CSHammam-Lif: 12th Man
CS Hammam-Lif faced a critical challenge: their football team was demotivated by stadium bans preventing fans from attending a crucial match. The club needed an innovative way to reconnect players with their passionate supporters, reigniting morale and ensuring the team's success in the season's most important game.
Creative Idea
An app let banned fans cheer remotely, their sounds amplified inside the empty stadium.
CSHammami-Lif created "The 12th Man" mobile app, enabling banned fans to remotely cheer for their team via stadium speakers, transforming empty stands into an electrifying atmosphere and galvanizing players to win a critical match by digitally reuniting them with their passionate supporters.
Giving a Digital Voice to an Empty Stadium
Reclaiming the Pitch After the Arab Spring
The campaign emerged from a period of intense political tension following the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. With the government banning spectators from all professional football matches due to security concerns, C.S. Hammam-Lif faced a "frustrating long-distance relationship" with its supporters. This project pioneered the "Second Screen" experience, proving that digital engagement could manifest as a physical force in the real world.
Engineering the Roar of 93,000 Fans
To bridge the gap, Memac Ogilvy Label and Atelier 216 developed a mobile app featuring five distinct sound icons: Cheer, Clap, Drum, Sing, and a high-stakes "GOAL!" button. The agency installed 40 giant speakers throughout the empty stadium to broadcast these sounds in real-time. The system used a dynamic volume algorithm - the more fans tapped their screens simultaneously, the louder the roar became inside the arena. While the stadium’s physical capacity was only 12,000, a staggering 93,100 fans used the app during the match, creating a wall of sound far greater than a live crowd could produce.
A 1-0 Victory Against Relegation
The psychological impact was immediate. Facing certain relegation, the team secured a 1 - 0 win, a result widely credited to the virtual crowd's energy. Beyond the pitch, the campaign reached 1.2 million people via live TV. Executive Creative Director Nicolas Courant noted that the primary hurdle was technical synchronization - ensuring the app could turn phones into tools that influenced a game's result in real-time. The project was so effective that the Tunisian government later considered adopting the 12th Man technology as a permanent security solution for sporting events.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
CS Hammam-Lif, a local football team, could credibly deliver a solution to reunite its demotivated players with their passionate, banned supporters.
Category
Football matches typically rely on live stadium crowds for atmosphere and player motivation, a norm disrupted by public gathering bans.
Customer
Fans desperately wanted to support their team despite stadium bans, feeling a deep connection and responsibility as the "12th player."
Culture
Post-Arab Spring civil unrest and public gathering restrictions created a unique cultural tension, making remote fan engagement a vital solution.
Company
CS Hammam-Lif, a local football team, could credibly deliver a solution to reunite its demotivated players with their passionate, banned supporters.
Category
Football matches typically rely on live stadium crowds for atmosphere and player motivation, a norm disrupted by public gathering bans.
Strategy:
Leverage technology to bridge physical divides, restoring emotional connection and collective spirit.
Customer
Fans desperately wanted to support their team despite stadium bans, feeling a deep connection and responsibility as the "12th player."
Culture
Post-Arab Spring civil unrest and public gathering restrictions created a unique cultural tension, making remote fan engagement a vital solution.
Strategy:
Leverage technology to bridge physical divides, restoring emotional connection and collective spirit.
Results
The CS Hammam-Lif team won their crucial match 1-0. The campaign succeeded in mobilizing 93,100 roaring fans, who were able to virtually support their team despite being banned from the stadium. The app turned sports back into an event, creating an 'exceptional atmosphere' and boosting team morale, as evidenced by player and coach testimonials and the match victory.
93,100
roaring fans
1-0
match victory
Strategy Technique
Build an Utility, Not an Ad
The campaign created a mobile app, "The 12th Man," which served as a direct utility for fans to support their team remotely. This tool solved the problem of stadium bans, making the brand's solution the core of the communication.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Technology
The campaign leveraged a mobile app and stadium speakers to transmit remote fan cheers, creating an immersive atmosphere. This innovative use of technology directly addressed the ban on public gatherings, reconnecting fans with their team.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional in its innovative fusion of digital technology and sound design to solve a real-world problem, restoring the essence of a live sporting event for an exiled fanbase.
The '12th Man' mobile application is the core innovation, seamlessly connecting remote fans to physical stadium speakers, transforming a restrictive situation into a groundbreaking interactive experience.
The campaign brilliantly used sound to replace the missing crowd, meticulously capturing, amplifying, and directing fan noises through stadium speakers to create an authentic and galvanizing atmosphere for the players.
The visual storytelling effectively captures the emotional weight of the empty stadiums, the intimacy of fan engagement, and the energetic payoff on the field, using varied shots and natural lighting to build a compelling narrative.
The physical setup of 40 speakers within the empty stadium, strategically placed and integrated, was crucial for effectively transmitting the remote fan cheers and making the virtual crowd feel real to the players.
The magic of this campaign arises from the synergistic integration of digital innovation (the app) with physical sound installation (the speakers) and emotional storytelling, collectively transforming a challenging political situation into a powerful human connection through sport.
