Manto da Massa

Manto da Massa (the Massa's Jersey, as Atlético's fans call themselves) was born in 2020 with a simple premise and anything but a simple execution: fans design, the fanbase votes and the winning jersey becomes an official Atlético product. End to End has been on the project since the first edition, and the contest has become part of Atlético's culture. In one week, the first jersey sold 100,000 units. The following year, more than 120,000.

That track record turns into pressure. Every year, the Manto has to be new all over again: theme, identity, film and sales funnel created from scratch, for a fanbase that already knows the rules of the game and expects to be surprised. And there's a challenge unique to this format: the campaign has to be born twice. First at the contest launch, when nobody knows which design will win. Then after the vote, when the fans' choice has to become a concept, even when it strays from the obvious.

Each edition has three phases, and each turn between them happens in days, sometimes in hours.

In the call for entries, submissions stay open for just a few weeks, and the campaign has to turn a set of rules into a desire to draw. In the vote, thirteen finalists compete for the fans in about a week, and the communication has to give all of them the same weight. In the consecration, the winner is revealed and sales open practically in the same move, in a funnel staggered by membership plan: first Galo na Veia's Forte e Vingador members, then the other plans, and finally the general public. The Manto is also a tool for the fan membership program.

There's no time to create the consecration after the result. That's why phase three is designed before the winner is known: territory, tone, the structure of the pieces and of the film are kept ready to fire, and the chosen design slots in as the missing piece. All of it with the entire campaign executed on social media.

Each edition gets an emotional territory of its own, and the three phases tell the same story: the call for entries, which opens the contest and gives fans a reason to draw; the vote, which turns the finalists into a contest; and the consecration, which ties the winning jersey to the territory, whatever it turns out to be.

In 2023, the Miracle of Horto turned ten: Victor's left-foot save in stoppage time of the 2013 Copa Libertadores quarterfinal against Tijuana, which turned the goalkeeper into a saint for the fans. The theme also brought a format first: for the first time, Manto da Massa would be a goalkeeper jersey.

The campaign opened with a teaser of mysterious images and the GPS coordinates of Independência, the stadium where the miracle happened. The art direction drew on the language of sacred art: black and gold, a halo over the jersey, classic serifs, the rosary, scripture pages as texture and Victor in mid-flight as a devotional image. The jersey of faith, of the Massa, of your passion. Our saint deserves a jersey worthy of him.

In the fifth edition, the theme was the fans themselves, and the starting point was the chant that became part of Atlético's identity: Eu acredito (I believe). If the Manto belonged to the Massa, the campaign had to speak the language of the street. The art direction went to the graffiti on Belo Horizonte's walls: spray paint, dry brush, hand lettering, high-contrast black and white, the rooster painted on the side of a building. The fans appear through what is most physical about them: the mouth wide open mid-chant, the crest tattooed on a back. Design the next jersey. A jersey with the Massa's own swagger. A jersey that looks like the Galo.