Crazy as their plan may sound, Brazilians truly believe that
their support as ardent fans helps their team win. Major marketers
like Banco Itau have played up the role of fans in their own World
Cup campaigns.
It all started when Lo Braz, who is married to Pereira & O'Dell's Chief Creative Officer
PJ Pereira and recently started her own agency, Muse Brands, posted
on Facebook that fans should don Neymar masks. Sergio Gordilho,
co-president and chief creative officer of Sao Paulo agency Africa,
saw the post and conferred with Mr. Pereira (who has changed his
social media profile picture to one of Neymar). They brought in
Mauricio Magalhaes, of Tudo, a promotions agency owned by Africa
and Pereira & O'Dell parent Grupo ABC.
Mr. Gordilho called around to Brazilian printers and found one
that could print 60,000 Neymar masks over the weekend, in time for
Tuesday's game. Then he called back and doubled the order to
120,000, as more agencies joined in to promote the hashtag and
interest grew.
"There's no brand or advertiser behind it," he said. "We said
that as Brazilians we have to do something. It's about how we cheer
our team. We are all Neymar."
Since World Cup organizer FIFA has very specific rules that
wouldn't allow masks of a player to be distributed at the stadium,
the masks will be handed out at the airport and along the routes
fans will take to get to the stadium in Belo Horizonte, where the
game will be played.
Mr. Gordilho said the effort is "very cheap" since everyone did
it because they want Brazil to win. Even the printer only charged
for the paper. With Brazil doing well so far in the World Cup and
dire predictions of violence and mayhem largely unfulfilled,
Brazil's hopes had been growing until Neymar fractured a vertebra
during Friday's game against Colombia.
"It's going to be difficult," admitted Mr. Gordilho, who has
already attended six World Cup games and will be at the final three
matches. "Germany thinks without Neymar, it'll be easy [to win].
But when the German team looks at the crowd, all they'll see are
Neymars."