Football legend Pavel Horváth kicked it off big time!

Gambrinus helped amateur clubs kick off football season after a Covid break 

Amateur football is one of the three pillars of community life in Czech villages. It’s also a great opportunity to have a pint of draught beer and enjoy a good time with friends and neighbours. That’s something that was dearly missed during the Covid lockdown. 

Gambrinus has been a longtime supporter of amateur football with its Grassroots program (Kopeme za fotbal). Clubs are given practical rewards and infrastructure funding for having Gambrinus on tap and for their football match results. People who are aware of this program (and understand it) have proven to have a stronger emotional bond to Gambrinus. 

After the Covid lockdown, we took Czech football legend Pavel Horváth and went on a crusade to kick off the season big time. Our goal was clear: bring communities together on the field and remind them that where the game is played, the community is alive. That's worth fighting for. 

Kick Off 2020 

To spread the message within communities we came up with some simple CSR mechanics. A club needed to get at least 100 votes from their community to receive a Kick Off package with beer, sausages and promotion materials - everything they’d need for a good party after their football season kick-off. 

The 10 clubs with the most votes received a premium package with a voucher to hire a local band, more beer, and more food to host a proper party for the whole village. 

In a hero video, Pavel Horvath explained how it’s done 

We shot a 3 minute movie with director Jakub Kohák starring Pavel as the lead protagonist. In just a few entertaining scenes he shows how simple it can be to arrange a good kick-off party with our packages and that everyone can take part. 

In a series of short videos we focused on prizes in the Kick Off package and navigated people to a microsite where they could vote for their community. We even made a short video for small, regional cinemas. 

An essential part of the voting mechanics was a CTA to “share with neighbours”, where people could easily forward a link with the voting option for their club. This was communicated with club representatives via direct channels as well. 

For the awareness part of the campaign, we have used a 30 second TV spot, which supported the message and brought it to masses. 

And the results?

Information about the Kick Off program flew through regional and nationwide media. Town mayors and club officials shared the message on their official channels. The TOP 10 clubs managed to get over 5 000 votes each, and local communities proved to us that where football is played, community is alive.