The Carat SSA team took home a bronze in the Media Innovation category for Guinness’ Rio Ferdinand Live Billboard campaign.

As football is a huge passion for the Guinness consumer, Carat SSA together with Carat Kenya wanted to bring the fans love of the game to life through a new and exciting media innovation that complemented Guinness’ existing Rio Ferdinand Made of More campaign.

How did they do it? A standard digital billboard was installed inside one of Nairobi’s most loved football bars. Fans were none the wiser as Rio Ferdinand got ready in a London studio for a live stream Q&A and challenge session with unsuspecting fans via the inconspicuous digital billboard.

Rio Ferdinand called out fans who were thrilled to chat live and challenge an EPL icon right in their home bar, in split-second real-time. Once the live session completed, the footage was stitched together to create a gamified, reaction-based Rio billboard that would tour Nairobi bars.

Reaching more than 3.7 million Kenyans and achieving Guinness’ highest Facebook brand recall of the year, the Rio live campaign was a first for Africa. The campaign pushed tech and innovation and cemented our positioning as a beer Made of More.

Donald Mokgale, Managing Director for Carat Johannesburg, said: “We are very proud of the team for pulling off such an innovative piece of work, and especially to see Carat as the only media agency awarded at the Loeries.”

“To take home a Loerie in this fiercely contested category is proof of the Carat team’s dedication to constantly deliver groundbreaking innovation that complements our meticulous planning approach for clients,” said Graham Deneys, Group Strategy Director for Carat SSA.