Mercado Livre: Coupon Rain
Mercado Livre wanted to dominate the conversation during major Brazilian football finals without relying on traditional, easily ignored sponsorships. GUT São Paulo was tasked with finding a way to insert the brand into the most iconic, long-lasting imagery of the championship to drive immediate digital engagement and coupon redemptions among a massive, highly distracted sports audience.
Creative Idea
Replaced championship confetti with physical discount codes to turn victory photos into permanent ads.
Mercado Livre replaced traditional championship confetti with thousands of physical discount coupons, turning every editorial victory photo into a permanent, high-stakes digital treasure hunt that hijacked the most iconic and photographed moment in sports history.
Turning the Trophy Lift Into a Permanent Ad
50 Kilograms of Floating Discounts
The production required the manufacturing of 50kg of custom-printed confetti, engineered to balance two conflicting needs: being light enough to float like traditional ticker tape while remaining large enough for high-resolution cameras to capture legible discount codes. By replacing standard paper with these physical coupons, Mercado Livre effectively turned every sports photographer into an unintentional ad distributor. Because the "rain" was physically present on the field, the brand bypassed traditional commercial breaks and inserted itself directly into editorial coverage that is archived and revisited for years.
The High Resolution Treasure Hunt
Hijacking the Editorial Narrative
Iuri Maia, Director of Branding at Mercado Livre, and the creative team at GUT São Paulo led by Pedro Araujo, Rafael de Miranda, and Juan Pablo Tyrer, focused on "sponsoring the only moment made to last forever." As the Cannes Lions jury noted, the campaign hijacked a universally recognized media moment to ensure the brand appeared in every headline and social media highlight, creating a benchmark for Connected Commerce without the need for a traditional sponsorship deal.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Mercado Livre's massive scale and ability to distribute physical incentives at high-profile events.
Category
Sports sponsorship usually relies on static banners or TV spots that viewers ignore or skip.
Customer
Fans want to feel part of the victory and are constantly seeking value through gamified experiences.
Culture
The trophy lift is a culturally sacred, unskippable moment that generates infinite, high-resolution media coverage.
Company
Mercado Livre's massive scale and ability to distribute physical incentives at high-profile events.
Category
Sports sponsorship usually relies on static banners or TV spots that viewers ignore or skip.
Strategy:
Transform unavoidable editorial documentation into a functional, gamified commerce platform by physically embedding the offer in the event.
Customer
Fans want to feel part of the victory and are constantly seeking value through gamified experiences.
Culture
The trophy lift is a culturally sacred, unskippable moment that generates infinite, high-resolution media coverage.
Strategy:
Transform unavoidable editorial documentation into a functional, gamified commerce platform by physically embedding the offer in the event.
Results
The campaign achieved significant impact with 232 cross-media PR coverage. It garnered 847 million earned impressions and generated $3.8 million USD in extra sales. A total of 54,000 coupons were redeemed in just 4 days.
847M
earned impressions
$3.8M
extra sales
54K
coupons redeemed
Strategy Technique
Hijack a Moment
By identifying the trophy lift as the most immortalized moment of a match, the brand bypassed traditional ad slots to own the editorial narrative forever.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Hijack the Medium
The campaign turns editorial sports photography and live broadcasts into a functional advertising medium by physically placing coupons where cameras are guaranteed to focus during the trophy lift.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's brilliance lies in its innovative use of a traditional celebration element to create a massive, interactive digital hunt. It seamlessly bridges physical events with digital engagement through clever media placement.
The strategic placement of coupons within the very fabric of the event's celebration ensured unavoidable and organic media coverage.
Transforming a passive viewing experience into an active, gamified hunt for the audience across multiple platforms.
The synergy between the physical activation (confetti) and the digital response (social media hunt) created a multi-layered brand experience.
