The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2017
Walmart turns jersey numbers into prices — 'Price on the Jersey' wins El Ojo Grand Prix
Walmart printed its prices on a small club's shirts — each number a product offer, changing weekly — winning the El Ojo 2017 Gran Ojo
Walmart Brasil · Fluminense de Feira de Santana
What it had to solve
Walmart Brasil needed Brazilians to notice its everyday prices without a big media budget, in a country where football shirt numbers are among the most-watched digits of all. Fluminense de Feira, a small Bahian club with a devoted fan base, had cheap sponsorship space.
How it works
Brazil's most-watched digits are on football shirts. Walmart Brasil, wanting to tell the country its prices without buying expensive media, found its canvas at Fluminense de Feira de Santana — a small Bahian club with a big local fan base and sponsorship space to match its budget.
DM9DDB's idea was to make the shirt number do the advertising: each player's number announced a Walmart product offer, and the deals changed week to week. Every match, every fan photo and every televised appearance was a fresh Walmart price list worn on the players' chests.
The low-cost sponsorship turned the club and the campaign into regional news and swept the awards: the Gran Ojo Promo & Activación at El Ojo 2017, Oros in Direct, Media, Integrated Campaigns, Effectiveness and Radio, and a Direct Lions Gold at Cannes 2017.
Why it lands
- It used the medium's own attention hierarchy: Brazil watches shirt numbers before it watches ads.
- The players themselves became media — every broadcast, photo and fan post carried the price list.
- Weekly-changing offers gave the idea an endless loop of new content instead of a one-off stunt.
- Low-cost, high-love sponsorship let a small club earn real money while Walmart bought attention at bargain rates.
- Ten different juries rewarded it — Promo, Direct, Media, Integrated, Effectiveness, Radio — because the mechanic was simple and the proof was visible.
What it did
The campaign won the Gran Ojo Promo & Activación at El Ojo 2017, plus Oros in Direct, Media, Integrated Campaigns, Effectiveness and Radio, and a Direct Lions Gold at Cannes 2017 — turning a budget sponsorship into one of the region's most awarded ideas of the year.
What you can take
Use the medium's own attention hierarchy: in football-mad Brazil the number on the shirt gets more attention than any ad — so Walmart made the number itself the ad.
Since then
Price on the Jersey became a reference for low-budget, culture-first promotion in Latin America and was collected in industry libraries (LatinSpots, AdForum). It showed that sponsorship space on an underfunded team could outperform premium media when the idea remade the space itself, and the Cannes Direct Gold added international proof to the El Ojo sweep.
Sources
- Price on the Jersey (El Ojo 2017) — award record and synopsis
- DM9DDB se quedó con El Gran Ojo Promo & Activación
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