In 2017, during the Finals of the Championship, the Brazilian team of Fluminense de Feira have taken shirt sponsors to a new level by replacing their own names and squad numbers with items and prices from the local supermarket related to Walmart.
To show the population of the entire region of Bahia (Brazil) that Walmart had low prices on many items, including on daily items, they used numbers Brazilians love to look at: the numbers on soccer players’ jerseys. Walmart established an unprecedented partnership with Fluminense de Feira, one of the most popular teams in the region, and displayed Walmart’s offers on players’ jerseys, transforming player numbers into prices. Walmart showed a different offer on each athlete’s jersey. Each week, each player’s jersey displayed a new offer. The impact of showing Walmart’s offers on players’ jerseys extended well beyond the stadium, generating interaction on live, prime time television without additional expenses for this coverage, and on radio, where announcers gave their commentaries of the games using Walmart offers together with players’ names. After the economic crisis affected the entire country, Walmart needed to reclaim its position in a critically important region: the Brazilian northeast. The country’s economic situation also affected the brand’s investment. As such, we needed a low-cost action that was capable of impacting the population of an entire region, whereby increasing customer flow in the brand’s stores and showing one of Walmart’s global pillars: everyday low price. Walmart’s offers showed up on the field on Fluminense de Feira jerseys during the finals of the Championship. Walmart sent Fluminense the offers available each week in their stores and the team printed these offers on players’ jerseys. Ex: a team’s goalkeeper usually plays wearing number 1, but during our campaign, the goalkeeper wore jersey number $1.58, which was an offer for Spaguetti Vitarella. The next week, after the offer was changed, he played wearing another number of a different product offer. This was done with each player, who played in each game wearing a different offer. The team’s great performance helped increase the brand’s exposure even more. With televised games playing on prime time, Walmart was able to show its offers not only for those who were at at the stadium watching the games live, but also for everyone else who followed the games on television or radio. This action generated an increase in customer flow at the brand’s stores in the region, and some of the products shown experienced increases in sales of more than 40% in the days following the games. All in a year in which the Brazilian economy was in a deep recession and retail sales as a whole fell by 7%. This idea turned into a new communication platform for Walmart. The company has already closed contracts with new teams, such as Caxias do Sul FC and Sport Clube Campina Grande, to repeat this action in other regions that are important to the brand. The idea also helped Walmart build its relationship with those living in the region, as it supported a local team that, despite being popular and well-loved, is lacking in resources and visibility. To increase the flow of consumers in Walmart stores in the country’s northeastern region, Walmart used Brazil’s greatest passion to speak to the whole region: soccer. Walmart chose one of the most popular teams in the Bahia region for this action. In addition to having a large fanbase, Fluminense de Feira was a team in need of investment. This was fundamental to being able to display our offers to all fans with a small investment but high exposure. This was the right choice, as the team played in the semifinals of the championship and the action reached the region’s entire population, reaching both Fluminense fans and fans of rival teams, who had fanbases similar or greater in size to that of Fluminense. This celebrated Walmart’s internationally known strategy of saving on everything, which makes it possible to pass on the lowest prices to consumers at the checkout. To speak to an entire region in Brazil, Walmart chose a direct way to communicate: using one of the region’s most beloved soccer teams. Walmart spoke with fans. They used Fluminense de Feira FC, the third largest team of Bahia to announce their low prices. Fluminense put the prices of Walmart products on players’ jerseys. Instead of traditional numbers on their jerseys, each one played wearing the price of a product on his back. The shirts were also used inside the Walmart supermarkets to show daily special offers..This action communicated an idea from the world’s largest retailer directly to Brazilian soccer fans and went beyond the stadium, generating engagement via TV and Radio worldwide. A surely incredible advertising for Walmart but for the team as well since this campaign was noticed all over the globe.
