UP313 The Big Idea - Burger King's Stevenage Challenge

The Big Idea is our series on creativity in sports marketing with regular sidekick Simon Moore, the award-winning consulting creative director.Today we focus on one of the most awarded campaigns in recent years: Burger King's Stevenage Challenge. If a brand wants to sponsor the best football players, they have to pay millions. But Burger King found a way to endorse them without paying them a single penny. It sponsored a team at the bottom of English football’s 4th division: Stevenage. BK knew that if its logo was on their shirt, it was going to appear in FIFA 20. The brand then launched the #StevenageChallenge, inviting gamers to play with Stevenage and sharing UGC of the likes of Messi and Neymar wearing the BK logo, for BK rewards in return. It turned a small team in real life into the biggest team online.Main Awards - Direct Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions 2021 CREDITS Brand: Burger King. Advertising agencies: DAVID Madrid and DAVID Miami. Global Chief Creative Officer: Pancho Cassis. Chief Operating Officer: Sylvia Panico. Executive Creative Director: Saulo Rocha, Andre Toledo. Group Creative Director: Fernando Pellizzaro, Jean Zamprogno. Creative Director: Fred Bosch. Copywriter: Luis Giraldo, Alex Allen, Jared Schermer. Art Director: Felipe Antonioli, Andy Tamayo. Head of Social: Alex Sanchez. Director of Strategy: Jon Carlaw. Planner: Stephanie Salvador. Junior Planner: Vanessa Amaral. Group Account Director: Stefane Rosa. Management Supervisor: Jenny Gobel. Head of Global Production: Veronica Beach. Producer: Marina Rodrigues. Senior Business Affairs Manager: Barbara Karalis. Production Company: Landia. Music & Sound Company: Twenty Below Music, Jamute. Audio Mixing: Heard City. PR: ABMC. Media Placement: Horizon Media & Scout. Social Media: MullenLowe. Digital Studio: Unicorns & Unicorns. Animation: Mr. Klauss.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.