An experiential campaign featuring four soccer-mad Ghanaians has been hailed a success with $250,000 in free publicity and strong ticket sales.
Lowe Sydney was briefed by Football Federation Australia (FFA) to create awareness around a low-interest match between Ghana and the Socceroos.
The agency found four Ghanaians and painted one letter of the word ‘Ghana’ on each of their bodies before sending them onto the streets as the sum total of an Australian-based Ghanaian fan club, which was itself desperate for support.
The tiny troupe’s story was that they were one man short and were making a passionate plea for people to go to the match and be a fill-in for their missing ‘H’.
Within 48 hours the story was picked up by national media outlets, including Channel 9’s ‘Today’, Channel 7’s ‘Sunrise’ as well as primetime news segments on Channel 9, Fox Sports News, SBS and smh.com.au. It also achieved widespread blog coverage.  
The resulting media coverage on TV and online media spurred ticket sales from 20,000 to 30,000 over a three-day period.
Says Lowe executive creative director Dave Johnson: “Focusing on an opposing team to promote an Australian international is in itself a radical approach, considering the patriotic formula of most match promotions. And then, to create a fan base too small to spell Ghana on its members’ chests is a very lateral idea. But the theory, with limited funds, was to create a genuinely captivating story, that the media would pick up and help catapult way beyond its spend. All seemingly farfetched, if it were not for the fact that this is exactly what happened."