Dacia Sponsor Day

Summary of the Campaign Dacia realized that focusing on low price cars in communication was not differentiating enough from competition. Especially, since in 2012, despite the economical crisis in Italy, Dacia’s market share stagnated. That’s why Dacia has decided to become a value for money brand instead. 

CHALLENGE: To position Dacia as a value for money brand by focusing on Dacia’s range of commercial vehicles making use of Dacia’s Udinese football sponsoring. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To help small business owners in times of crisis and thus demonstrate that Dacia cares for its consumers and their needs. 

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: To create higher brand affinity and to increase purchase intention 

STRATEGY: To provide small business owners in need with something they could never afford. 

EXECUTION: Dacia Sponsor Day – an online contest in which 3 small business owners could win to have their company name appear on Udinese’s football shirts during an official Serie A league game. How the audience were drawn to the content Dacia Sponsor Day took advantage of the high‐level football exposure in Italy to increase story visibility and brand talk‐ability. Using Dacia’s football sponsorship made a media space, usually significant for the brand, also relevant for consumers. 

Dacia provided 3 small business owners in need with something they could never afford: A Serie A sponsorship appearance on Udinese’s football jerseys during an official league game. An advertising exposure no small business could ever dream of. And given that this was set within the holy grail of football, huge PR response for both Dacia and the small business owners was guaranteed. 

Outcome In Italy, many small businesses have been closing down in recent years. Benefitting from the economical crisis, Dacia launched Sponsor Day to demonstrate that it cares for its target audience, by providing valuable advertising exposure to small business owners. Something they could have never afforded, especially not to this extent. This way Dacia manifested closeness to its target audience and made a big step in becoming a value for money brand with their range of commercial vehicles. 

Over 4.000 small businesses participated in the online contest, of which 3 had their names appearing on Udinese’s jersey. Nearly 7 million people watched the games and 95% of national TV and press covered the story in over 700 news articles. 

Media impressions: over 122.000.000, equal to 500k € of free media spaces. Growth of Dacia Facebook fans: +52% Growth of Dacia Twitter followers: +30% Impressions #sponsordays 3.012.179 during the matches #sponsordays in the Top 4 Italian trending topics 4.053 Dacias have been ordered.

Advertising Agency:Publicis, Milan, Italy

Creative Director:Bruno Bertelli, Cristiana Boccassini / Art Direcor:Alexandra Todero
Copywriter:Alessandra Romani / Digital Creative Director:Domenico Manno
Digital Art Director:Alexandra Todero, Marco Fresta, Santi Urso
Digital Copywriter:Alessandra Romani, Alessandra Oddi
Agency Producer:Giulia Atzori / Production Company:Bedeschifilm / Director:Gigi Piola
Producer:Federico Salvi / Editors:Fabrizio Squeo