week to celebrate football.