#FeelTheColours: how we hacked a LaLiga club crisis and turned it into an opportunity
A divisive institutional campaign, 48 hours to the transfer deadline, and a decision to respond with ingenuity instead of a complaint.
- Crisis
- Sport
- Brand
The #FeelTheColours campaign, initially launched by the Generalitat of Catalonia in collaboration with FC Barcelona, aimed to celebrate the colors of Catalan sport. However, by highlighting only one club, the campaign risked being divisive. RCD Espanyol de Barcelona recognized this as an opportunity to highlight the region's true diversity and make the campaign more inclusive.
How we hacked the opportunity: 48 hours of creativity
With the transfer market deadline fast approaching, we moved quickly. In under 24 hours, we:
- Built an inclusive website, www.feelthecolours.com, to fill the void left by the original campaign.
- Created a platform inviting all Catalan sports entities and fans to participate.
- Produced a campaign video and launched a playful Twitter thread filled with irony and a rebellious tone, capturing the spirit of pluralism and openness.
Instead of complaining or protesting, we decided to harness ingenuity, creativity and irony to transform a crisis into a major opportunity. This approach not only helped us turn the situation around but also positioned us strategically as a key partner and connector within Catalan sport, opening doors to new collaborations and strengthening our presence in the industry.
The audio above is an audio piece generated with NotebookLM from my own notes on this case, in October 2024, when the tool had just come out. I am leaving it with its seams showing: I would rather test a tool on something of mine than have opinions about it.
Results: more than just numbers
- We generated quadruple the engagement of the original campaign.
- We sparked widespread debate and media attention, both nationally and internationally.
- Over 40 sports entities and hundreds of fans, alongside loyal Espanyol supporters, joined the movement.
The campaign built bridges and showed that sport goes beyond one club's colors. I look at it from the outside now — I left RCD Espanyol in 2023 — and distance makes it easier to see what actually lasted and what did not.
The numbers, in short
One caveat before the figures: they are a snapshot taken while the campaign was still live. They are not closing numbers and they kept growing afterwards.
- The original campaign, at that cut: 70 replies, 514 reposts, 4,000 likes and 451,000 impressions.
- Our answer, at the same cut: 1,000 replies, 3,000 reposts, 5,000 likes and 3 million impressions.
- The video passed 5 million views: ten times the original campaign.
- More than 40 Catalan sports organizations published their own version, in their own colors.
- Budget: close to zero. Everything was done in-house; the spend was registering the domains.
- A year later, in January 2024, the campaign came back as a joint action with the Catalan Football Federation, with 30 free tickets for every Catalan football club.
That last line is the one that matters to me. What started as a defensive answer in 48 hours ended up institutionalized a year later: the club stopped being the one complaining from the corner and became the one connecting Catalan sport.