Gullan&Gullan Advertising, ICOM’s South African representative, celebrates the success of the inaugural Carling Black Label BE THE COACH campaign, arguably South Africa’s most successful consumer sports marketing campaign to date. In a first for soccer, the interactive campaign allowed fans to “be the coach” in a live match between Soweto soccer giants, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, by selecting the players they wanted to see in the starting line-up, and on match day by selecting a player for substitution.
 
With a total of over 11 million entries recorded for the starting line-up, an average number of 18 entries per unique consumer, a stadium almost filled to capacity with enthusiastic fans, and more than 40 000 substitution votes received on match day, the results indicate a colossal success for Carling Black Label, South African Breweries and the game of soccer.
 
Gullan&Gullan supported the campaign from a public relations perspective. A key element of the public relations campaign were the brand ambassadors, Benni BetheCoach and Bra Nox, who were deployed to assist consumer understanding of the entry mechanism. These two passionate soccer fans took a road trip around South Africa to rally support for the campaign and show like-minded soccer aficionados how to participate.
 
Response to the brand ambassadors and from the media was encouraging. Gullan&Gullan, together with M-Sports Marketing, generated news in lifestyle, sports and business media and received a total PR value of over R85 million.
 
A great photo montage of the road trip can be viewed on Benni’s YouTube channel www.youtube.com/bennibethecoach.