VOLKSWAGEN – FC BAYERN WORLD SQUAD

Football is a billion-dollar business with a rare resource: talent. In order to keep up with the best of the best, big clubs are spending more and more money to sign the youngest and most promising players from all over the world.

FC Bayern Munich and their partner of youth football Volkswagen wanted to make a difference with an idea that challenges the established talent system and activates their partnership for the next generation of football fans.

Therefore, we created the FC Bayern World Squad: a team of promising players from local pitches, backyards, minor leagues and from the edge of the world, who never had a chance to be on the radar of the big leagues.

To find them we kicked off a worldwide social-media casting. The 15 most promising talents were then put together as a team by its coach: world champion Klaus Augenthaler.

Then, in a unique storytelling approach, we created a six-episode original series about the newly formed team.

Over the period of 20 weeks, we followed the FC Bayern World Squad around the globe, highlighting their individual stories and how they ultimately became a team. A new and disruptive way to find football talents no one is looking for.

99% positive user reactions, 214 million hashtag impressions and coverage from all over the world. The FC Bayern World Squad series was a full-on success. Not only for Volkswagen and FC Bayern Munich but also for the players who received contract offers from top-tier clubs, right after the series ended. And the most promising talent is now even training together with the pros of FC Bayern Munich. But the biggest achievement: we showed that you don’t have to spend millions of dollars to find million-dollar talent.