How FIFA Accidentally Handed Levi’s a Global Ad Campaign.

Levis Stadium via Getty

This year’s FIFA World Cup has been filled with innovative marketing campaigns from a variety of brands — brands that have officially sponsored the tournament and well, brands that also haven’t…

We’ve seen viral campaigns from official sponsors such as DoorDash, where they put together a campaign playing on the Beckham family feud and campaigns from other brands such as Heinz with their new ‘Penalty Packets’.

DoorDash Campaign via Little Black Book

What Happened With Levi’s?

FIFA’s sponsorship rules ban any brand that hasn’t officially sponsored the tournament from displaying branding in or around the stadiums which helps protect the small group of official partners who’ve paid eye-watering sums of money for that exclusivity.

But the issue was that Levi’s had already spent $170 million for the naming rights to the stadium in California, years before the tournament was even confirmed.

Although, that deal had nothing to do with World Cup sponsorship, the rules applied anyway.

FIFA’s solution was simple — cover the logo. Contractors pulled a tightly fitted white sheet over Levi’s giant, bat-wing-shaped signage.

The issue was that the logo shape was so recognisable that the “cover-up” didn’t really hide anything. It just made people ask why a giant, oddly-shaped white sheet was draped over a stadium everyone already knew was Levi’s.

The move went VIRAL online bringing millions upon millions of views to the Levi’s brand.

Most sponsors in the same position with their stadium sponsorships — MetLife, Mercedes, and others quietly complied and moved on.

But Levi’s didn’t, they leaned all the way in from changing its Instagram profile picture to the covered logo, all the way to draping the same white sheets over signage at its own shops, globally.

Levi’s Store Signage via Instagram

The Marketing Brilliance.

The best part of this entire “campaign” was that there was no agency brief and no media spend.

Just a fast, confident team spotting an opportunity inside a restriction.

Here are three things I’d take from this for your own business:

1. A rule working against you isn’t automatically bad news — it might be the most interesting thing happening to your brand this month, or maybe even this year.
2. Speed beats budget. The whole campaign moved at the pace of a news cycle, not a lengthy sign-off process.
3. Your brand needs to be recognisable without your name on it — the power of branding is huge and most people miss it.

You probably won’t get a World Cup-sized moment handed to you too often… But the habit of staying alert, moving fast, and having a distinctive enough brand to carry a moment like the one Levi’s was presented with — is available to every business, at any budget.

What’s the best example you’ve seen of a brand turning a restriction into an opportunity?

This is my first story for Medium — any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

ben@blackfiremarketing.co.uk

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