Getting Egyptians to memorize their team and its line up fast was the challenge we were facing, amidst a competitive landscape that would have every brand across industries communicating mega messages around the championship and its stars. How could we get our tribute to stand out while others were spending millions on footballers and sponsorships? We needed our music to be extremely catchy, so catchy that every man, woman and yes child could pick it up. It needed to be as easy as an old nursery rhyme. In fact, it was just that. We purposely chose an iconic nursery rhyme that all Egyptians grew up memorizing, knowing that this would be the easiest way to get people to remember our lyrics, and accordingly, the team line up.
Creative Execution
Manly men with big, thick mustaches and bigger dreams for their national team in the African Cup sing a silly old nursery rhyme with a table tennis hall as their backdrop. Comically absurd, and surprisingly simple, our music video reflected the ironic state of Egyptians’ relationship with their new team. Real, Egyptian men who had strayed away from their most loved passion, football, were once again getting reacquainted and intrigued by the new team line up and player potential as they explained to the rest of us who was who and what to expect from these players on the field.
Without spending a dime on seeding the video, in the first 48 hours, our new nursery rhyme reached more than 2.8 million Egyptians ORGANICALLY. Leading music streaming app Anghami featured the song on its most trending list and was selected by their editors as a number one hit. Popular Football and sports sites shared the song on their platforms and social media channels, all praising the initiative for its effort to gear the fans up for the upcoming games. The impact was enough to catch the attention of top marketing and advertising publications in the region.
Coca-Cola launched a campaign about a mega national soccer event through a music video. Not a typical anthem rooting for the country in the upcoming games, but an absurd one, a nursery rhyme re-sung by awkward looking Egyptian men playing table tennis. A nursery rhyme that was watched, re-watched, shared and re-shared in the millions, ultimately, helping an entire nation memorize its team’s line up.
With our direct competitor being one of the main sponsors of the African Cup and endorsing several of the national team’s star players, Coke needed to hijack the event without mentioning the event. Unlike our competitor, we couldn’t and wouldn’t have a star studded campaign with the captains and most popular players of the team; after all Coke celebrates the fan. Unlike our competitor, we couldn’t show off our national jerseys or the African Cup logo. We couldn’t even refer to the games. So away from the football field we ventured, featuring instead what we knew we had going for us, the Egyptian fan with all his quirks. The fans who were going to help us take center stage by cheering their national team with our fun song; our tribute to the players who would make us proud once again.