How SporTV and Decathlon Turned an Act of Courage Into a Sports Campaign
Beyond the Rings is an integrated campaign created by Publicis Brasil for SporTV and Decathlon Brasil, published in Brazil in April 2025, that tells the story of two Brazilian rowers who abandoned their Paris 2024 Olympic preparations to rescue flood victims in Rio Grande do Sul, and whose return to competitive training was then sponsored by Decathlon as an act of institutional commitment to community-driven sport.
The campaign is the second phase of a purpose-led project that originated in 2024 under the Portuguese title Além dos Aros. That initial phase, developed after severe floods devastated Rio Grande do Sul, saw SporTV launch a fundraising initiative to aid the damaged Federation of Rowing of Rio Grande do Sul. The athletes at its centre, Evaldo Becker and Piedro Tuchtenhagen, had made the extraordinary decision to suspend their Olympic ambitions and join rescue operations in their home state. Their choice became the human and emotional foundation on which the entire campaign was built.
The 2025 phase, archived and recognised internationally in April 2025, extended the narrative by documenting Decathlon's sponsorship of Becker and Tuchtenhagen's return to elite training, while continuing fundraising efforts through the Para Quién Donar platform, according to reporting by adsofbrands.net and latinspots.com. The campaign relied entirely on social platforms, public relations, and emotionally charged content rather than paid media, making its reach an earned outcome of the story's inherent power rather than a product of media investment, as noted by adlatina.com. In Brazil, a country where sport carries profound cultural and communal weight, the campaign's decision to anchor an Olympics narrative to local solidarity rather than podium achievement represented a deliberate and strategically significant departure from conventional sports advertising. The single media asset at the heart of the campaign carries the full weight of this two-phase story, positioning both SporTV and Decathlon as brands that measure athletic value in human terms.
Decathlon Brasil operates in one of South America's most competitive sporting goods and sports media environments. The strategic rationale behind Beyond the Rings reflects a deliberate move away from the endorsement model that dominates sports marketing, in which brands align with Olympic medals and podium visibility rather than the human stories that precede them.
In Brazil, sports media commands significant cultural authority, and SporTV functions as the country's primary dedicated sports broadcaster, part of the Globo ecosystem, giving it unmatched distribution depth relative to competitors such as ESPN Brasil and Band Sports. That structural advantage gave the campaign an organic amplification channel that no-media-spend campaigns typically cannot access. The partnership between a broadcaster and a sporting goods retailer to co-sponsor athletes rather than events represented an unusual structural choice that, according to coverage by Meioemensagem Com Br, drew significant industry attention upon the campaign's 2025 release.
The sports-media sector globally is expanding at pace. According to Mordor Intelligence, global sports-media rights were valued at approximately the equivalent of a growing multi-billion dollar market in 2025, with television retaining the largest share of that revenue. In Brazil specifically, the intersection of broadcast sport and digital social platforms has intensified competition for emotional, shareable content, and according to analysis by thebusinessresearchcompany.com, social platforms represent the fastest-growing distribution category in sports media globally, with an expected compound annual growth rate of over eighteen percent. Beyond the Rings was built precisely for that social-first environment, earning distribution through the strength of its narrative rather than paid placement. Liana Kerikian, CMO of Decathlon Brazil, articulated the brand's philosophical position directly: "For Decathlon, encouraging sports practice goes beyond courts and tracks. We want to keep the flame of community alive that defines the true champions and heroes of sports. The sponsorship of Evaldo and Piedro reinforces our commitment to athletes who make a difference both inside and outside competitions." This framing positions Decathlon not as a kit sponsor but as an institutional ally to athletes whose character extends beyond performance, a distinction that carries real differentiation value in the Brazilian market.
Publicis Brasil constructed Beyond the Rings around a single, non-negotiable creative truth: the athletes' decision to leave Olympic preparation in order to help their community was, in itself, the campaign. The creative task was not invention but curation — finding the cinematic and narrative language capable of communicating the weight of that decision without sentimentalising it into sports-brand cliché.
The campaign was produced in collaboration with White Rabbit Budapest, which contributed to the project's execution alongside Publicis Brasil, according to adsofbrands.net and latinspots.com. The integrated approach spanned emotional video content, social platform distribution, and a PR strategy designed to generate earned media across Brazil's sports and news press. The absence of paid media was not a budget constraint but a creative and strategic statement: a story this powerful, the campaign's architecture argued, should not need to be bought.
