How to address hooliganism as a football brand?
hummel has a strong legacy as a sports and football brand, sponsoring numerous great teams over the years. But football also has a dark side: Hooliganism. How do you address that as a brand?
The question became more pressing than ever in the wake of 50 armed Alavés supporters, a Spanish club sponsored by hummel, attacking 20 Barcelona fans outside a bar. Somehow, nobody was killed – but when it turned out the two teams would meet again in the national Spanish cup final, with more than 50.000 supporters in the streets of Madrid, everybody prepared for the worst.
Reward non-violent fans by making peace a currency
Being the shirt sponsor of Deportivo Alavés, hummel wanted to address the many peaceful fans of the club – and non-violent football lovers in general – with a powerful match day event in Madrid. One thing football fans have in common is that they like to party! So, we created a bar, right next to the stadium, and invented our own currency for the bar. The currency was: Peace. In this bar you couldn’t pay with money – you had to reach out to the so-called enemy and take a selfie together and show it in the bar as your payment. In short: Pay With Peace.
A high-risk match with no fights
The fans joined our peace movement and sent a powerful message to the hooligans and the rest of the world, standing united in their love of the beautiful game. Both in the streets of Madrid and by sharing the thousands of peaceful selfies on social media.
Drinks served: 4,639
Hugs: 2,500+
Fights: 0