Activation Overview

For Euro 2024, we put an authorised AI José Mourinho directly into the hands of football fans.

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Fans could tell José about a friend’s latest “Own Goal” and receive a completely bespoke video of Mourinho calling them out by name, roasting their mistake and delivering some “Special One-to-one” advice.

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Built around WhatsApp and designed to be shared, the experience turned Snickers’ long-running idea of hunger-induced mistakes into personalised football banter at scale.

Creative Summary

We took Snickers’ familiar territory of hunger-induced mistakes and gave it a footballing twist: Own Goals.

Then we recruited the perfect person to call them out.

José Mourinho.

Using generative AI, we transformed José from campaign talent into a personalised experience capable of responding to individual fans and their friends.

Instead of creating another piece of football advertising for people to watch, we created something for them to use, personalise and share.

The Concept

What if José Mourinho could personally coach you through your mistakes?

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We created an authorised AI version of José capable of turning everyday blunders into personalised Mourinho content.

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Fans simply told AI José about an “Own Goal” their friend had committed. Moments later, José responded with a bespoke “Special One-to-one”, addressing their mate by name, ridiculing their mistake and delivering advice in his distinctive style, before suggesting they might just need a Snickers. 

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The resulting video could then go exactly where the original mistake was already being discussed: straight back into the group chat.

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It turned José from the face of the campaign into a creative platform that allowed thousands of fans to become part of the idea themselves.

The Executiuon

Creating a convincing AI Mourinho was only part of the challenge. For the idea to work, José needed to look, sound and respond like José, while remaining unmistakably Snickers and safe enough to put into the hands of football fans at scale.

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A bespoke technology stack combined OpenAI with ElevenLabs voice technology and SyncLabs lip-sync technology. The system trained on Mourinho’s past press conferences to learn the analogies, humour and unexpected use of language that characterise his delivery.

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Behind the experience sat an eight-stage AI architecture spanning user intent, evaluation, rephrasing, scripting, readability, revision and compliance, with human oversight built into the process. This allowed the system to create original responses while protecting both the Snickers brand and José.

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The experience was integrated with WhatsApp, placing it directly inside the kind of closed conversations where football banter already happened. Fans could submit an Own Goal, generate their personalised José video and send it directly to friends and group chats. Snickers then followed up with a discount to help them “sort out” their mistaken mate.

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The campaign was teased through José’s and Snickers’ social channels around the Champions League Final and ahead of Euro 2024, before being amplified through paid and organic social and football influencers sharing and reacting to their own personalised videos. 

Impact

The activation turned a traditionally one-to-many advertising model into thousands of individual interactions between Snickers, José and football fans.

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Thousands of completely unique, personalised videos were generated in real time.

444M

Earned Impressions