Anti-Rival Vaccine

Background

Every year, São Paulo has cases of H1N1 swine flu virus. Children and the elderly are at particular risk. But in 2016, the disease was more aggressive, striking in the earlier months of the year and with greater intensity.

As the situation became more serious, the government urgently brought forward its annual child immunisation programme.

Bandsports, a football channel for hard-core fans, wanted to tackle the issue and help drive traffic to the immunisation clinics.

They also wanted to boost brand loyalty by somehow linking immunisation to sports.

Idea

Every Brazilian football fan fears seeing their children support a rival team.

Ogilvy and Bandsports created a special clinic for football fans with consultation rooms decorated in the colours of the four major Sao Paolo football teams. The doctors were kitted out in the different team shirts and the vaccine was similarly packaged.

So, a Sao Paulo FC supporter could have his children inoculated against both Corinthians and against swine flu.

If the children associated the pain of the vaccine with the rival team, chances were they would never support it.

Results

Web bookings for vaccination slots were fully taken up within two days, with over 250 children immunised, a 400% increase on clinic attendance compared to the previous month.

Waiting lists were also full and other cities and teams are looking to implement the idea.

Our Thoughts

Hmm...there's an element of the barking mad about this scheme, but in the face of a H1N1 epidemic what counts is getting the children immunised.

And light-hearted though the basic idea may be, frivolous it isn't. There is a neat insight here in the idea of the double vaccination – against H1N1 and against a rival team.

One suspects that Ogilvy and Bandsports understand their core viewer pretty well.