Tag: Experiential Marketing

Caixa and Benfica: Pitch Invasion

A sponsorship story told on the pitch

In European football sponsorships, the hardest part is making a partnership feel like more than a logo. Caixa and Benfica used a live stadium moment to do exactly that.

Here is a video case study of a first of it’s kind football pitch invasion created to promote the partnership between the biggest Portuguese bank, Caixa, and Portugal’s biggest football club, Benfica.

How the pitch invasion became the activation

The mechanism was direct. Take something normally forbidden and tightly controlled. A pitch invasion. Then redesign it as a planned experience connected to the partnership.

That shift matters because it turns the “unthinkable” into a sanctioned moment. The pitch itself becomes the media channel, and the stadium becomes a stage the audience remembers.

Why it lands in a football context

Football already runs on emotion, tribal identity, and the feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself.

Letting people cross the boundary from stands to pitch collapses distance between fans and club. It creates belonging. It also creates a story worth retelling because it looks and feels like a once-in-a-lifetime exception.

The business intent behind the spectacle

The intent was to make the Caixa and Benfica partnership feel lived, not announced.

A bank does not naturally belong in the middle of football culture. This activation borrowed the club’s emotional intensity and translated sponsorship into an experience that fans would associate with the partnership itself.

What to steal for your next sponsorship activation

  • Turn the asset into an experience. If you sponsor something, find a way to let people physically engage with it.
  • Use controlled rule-breaking. A “forbidden” behavior becomes powerful when it is safely redesigned and permitted.
  • Build a moment that photographs itself. Stadium-scale actions create natural documentation and sharing.
  • Make the brand the enabler. The partnership should feel like it unlocked access, not like it bought attention.

A few fast answers before you act

What was the Caixa and Benfica activation?

A planned football pitch invasion designed as a promotional moment to support the Caixa and Benfica partnership, documented in a video case study.

What was the core mechanism?

Reframe a normally prohibited act. Entering the pitch. As a controlled, brand-enabled experience tied to the partnership.

Why does this idea work particularly well in football?

Because football is built on belonging and emotion. Letting fans step onto the pitch creates a memorable boundary-crossing moment.

What sponsorship goal did this support?

Making the partnership feel culturally meaningful and fan-relevant, not just visually present through branding.

What is the main takeaway for sponsors?

Create access and participation that feels exceptional. If fans feel the partnership unlocked something real, the brand association sticks.

Mercedes-Benz: Flying Car

Mercedes-Benz, with the help of Ponto de Criacao from Brazil, executed a highly segmented vertical action to increase visibility for the brand among top executives and business people. Stickers of the SLS AMG, also known as “gull wing”, a new edition of the brand’s iconic model, were stuck to windows in shuttle flights frequently used by the target audience.

Flying Car by Mercedes Benz

As a courtesy, passengers also received a miniature car.

Flying Car by Mercedes Benz

In one month, 100% of the target audience was reached, nearly 400 executives.

Why this placement is so effective

  • Context does the work. The illusion only makes sense in-flight, which turns a standard window view into a brand moment.
  • Precision beats scale. Shuttle flights concentrate the exact audience Mercedes-Benz wanted, without wasting impressions.
  • Low friction, high memorability. A simple sticker creates an instant “did you see that?” effect, then the miniature car extends the memory.

What to take from it

When the audience is narrow and valuable, distribution can be the idea. This activation did not rely on complex tech. It relied on selecting the right corridor, placing the message where attention is naturally high, and creating a visual that feels native to the moment.

A few fast answers before you act

What was “Flying Car” by Mercedes-Benz?

It was a targeted activation that placed SLS AMG window stickers on shuttle flights, creating the illusion of the car “flying” outside the aircraft window for executive travelers.

Why use shuttle flights for this?

Because those routes clustered top executives and business travelers, delivering near-perfect audience fit with minimal wasted reach.

What role did the miniature car play?

It extended the experience beyond the flight as a physical takeaway, reinforcing recall after the moment passed.

What is the transferable pattern?

Pick a narrow, high-value corridor, design a context-native visual that only works there, then add a small physical extension to carry the memory forward.

McDonald’s: Adult Playland in Sydney

A Playland built for adults, not kids

In order to awaken the inner child in McDonald’s adult consumers, McDonald’s and DDB Sydney built an adult sized Playland in the middle of Sydney.

Supersizing the familiar to make it feel new again

The mechanism is physical and immediate. Take an icon people associate with childhood, then rebuild it at adult scale and put it directly in the path of commuters. It is not a message about fun. It is fun, placed in public, with no explanation required.

In Australian CBD commuter culture, a surprising public installation can interrupt routine and create instant permission to behave differently for a moment.

Why it lands: it removes the awkwardness of “acting like a kid”

Adults do not need to be convinced that play is enjoyable. They need permission. By making the Playland explicitly adult-sized and placing it in the city centre, the brand turns nostalgia into a socially acceptable break from routine.

The business intent: rebuild emotional closeness through participation

This is a reconnection play. Instead of asking adults to remember McDonald’s, it gives them a shared experience they can literally step into, then ties that memory back to the brand.

Since the time of the launch in March, McDonald’s reported that more than 300 people have taken advantage of this playground on a daily basis and engaged with McDonald’s in a way they had not for years.

What to steal if you want adults to engage physically in public

  • Use a recognisable icon. Familiarity lowers the barrier to participation.
  • Change scale to change behaviour. Adult-sizing makes the experience feel legitimate, not childish.
  • Place it where routine is strongest. The contrast is what creates attention and talk value.
  • Make the experience the proof. Participation creates memory faster than any claim can.

A few fast answers before you act

What did McDonald’s build here?

An adult-sized Playland installation in central Sydney, designed to let adults play in a familiar McDonald’s-style playground environment.

What is the core mechanism?

Rebuild a childhood icon at adult scale and place it directly in the path of commuters. The experience is the message, with no explanation required.

Why does it work psychologically?

Adults do not need to be convinced that play is fun. They need permission. Adult-sizing plus public placement makes participation socially acceptable.

What business intent does it serve?

Rebuild emotional closeness through participation. A shared, physical experience creates memory and talk value that a standard campaign claim cannot.

What is the most transferable takeaway?

If you want real engagement, put a recognisable, low-friction action in a high-routine place, and let participation do the persuasion.