For the 2021/22 season, Siemens leveraged its FC Bayern partnership through a socially responsible video series called #Overcome. It saw a team of seven celebrity ambassadors share their own stories about the biggest challenges of their lives and how they overcame them. Spanning contemporary social topics to inspire viewers and fans not to give up no matter what challenges they have to #overcome.
Territory: Germany
Agency: Rapid Peaks GmbH, Faktor 3 AG, DropIn-TV GmbH & kivili
Objective
For the previous two seasons Siemens partnership with FC Bayern Munich, which dates back to 2017, was primarily based around data-driven, statistics-led storytelling activations visualize the fans’ relationship with the game (eg #ReimagineTheGame, the #FCBayernPulse and the #HeartBeatFinal). However, for the 2021/22 season Siemens switched approach to a more emotional campaign focused on purpose and social sustainability.
During ongoing challenging times, the sponsor’s aim was to leverage its partnership through ‘bold messages of encouragement’ to the target audiences and to raise awareness of social issues relevant to the company, the club and the fanbase. The aim was to ‘create what people care about’ by tackling critical social issues, specifically the sustainable development of society. Advocating for social impact in a way that reinforced and brought to life Siemens’ existing, umbrella ‘DEGREE’ sustainability framework.
Activation
Working with a group of agencies led by Rapid Peaks, the #Overcome activation was based around a set of celebrity protagonists – such as former NBA player Paul Zipser and French international footballer Dayot Upamecano – and their personal, often intimate stories.
Starting in November 2021 and running through to summer 2022, each story focused on an authentic real world challenges and important contemporary topics, such as integration, inclusion, recovery, diversity, and equality. Each one many fans either have faced or will face at some point in their lives. The aim was to provide inspiration to help supporters overcome their own challenges.
The #Overcome video episodes were published to a bespoke campaign web hub and across the brand’s social platforms.
The engagement funnel sought to lead fans to the #Overcome campaign hub through a combination of social media assets, plus a PR strand and via digital boards in the FC Bayern stadium and FC Bayern Basketball arena. For the in-stadium/arena strands, the lights were dimmed before each episode was screened to enable viewers/fans to fully immerse themselves in the stories.
Outcome
During the 2021/2 season, #Overcome reached more than 75m people, generating 220,000 total engagements worldwide: a year-on-year rise of 316% and 252% respectively compared to the previous season’s activation campaign.