OVERVIEW
‘The Believers’ is a 4-part mini documentary series produced by Aurora for Coca-Cola in partnership with FIFA.
Each 5-15 minute episode depicts a fan-centric story of ‘Believing is Magic” connected to the FIFA World Cup in the run-up to the tournament in Qatar, supporting Coca-Cola’s sponsorship campaign.
Football is first and foremost about the fans, and central to the approach of The Believers series was to ensure authentic fan storytelling at the core of the series.
The integration of the unique FIFA+ Creator Network was a key element. This is a platform created by Aurora for FIFA to fund & showcase up-and-coming diverse young filmmakers and content creators around the world, telling stories of global football fan culture across five continents on FIFA’s new streaming platform FIFA+. Raw, grassroots filming giving fans an opportunity to tell the stories that matter to them.


THE STORIES
Memorable Moments
Coca-Cola and FIFA commissioned 4 short documentary films from the Creator Network in Brazil, England, US and Mexico for the series. The pieces encapsulated Coca-Cola’s ‘Believing is Magic’ campaign theme by allowing the Creators to tell stories of authentic football culture and fandom within their home country, bringing to life the excitement, passion and emotion of the World Cup.
Filmed on location by the Creators with Aurora overseeing development, post production and delivery. The films were published in the run-up to the World Cup on the FIFA+ streaming platform and FIFA’s official YouTube channel, supported by a multi-channel campaign across FIFA social.
Our Brazilian episode told the story of Ana Clara Ferreira, an 18-year-old footballer from the Complexo de Penha favela in Rio de Janeiro, classified as one of the most violent communities in Rio. Playing on the streets since she was seven years old, our film tells the story of how Ana Clara has worked with the Street Child United Brazil (SCUB) project to use the power of football as an escape from common violence. She speaks movingly of her life and dreams of becoming a successful football player.
Our England episode tells the story of South London, an area with a rich culture of urban art, music and style fused together with football. Told through the voices of the young people who live in the area, where football is part of the fabric of life. Through location filming and interviews with fans, locals and coaches, our film explored the ingredients that make South London such a unique and special place that has generated such massive footballing talent including several members of the current England team. Aurora worked with Youth Beyond Borders (YBB) to create the film, a youth-focused cultural collective led by young people aged 16-22 from under-represented communities.
Our Mexico episode tells the story is of Octavio Llano Saragoza, an 88-year-old fan who has been to every World Cup since 1962, witnessing an incredible 15 World Cups in person, possibly more than any other fan in the world. Our film told the story of Octavio’s incredible life and family, with the Creator of the film being his own nephew, himself an accomplished filmmaker.
Our US episode tells the story of The American Outlaws and Barra 76, unofficial supporters group for the US men’s and women’s national team who have been instrumental in building up organised support around the US bringing passion, celebration and atmosphere to football in a nation more used to traditional US-centric sports. Our film covered how both groups have built an inclusive community where fans of multinational backgrounds can find a home to root for the US National team.


APPROACH
A key part of Coca Cola’s activation activity was The FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour, with the official trophy visiting 51 countries and territories in the run up to Qatar. This formed another unique and integral part of the series with the Creators attending the Trophy Tour events in their home countries, creating additional social content and promotional material to build audience for the core films, and enabling the young Creators to experience first hand the magic of the World Cup.
Innovative use of technology was a key feature of the production, with some groundbreaking “industry first” uses of hybrid cloud remote production techniques to create compelling fan focused content for use on social from the Trophy Tour events using the Greenfly app platform, in delivering authentic fan content in near real time across multiple locations around the world.
RESULTS
- x4 documentary episodes published on Coca-Cola's YouTube channel as well as FIFA+ Streaming platform
- Additional social cut downs and teasers published across Coca Cola, FIFA and the Creator's own social channels
- The series resulted in strong viewership with more than 1 Million views across the episodes on FIFA+ and YouTube.