Last summer, in 2025, while we were working on plans for the Ramverk Alu launch and preparing for Erling Haaland to come in as an investor in Db, one idea started floating around internally.
Norway were storming through their qualifying group on the road to the World Cup.
Could they keep it up?
And if they did… what if Db became the luggage provider for the Norwegian national football team?
It felt like one of those ideas that sits somewhere between ambition and insanity. The kind of thing companies talk about briefly before moving on to more "realistic" plans.
As the leader of the marketing team, I went through what I thought were the right channels. I had meetings with a few people and, honestly, came away thinking it probably couldn't happen.
But one of the beautiful things about Db is that we still have an active founder in Truls—a brilliant combination of strong connections, relentless optimism, and the ability to chase down hard things.
Truls simply said he had a contact.
He reached out, worked his magic, and before we knew it, we had a meeting lined up at the new office. One of our first big meetings there, actually.
I still remember Truls saying:
“We’d better be ready to pitch how we’re going to bring this to life.”
Suddenly, this thing became real.
Alongside Hallvard, Michael, and a few of the football-obsessed members of the crew, we pulled together a pitch deck and started building a concept. The early direction was actually very different from what is launching now, but at its heart was the same emotional idea: carrying the flag across the world to the US.
A proud moment for a country returning to the world stage after nearly 30 years away from the World Cup.
To our surprise—and honestly, our relief—they loved it.
Even more importantly, the Norwegian Football Federation was willing to work through existing sponsorship obligations to help make it happen. That was the first major hurdle cleared.
Then came the next challenge: the product itself.
The brief to the product team was clear. It needed details connected to the national team, including custom engravings matching the typography that would appear on the shirts. It needed to feel premium, emotional, and worthy of the occasion.
By February, we received the first samples.
And they looked incredible.
At that point, the partnership was no longer just an idea. It was becoming something tangible.
The next question became: how do we tell the story properly?
We spoke with several agencies and received some genuinely great pitches, so first of all, thank you to everyone who took part. But in the end, we went with a local agency whose team included a few eccentric characters ready to go the extra mile to make it work.
What stood out immediately was that they didn't arrive with three safe directions.
They came with one idea.
Carry the Flag.
And every time we spoke, the idea got bigger.
A couple of weeks into development, they casually mentioned they thought they might be able to get a member of Turbonegro, the legendary Norwegian rock band, to do the voiceover.
Then, a few days later, came another message: if we could sort a couple of pieces of luggage, there was a chance we could also use one of their songs for the hero film.
Having been to a few Turbonegro shows at Vulkan Arena back in the day, and having seen both the devotion of their fans and the power of the music, we immediately knew it was perfect.
Raw. Proud. Loud. Unmistakably Norwegian.
Exactly the energy the campaign needed.
Step by step, things kept building.
Soon we were speaking with the Norwegian Football Federation about getting access to the stadium for the Norway vs. Sweden match at the start of June—a game Norway won comfortably, and one that only added to the growing momentum around the team.
That process also introduced us to Oljeberget, Norway's largest supporters' club. We got to spend time filming with them, hearing their stories, and feeling what this qualification journey actually meant to people who had waited decades for it.
And then came one of those surreal full-circle moments.
We got to meet Drillo himself—the manager of the iconic 1998 Norway team that beat Brazil at the World Cup.
For Norwegians, that result remains one of the defining sporting moments in the country's history.
That 1998 squad included legends such as Solskjær, Flo, Berg, Johnsen, Mykland, Rekdal, and even Solbakken himself, among many others.
Meeting Drillo genuinely felt like one of those pinch-me moments, where the story suddenly became bigger than the campaign itself.
And then finally came the shot we'd all imagined from the beginning.
Erling Haaland, Antonio Nusa, and the rest of the boys on the tarmac, luggage packed, heading towards the United States and, hopefully, the summer of their lives.
That was the moment when the whole story clicked into place.
But what I love most about projects like this is that they rarely begin with certainty.
They begin with conversations. Throwaway comments. Crazy ideas. A founder saying, “I might know someone.”
A year ago, this was just a "what if?" moment.
This week, we realised that you should always follow that question with another one:
“Why not?”
Today, it's a real campaign, a real partnership, and a reminder that one of the best things about Db is that when someone throws out an ambitious idea, there's usually somebody crazy enough to actually make it happen.
