Check24's shrewd public relations triumph
The marketing stunt cost roughly 100 Million Euro: Comparison site Check24 handed out 5 million Germany jerseys for the European Championship. The impact is remarkable.
You can't overlook them on social media and public transportation; TikTok is overflowing with them: With their Germany jerseys, which Check24 has distributed freely, the comparison site has achieved the biggest marketing win of the European Championship. Brand and jersey are currently the talk of the town; numerous memes circulate about the shirt; young women share videos of different outfits they've paired with the jerseys. "It brought me great joy and made me laugh," says Check24 founder Henrich Blase in an interview about the response to the campaign. They had hoped for success on social media, but with this magnitude, no one had anticipated it.
The reserved company leader spoke publicly about the campaign, alleged to be the "largest marketing campaign in Check24's history." For a digital company that's been shelling out millions on television advertising and football broadcast sponsorships for years, this is a significant move: By the end of the week, Check24 will have delivered almost 5 million shirts. A tangible result: The app of the comparison site has been on top of the app store charts for weeks.
Blase and Juls came up with the idea for the promotion together, the decision was made in the fall of the previous year. They founded and grew the company, and they still hold a significant share of the company's ownership today. Larger investors do not exist. The comparison site, which started in the insurance business, has grown considerably in recent years and is now a major player in the travel and mobile phone market. Financial information for the public is scarce, but it's clear that the company is one of the leading digital providers in the country. And it's evident how it's branching out into new industries.
With the marketing plan, Blase and Juls are now targeting the football market. Following the EM tipping game, which is related to the jersey promotion, there will be regular Bundesliga tipping games and a streaming comparison on the portal in the future. "You can see there where you can watch all the football matches or highlights," so Blase. A separate company has even been established for this, as "Wirtschaftswoche" has already discovered.
Jerseys as an "Extra-Booster"
In a year with a European Championship in their own country, which also bears a resemblance to their own brand name ("EM 24"), Check24 aimed to make a strong impact. The promotion with a free jersey was intended to be an "Extra-Booster," so Blase. Similar promotions have been given by other companies, "but not the quality of a manufacturer like Puma." In the spring, the production was then accelerated in factories in Turkey and China.
The initial goals were indeed more modest. "A million and a half would have been a success, we had ordered five million to be delivered by the end of this week," said the founder. Since May, the company has been stockpiling due to high demand – up to five million, which are to be delivered by the end of the week. A morale boost for the team, the company has already sent out 400,000 jerseys per day. The campaign has since ended – and jerseys are already being sold on eBay for prices between 15 and 85 Euro.
But what's the motivation behind the idea? The founder emphasizes: "We didn't calculate in a spreadsheet how much a new customer costs us – it's a long-term investment in the Check24 brand." Nevertheless, the marketing campaign is designed to attract as many new customers as possible to the comparison site.
So you also need to download the app of the company to receive the jersey. The comparison site has been focusing on app development for years. Every match day, there are numerous winners in the Euro 2020 tipping game, and the company primarily awards travel vouchers. The overall winner receives a voucher worth €240,000, with the total value of all vouchers estimated to be €24 million. It's a way to get customers to try out Check24 for the first time.
Guerrilla Marketing instead of Sponsorship
The tipping game is also designed to entice users to frequently access the app. "It has to provide real value, then they will come," says Blase. In the app, every user can comment on the games – Check24 wants to build an active football community.
Of the 5 million people who registered for the app to receive the jersey, only a fraction will return after the tournament. But Check24 will try to keep as many of them as possible – as the voucher campaign shows. Consumer protection organizations have already criticized that customers pay for the jersey with their data. But this may not be obvious to many.
For Check24, the jersey campaign is also a way to revitalize – the typical user is actually older than 30 years. This has been achieved with the jersey campaign, says Blase. "They won't buy an insurance policy from Check24 right away, but they might book a trip or look for a new mobile phone contract."
A success that Check24 has made a significant financial investment in. Blase doesn't disclose the exact amount. But it can be calculated: The production costs of the official DFB jersey from Adidas are said to be around €11.30 according to SWR research. The costs for the Puma jerseys should be lower, but shipping and logistics costs are added. The production and marketing costs are likely to be around €50 million, and there's also a substantial marketing budget. So the total amount is estimated to be around €100 million by industry insiders.
This Munich-based company, Check24, has shunned the conventional route of purchasing stadium sponsorships in football. Instead, they've opted for a more innovative strategy, gaining free publicity through social media and maintaining visibility without incurring losses from an international audience that can't use their comparison platform. Check24 has a significant presence in Germany.
Henrich Blase, spokesperson for the company, clarifies that Check24 isn't an official partner with the German Football Federation. The distinct eagle logo, generated by AI, is different from the official DFB logo and poses no legal issues.
Although the exact number of Adidas jerseys sold for the EM remains unclear, data from 2014 reveals a significant figure - three million jerseys sold, a record at that time. Yet, Check24 and Puma have surpassed this mark effortlessly.
Contribution: Charlotte Rick
Originally appeared on "Finance Forward", an industry portal of "Capital" and OMR, providing updates on the latest trends in Fintech, Banking, and Crypto world.
