Following Italy’s defeat to Sweden in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying round, Montreal expected a major blow to its businesses. It’s Little Italy neighbourhood had to attract sports fans (and counteract anticipated losses) by getting them to re-engage in the games.

Italian pride is passionate and dramatic, and so the idea was to leverage that bitterness by asking people to support “Anyone But Sweden” during the event. Rethink created banners, posters, collateral, branded gear and a broadcast schedule for people to watch all of Sweden’s games. A scarf was also made from flags of every participating team, except the Swede’s. They even bought an ad in a Swedish paper on their national day to tease them.

Content was captured at different bars, cafés and stores. In the end, bar sales increased 21%, and the campaign generated more than 350 million media impressions, leading it to win a Silver in Niche Strategy.