Mauro Ramalho, CCO of Publicis Brasil, gave precise language to the campaign's creative philosophy, stating according to linkedin.com and latinspots.com: "The true value of sports goes beyond medals — it is revealed in acts of courage and empathy that change lives." That sentiment was not positioned as campaign copy but as the organising principle of every creative decision, from the treatment of interview footage to the selection of visual rhythms that mirror the physical discipline of rowing. The narrative structure moved across two temporal registers: the 2024 moment of flood, abandonment of Olympic dreams, and rescue, set against the 2025 moment of return, sponsorship, and continued fundraising for the Federation of Rowing of Rio Grande do Sul. This two-phase architecture gave the campaign longitudinal emotional resonance rather than the single-burst impact of a conventional sports advertisement, and it gave both SporTV and Decathlon a story that grew rather than expired. In Brazil's sports industry, that kind of sustained narrative is rare in brand-led work.
Beyond the Rings earned verified international recognition across two major awards programmes in 2025. According to The Clio Awards, the campaign received a Silver award in the Partnerships and Sponsorships — Athlete category at the Clio Sports 2025 awards, and a Bronze award in the Experience and Activation — Use of Athlete, Talent or Influencer category at the same event. According to elojodeiberoamerica.com, the campaign also received a Silver award in the Sports — Sponsorship and Events category at El Ojo Sports 2025. These three awards, across two distinct international competitions, confirm that the campaign's structural and creative approach was evaluated as best-in-class by industry peers in both the global and Ibero-American advertising markets.
No verified audience or commercial performance data for Beyond the Rings is publicly available beyond these award outcomes and the editorial coverage generated by adobo Magazine, adlatina.com, meioemensagem.com.br, and latinspots.com. However, structural analysis supports a clear effectiveness argument. A campaign that generates international award recognition, cross-platform editorial coverage, and documented brand statements from both a CMO and a CCO, without a single dollar of paid media, demonstrates the kind of earned-reach efficiency that performance metrics rarely capture cleanly. The Clapboard Score for Beyond the Rings is 63 out of 100, reflecting strong creative purpose and award-validated craft set against limited public documentation of measurable audience outcomes. The campaign's legacy is already secured at the institutional level: it extended the lifespan of the original 2024 Além dos Aros initiative, demonstrating that the sports narrative in Brazil has room for campaigns that define success in terms of community impact rather than medal count.
Beyond the Rings is a Brazilian integrated campaign by Publicis Brasil for SporTV and Decathlon that champions rowers Evaldo Becker and Piedro Tuchtenhagen, who abandoned Paris 2024 Olympic preparations to rescue flood victims in Rio Grande do Sul. Decathlon's sponsorship of their return to training forms the 2025 phase of the story, according to adsofbrands.net and latinspots.com.
Publicis Brasil created Beyond the Rings in partnership with White Rabbit Budapest, according to adsofbrands.net. The campaign was developed for SporTV and Decathlon Brasil and published in Brazil in April 2025, representing the second phase of a purpose-led project that originated in 2024 following the Rio Grande do Sul floods.
Beyond the Rings won two awards at Clio Sports 2025, according to clios.com: a Silver in Partnerships and Sponsorships — Athlete, and a Bronze in Experience and Activation — Use of Athlete, Talent or Influencer. The campaign also received a Silver at El Ojo Sports 2025 in the Sports Sponsorship and Events category, per elojodeiberoamerica.com.
Beyond the Rings relied entirely on social platforms, public relations, and emotional content rather than paid media, according to adlatina.com. The campaign's creative strategy treated the athletes' real-world act of abandoning Olympic preparation to help flood victims as a story powerful enough to earn its own reach across Brazil's sports and news media without paid placement.
Evaldo Becker and Piedro Tuchtenhagen are Brazilian rowers who suspended their Paris 2024 Olympic preparations to assist communities affected by the Rio Grande do Sul floods, according to reporting by meioemensagem.com.br and latinspots.com. Decathlon Brasil sponsored their return to elite training as the central act of the Beyond the Rings 2025 campaign.
Beyond the Rings holds a Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's strong creative purpose, award-validated craft across Clio Sports and El Ojo Sports 2025, and its innovative no-paid-media approach, balanced against limited public documentation of measurable audience or commercial performance outcomes in the Brazilian market.
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