2018

Brighton & Hove Albion FC – Albion Together kit launch

Striking it right with supporters as well as the media, whilst enhancing our brand is a difficult formula to achieve.

For the club’s 2018/19 kit launch, Brighton & Hove Albion aimed to take an approach that celebrated the successes of the entire football club, but one that would resonate with supporters and the residents of the club’s home county of Sussex.

Chelsea FC – Tour of the Champions

To celebrate the club winning the 2016/17 Premier League, Chelsea FC, for the first time, embarked on a global trophy tour in October and November 2017.

The Champions Trophy Tour delivered a highly interactive, immersive and entertaining experience that presented Chelsea as an open, accessible and fun club to all supporters; both avid and casual, in Bangalore, Mumbai, Bangkok, Tokyo and New York.

The key objectives were:
– Engage existing Chelsea fans in key territories around the world.
– Acquire and convert claimed fans into digitally engaged fans.
– Contribute to local communities via the Chelsea Foundation.

By investing in experiential activation, CSR initiatives, bespoke content and by working with local PR agencies, the tour achieved substantial global media coverage, appearing in over 100 online and print publications, engaging millions of fans and growing the social following in key territories.

Liverpool FC – This Means More (Octagon)

Liverpool Football Club (LFC)’s ‘This Means More’ campaign concept was created by Octagon UK (the creative marketing agency specialising in sport and culture) and is the Club’s first truly integrated marketing theme, running across all marketing and communications touch points.

The campaign set out to define what LFC means to its fans and what the fans mean to LFC, by bringing to life the elevated meaning of this unique relationship.

The campaign was launched with an emotive film, created and produced in house with narration from Jurgen Klopp, that showcased the ethos of ‘This Means More’. The impact of this launch moment was significant, out-performing all previous club campaign messages to date in terms of sentiment and engagement.

This Mean More has been the centrepiece to LFC’s commercial activity since April, helping drive engagement with fans across the world too.

Manchester United FC – STAYUNITED

The new EU Data Protection law (GDPR) had the potential to be a game-changer for all businesses when it came into effect (on 25th May 2018). At Manchester United it was treated as an absolute priority. Six months before its ‘deadline’ Manchester United delivered a comprehensive campaign to drive fans to opt in.

STAYUNITED was a six month campaign, encompassing multiple channels, encouraging fans to engage and positively consent to receiving communications from the club. This was supported with content, benefits, incentives and competitions as part of a sustained and coherent campaign.

The outcome was a 113% increase in engaged marketable records on the MU CRM Database (NB MU have 51m records on our CRM db). STAYUNITED received lots of positive feedback and testimonials from inside and outside the industry

Not only did the campaign deliver, it was also frequently cited as best practice by the industry: e.g. DMA, Emarsys and DigitalSport.

Stoke City FC – City7s

Stoke City has long been recognised for its raucous support and capacity crowds. Ahead of the 2017-18 campaign, expansion work at the bet365 Stadium saw the completion of the stadium’s South East corner taking capacity to 30,079.

In order to maintain capacity crowds, the Club created an affordable and accessible ticketing initiative to enrich the lives of young people throughout Staffordshire.

Work focussed on local Primary School communities through a dedicated approach to engagement; employing high quality educational staff to build lasting relationships with teachers, pupils and their families.

The Club undertook a massive expansion of its existing City 7s scheme with the aim for ‘every 7 year old in Staffordshire’ to be offered free membership. This was a gesture to work with 215 Primary Schools to distribute 8,000 free replica shirts and 16,000 free Premier League match tickets.

In total, over 30,000 free and paid tickets were redeemed through the initiative and bet365 Stadium attendance records were broken on five occasions.

A record number of 2017-18 City 7s have signed up as Season Card holders for the upcoming campaign and despite relegation, the Club is committed to the scheme for future season.

Watford FC’s Community Sports and Education Trust – 25th Year Anniversary Celebration

Watford Football Club’s Community Sports and Education Trust enlisted the help of a number of partners and volunteers to celebrate their 25th Year Anniversary Celebration throughout the 2017/18 season.

Throughout the year Watford FC’s CSE Trust led a campaign to commemorate a history of Watford FC in the heart of the community whilst aiming to generate a new found interest and understanding of their community work. The campaign saw a plethora of activities and events targeted at a variety of audiences within their their community. These events included a gala dinner, interactive website, museum exhibition, charity match, dedicated Watford FC Premier League fixture and commemorative book entitled The Trust At 25: Improving Lives, The Story So Far…

To find out more about their anniversary visit www.watfordfccsetrust.com/anniversary or to keep up to date with Watford FC’s CSE Trust just search @WFCTrust on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Aston Villa FC – Part of the Pride

The ‘Part of the Pride’ campaign aims to put fans at the heart of the club and to unify everyone and everything. This overarching brand marketing campaign is used across all marketing, forms part of the club’s charitable arm Aston Villa Foundation and our equality diversity programme AllIn.

Developing our fan experience and building and rewarding loyalty has been a central priority for us, and so a campaign that is agnostic of results on the pitch but focuses on the emotional connection between fans themselves and with the Club gave us a platform to face the challenges met by any brand marketing team head on, while truly engaging our fans and driving commercial results.

From receiving over 284k mentions across social media and engaging over 116k fans with activations, to consistently breaking commercial records across Kit Launches (+260% up year-on-year) and Season tickets (+161% up year-on-year), #PartOfThePride is now well and truly a part of our Club’s brand and something all of us, fans and staff alike, are extremely proud of.

