Olympikus is Brazil’s biggest sports brand and the sponsor of Flamengo football club: the team with Brazil’s largest, most passionate fan base. For them, the team is a religion. How could we make the most of the club’s birthday to strengthen ties with fans?

The biggest sports programme on TV covered the baptism with exclusivity. An entire minute of coverage in front of an audience of more than 14m people.Over 110,000 people underwent and shared the online baptism. In just 4 days, the brand’s page went from 18,000 to over 140,000 likes. A 750% growth. Over US$300,000 in free media. A 500% return on investment. The campaign reached over 30m people. Olympikus was the sponsor that came closest to fans and became a veritable preacher of the faith called Flamengo.

We create The Baptism. An idol of the club going to maternity wards to baptize little fans who were born on the same day as the club. In order to perform the ceremonies, we called João Batista Nunes, a veritable saint to the fans. To advertise the baptism, a video with the ceremonies was placed on YouTube and advertisements and birth participations were published in newspapers. They talked about the baptism in the maternity wards and invited everyone: have your own personalised ceremony on the Olympikus Fan Page.

The brand needed to strengthen its relationship with supporters, who are very reticent in relation to sponsors. They believe that sponsors merely want to take advantage of the club’s image. With this initiative, the emotional appeal of the action and the presence of an idol baptising newborns, the brand effectively managed to strengthen ties with the public.