Dacia gave Udinese season tickets to babies still in the womb

Dacia, Renault's low-cost brand, had sponsored Udinese since 2008 and just put its name on the club's new stadium, the Dacia Arena — but Italian stadiums were gradually emptying, due to laws that keep the ultra-fans and football hooligans out.

An online contest giving season tickets to future supporters while they're still in the womb — so a new generation of fans grows up inside the stadium.

The Dacia Family Project ran as an online contest convincing Udinese supporters to create a new generation of football fans by giving away season tickets to future supporters still in the womb. For the Udinese-Napoli game, almost 150 pregnant women populated the stadium — a first in the Italian Championship — and 20 of them lined up with the players wearing a special shirt.

A first in the Italian Championship: nearly 150 pregnant women at the Udinese-Napoli match, 20 of them on the pitch with the players in special shirts — the club's next fanbase literally enrolled before birth, at the moment the brand's name went up on the stadium.

Dacia, Renault's low-cost brand, had been main sponsor of Udinese Football Club since 2008; in 2016 the brand gave its name to the club's new stadium, the Dacia Arena. The awkward context: Italian stadiums were gradually emptying, as laws kept the ultra-fans — and football hooligans — out.

Publicis Milan's answer was the Dacia Family Project, an online contest that convinced Udinese supporters to create a new generation of football fans — by giving away season tickets to future supporters while they're still in the womb.

For the Udinese-Napoli game, the project staged a first in the Italian Championship: almost 150 pregnant women populated the stadium, and 20 of them lined up with the football players wearing a special shirt. The work came out of LePub with art directors Dario Citriniti, Iacopo Gioffré and Jacopo Menozzi, copywriters Francesco Martini and Mattia Basti, and ECDs Cristiana Boccassini and Bruno Bertelli, directed by Gigi Piola through Bedeschifilm.

The insight was arithmetic: with ultras legislated out, clubs need new fans from somewhere — and fandom is inherited, so the earlier it starts the better.

Season tickets for the unborn turned a sponsorship formality (stadium naming) into a story about the club's future rather than the brand's signage.

Nearly 150 pregnant women in the stands, 20 on the pitch with the players, made the idea photographable and impossible for sports media to ignore.

An online contest meant Udinese supporters did the recruiting themselves — the brand facilitated the family decision instead of acting alone.

Sponsorship buys visibility, not future demand: Dacia spent its stadium-naming moment recruiting the next generation of fans instead of buying another season of logos.

The Family Project culminated at the Udinese-Napoli match, where almost 150 pregnant women filled the Dacia Arena and 20 lined up with the players in special shirts — a first for the Italian Championship, in the season Dacia's name went onto the stadium.