The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
PlazaVea prices gadgets at Kimberly García's bib number — 146 soles at 2:20 a.m.
Peru's biggest supermarket sold flagship gadgets at S/146 — the bib number of racewalker Kimberly García — to viewers who stayed up to watch her race.
PlazaVea (Supermercados Peruanos)
What it had to solve
Kimberly García was Peru's two-time world champion racewalker, yet the sport drew almost no attention at home, and she headed to the Paris 2024 Olympics as one of the country's best medal hopes. PlazaVea, her official sponsor and a brand built on everyday low prices, wanted to make a whole country watch a 20km walk.
How it works
Kimberly García was Peru's most decorated racewalker — twice world champion — but race walking was barely followed at home and she carried little sponsorship. As the Paris 2024 Olympics approached, PlazaVea, Peru's largest supermarket chain and García's official sponsor, wanted the country to actually watch her 20km race, even though it started at 2:20 a.m. Peruvian time.
The idea made watching the race literally pay. PlazaVea and Fahrenheit DDB announced a campaign called 'The Kimberly Price': selected TVs, smartphones and refrigerators would sell for S/146 (around US$36) — the exact number on García's bib. The catch was that the deal existed only for people awake during her race, and even the price itself stayed secret until she competed.
On the morning of 1 August 2024, PlazaVea ran a live broadcast on Facebook while García walked, and registered viewers could win the right to buy one of the 60 limited products — 20 Blackline refrigerators, 20 TCL smart TVs and 20 Motorola smartphones — at the S/146 price. The number 146 entered the national conversation, influencers amplified the race, and Peruvians who had never watched race walking tuned in before dawn.
The outcome exceeded a sponsorship stunt. The live stream reached viewership levels comparable to national TV ratings, the campaign became the most remembered and interactive of the Paris Games in Peru, and García was transformed from an unknown champion into a national icon. The work later won the Gran Ojo Media at El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2025 and a Cannes Lions 2025 Gold in Brand Experience & Activation.
Why it lands
- Tying the discount to a live event made the media moment the product: you could not claim the deal without watching the race.
- Keeping the price secret until race day turned a supermarket offer into national suspense, earning free coverage before the race even began.
- PlazaVea used its own promise of low prices as the creative device, so the campaign reinforced the brand instead of interrupting it.
- The scarcity — 60 products — made the act of staying awake feel like winning a prize rather than watching a niche sport.
What it did
The mystery price turned 146 into a national talking point, and the campaign became the most remembered and interactive in Peru during the Paris Olympics: the live stream drew viewership on par with national TV ratings, the race itself was watched nationwide, and Kimberly García became an icon in a sport Peru had never followed. The work took the Gran Ojo Media at El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2025 and a Gold at Cannes Lions 2025 in Brand Experience & Activation.
What you can take
Give the audience a stake in the thing you want them to watch: by hiding a bargain inside an athlete's race number, PlazaVea made a 2 a.m. sportscast feel like a prize draw.
Since then
The 1 August 2024 race made '146' part of Peru's Olympic vocabulary, and the campaign's case film travelled through the awards circuit through 2025: Cannes Lions gave it a Gold in Brand Experience & Activation, and El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2025 named it Gran Ojo Media, with further Gold and Silver category wins. For PlazaVea it proved that a price promotion could carry a national cause, and for García it delivered the recognition a two-time world champion had never received at home.
Sources
- This Peruvian Supermarket Lowered Its Prices to Support Athlete Kimberly García
- Supermercado remató televisores, celulares y refrigeradoras a S/146 entre quienes vieron a Kimberly García en los Juegos Olímpicos
- El Ojo Media 2025 — winners (Gran Ojo Media: The Kimberly Price)
- The Kimberly Price — LatinSpots pieza (Cannes Lions 2025: Oro Brand Experience & Activation)
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card