The 300 covers

The idea was to turn the 300 torchbearers selected by Coca-Cola into true sports icons. In partnership with L'Équipe, France’s most iconic sports newspaper, Coca-Cola created 300 unique front covers, each dedicated to one torchbearer.

The execution was devised to create maximum emotional and media impact. Each cover was carefully designed with a personalized headline and layout worthy of a sports star. The newspapers were distributed locally in the torchbearers' regions, creating a direct connection with their communities. Both inspirational and authentic, the tone of the campaign celebrated the torchbearers as modern-day heroes while staying relatable. Besides, collaborating with L'Équipe added credibility and massive visibility to the campaign.

The hardest part of the campaign was the production and logistics. Producing 300 different versions of the same newspaper and dispatching them flawlessly in France and its Overseas Department was a real feat.

For nearly eight decades, L'Équipe newspaper has been deciphering and giving meaning to sports news. Its expertise is based on an expert and authoritative editorial team that covers over 100 sports disciplines. L’Equipe is France’s leading national daily newspaper when it comes to the number of readers. It also has the highest affinity among men aged 25 to 49 (index 203) and the youngest audience (47 yo on average) of all daily newspapers. Besides, 60% of its readers only read L’Equipe. For all these reasons, partnering with L’Equipe was a no-brainer.

Finally, the air date of this campaign was not chosen randomly. We decided to turn our torchbearers into sports icons at D-100 of the Opening Ceremony of Paris 2024. Based on previous editions of major sports events (Olympic Games, World Cup, …), we need this milestone was the starting point of people’s interest and excitement for the event.

The creative idea was to turn the 300 torchbearers selected by Coca-Cola into true sports icons. In partnership with L'Équipe, France’s most iconic sports newspaper, Coca-Cola created 300 unique front covers, each dedicated to one torchbearer.

The execution was devised to create maximum emotional and media impact. Each cover was carefully designed with a personalized headline and layout worthy of a sports star. The newspapers were distributed locally in the torchbearers' regions, creating a direct connection with their communities. Both inspirational and authentic, the tone of the campaign celebrated the torchbearers as modern-day heroes while staying relatable. Besides, collaborating with L'Équipe added credibility and massive visibility to the campaign.

The hardest part of the campaign was the production and logistics. Producing 300 different versions of the same newspaper and dispatching them flawlessly was a real feat.

This campaign is not a traditional print campaign. We could have simply insert a KV inside the L’Equipe newspaper, but instead we decided to maximize the impact and the visibility of the campaign. First, we partnered with L’Equipe to put our 300 torchbearers on the front page of their newspaper. Then, we took up the challenge of creating 300 unique front pages on the same day and dispatching them in the regions our torchbearers came from. Finally, we also created an ecosystem around this activation to promote the unique stories of our torchbearers: behind the scenes stories of the photo shoot on the L’Equipe Instagram account (3M followers) and, on the D-Day, a dedicated page on the L’Equipe website (2.5 daily unique visitors, #1 website in France) with interviews of the torchbearers describing their background and motivations.