What it had to solve
Europcar has sponsored Arsenal FC since 2014 and needed season two of its partnership content to beat the mockumentary 'Face to Face with the Arsenal Family', using only limited club-day access to the players.
The idea
Three Arsenal players take a road trip in a hire car — and nothing else: a 2.5-minute spot where the footballers largely say their own words
How it works
After 2015's Face to Face mockumentary with comic 'family members' and superimposed faces, Europcar challenged itself to a 2.5-minute spot of just three players — Petr Čech, Danny Welbeck and Theo Walcott — taking a road trip in a hire car, filmed in about an hour with room to play along and ad-lib, plus behind-the-scenes and blooper spin-offs.
What it did
The online spots drew more than 2.5 million YouTube views within a week of launch; the Road Trip film itself reached 1.4 million views, with 60,000+ more on the behind-the-scenes and blooper videos — ahead of season one.
Background
In April 2016 Europcar's new online spots starring Arsenal players Petr Čech, Danny Welbeck and Per Mertesacker had drawn more than 2.5 million YouTube views within a week, promoting the car hire brand's sponsorship of Arsenal FC, ongoing since 2014.
Sponsors get limited, tightly timed access to footballers on pre-arranged 'club days', so the previous season Europcar and agencies Sports at SMG and Liquid Thread had made 'Face to Face with the Arsenal Family' — a mockumentary with comic family members and the players' faces superimposed onto actors, starring Per Mertesacker, Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, which racked up over a million hits.
For season two, Europcar challenged itself to go further with a 2.5-minute spot featuring just three players — Čech, Danny Welbeck and Theo Walcott — on a road trip in a hire car, letting them 'just mess around' with their own words. Ken McCall said the Road Trip concept illustrated the mobility messages Europcar wanted to be famous for, allowing a more subtle branding approach.
Why it lands
Stripping the film to three players and one car makes the sponsorship feel like content, not advertising.
Players' own words and one hour of filming fit the brutal club-day access window.
The subtle branding works because the setting itself — a hire car road trip — is the product.
Bloopers and behind-the-scenes spin-offs squeeze extra reach out of the same hour of footage.
What you can take
When access to talent is measured in hours, script the situation and not the lines — athletes being funny as themselves beats athletes reciting a script.
Since then
Ken McCall reported views and positive feedback 'well in excess of season one', with Čech noting the film showed a different side of the players' own personal brands.
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