Official Sponsor of the Fans

The official World Cup sponsorship belonged to Sony. So there was no way Samsung would get to stand next to the trophy. But what was available, what had been overlooked, was what lay on the other end of the broadcast: the fan, on the couch, enraptured by the action on screen. And there were 600 million of them watching.

So Samsung became the official sponsor of the fans, and we went looking for the greatest one on Earth.

The prize for proving you were the world’s biggest fan of watching football? Being paid to watch for a whole year.

We launched with two films, starring Junior dos Santos and Ana Ivanovic, shot in Los Angeles, as a call for entries. We set up a submission platform where anyone who thought they could out-fan the rest of the world could send in their video.

The finalists came from all over the world. They knew that there would be a competition, but none knew what was in store: three challenges to test parts of fandom nobody tests.

01

Play goalkeeper against capoeira strikers, who perform the martial art in front of you, before breaking out mid-move to shoot.

02

Pick your costume, and show off your dance moves in a Carnival parade.

03

Survive and wow a paparazzi swarm when you arrive at an event.

Sure, the challenges were a little out there. But so was this campaign, which is why it worked. I was the only writer on all of it: both films, the platform, the contest mechanics, the challenge scripts, the contestant films, and every word in between. I went to Brazil to oversee the shoot (Brazil is amazing, btw).

One winner was not legally workable across that many territories, so the prize split three ways by region, at fifty thousand dollars each, or the local equivalent.

Which meant that in Rio we filmed every single finalist winning. Ten victories, ten reactions, all of them real enough to cut. Then we went home and only used the three that turned out to be true.