Bristol Rovers FC – season ticket renewal

Bristol Rovers produced a quirky and authentic promotional video for their 18/19 season ticket campaign. The club achieved record sales through this campaign.

Derby County FC – home shirt launch (AMP Global Media)

AMP Global Media is a new content marketing agency which is pioneering how brands and rights holders understand, engage and activate youth audiences in Sport, Gaming and Music.
AMP’s unique approach to audience insight, superior ideation, production quality and platform distribution, combine to deliver exceptional content and performance on a global scale.
Derby County Football Club works with AMP to increase global awareness of the club’s brand/image and drive impact and awareness of non-traditional content across the owned and earned media channels.
As part of this agreement, AMP is briefed to create new marketing initiatives and improve the club’s approach to content marketing, through both traditional and non-traditional campaigns.
For this award entry, AMP has submitted a campaign to launch the club’s home shirt for 2018/19, which was weaved into the announcement of new manager, Frank Lampard.
The brief was to maximise exposure for the club’s new kit and to secure additional revenue from sponsors/partners.

St Johnstone FC – #paintitblue campaign

This submission is a supporting an iniative to encourage young fans to start watching football at grounds on a Saturday afternoon. It is an activity using the First Team and our media team to reach out and attract a new set of young fans who will be the clubs future.

Sunderland FC – Big Seat Change event

Over 3,000 fans answered the call to come together and literally rebuild the club they love in more ways than one, as Sunderland AFC embarked on a Big Seat Change event.

The initiative was the first step in reconnecting the disengaged fanbase, who felt the tired appearance of their home ground, the Stadium of Light, reflected the club’s recent decline and hangover from back-to-back relegations.

Supporters travelled from as far as Bristol, Dover and France, with hundreds taking time off work to join staff at the Stadium of Light to replace the faded pink seats, that had become a standing joke among local rival fans.

To sum up, fan Paul Luke said it best: “It seems a small thing, but the pink seats are a visual reminder of our stagnation and lack of care. They’re embarrassing. Having red seats again will be a real boost to morale and a symbol of change.”

Supporting video: https://youtu.be/I3TIcFvHa-g

Wigan Athletic FC – Thousands of Journeys. One Destination

Wigan Athletic reignited a real connection between supporters and their club with their ‘Thousands of Journeys. One Destination.’ campaign.

Four supporters and star player Will Grigg were filmed on their respective journeys to matches at the DW Stadium in emotive videos which received positive responses from the club’s supporters and beyond.

Wigan Athletic’s ‘Together’ initiative embodies equality, diversity and respect within their organisation and the diverse nature of the supporters profiled highlights how welcome all supporters are at the DW Stadium.

What makes this project impressive is that there was no external involvement and the club’s in-house media team produced this during an incredibly busy campaign in which the club was thrust into the media spotlight during its Emirates FA Cup run.

The club headed into uncharted territory with this campaign and the results were impressive. The club sold more season cards in the opening month of sales than they had in the previous four seasons and the target of attracting over 1,000 new season card holders looks set to be beaten, with a high renewal rate meaning more season cards have been sold than the previous campaign.

English Football League & Mind

Launched in July 2018, the EFL and Mind’s ground-breaking collaboration has provided a unique opportunity to improve the nation’s mental health and wellbeing.

Every year, 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem. That’s one person in every family, so it could be hundreds of footballers and thousands of football fans. Traditionally men have found it more difficult to speak out about their mental health and is one of the many reasons that the EFL and Mind decided to join forces.

In year one of the partnership, the EFL and Mind have worked together to raise awareness of mental health with fans, Clubs and the wider public; raise money to deliver life changing national and local support and help improve the approach to mental health in football working with other partners in the game.

FC Barcelona & Stanley Black & Decker

Stanley Black & Decker is passionate about supporting individuals and teams who are blazing a trail and making a significant difference for future generations. Sharing its vision for a more diverse and inclusive world, Stanley Black & Decker is the first jersey sponsor of the FC Barcelona Femení women’s football team under its STANLEY brand.

This outstanding club is continuously raising the game, not just in football, but as role models for the professional athletes who will follow in their paths. Reinforcing the company’s purpose ‘For Those Who Make The World’, Stanley Black & Decker chose to sponsor FC Barcelona Femení as they are ultimate pioneers and innovators in their field. Both organisations believe in the philosophy that ‘together we are more’. Focused on breaking boundaries and setting standards in women’s football, they are true champions of change. Through their positive actions and encouragement, this exceptional team is helping other young girls feel empowered and realise their dreams.

As part of their ongoing marketing collaboration, this short film was created by FC Barcelona Femení and STANLEY to emphasise the message that football is for everyone regardless of gender, and was released to celebrate International Women’s Day 2019.

Leeds United Football Club & Eleven Sports Media

The Leeds United Partner Programme has been developed in partnership with the club and Eleven Sports Media, a sports technology and partner programme agency.

Launched in January 2018, the Leeds United project turned the traditional partner programme model on its head. Eleven identified a need for new era of activation for all partners, incorporating digital branded content, events and the creation and usage of bespoke partner IP. 2018/19 was the programme’s first full season of operation and has proven to be a huge commercial success for all stakeholders.

Eleven’s experience in constructing partner programmes by bringing together a range of digital communications channels had already seen them achieve commercial success at clubs such as Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Crystal Palace and Watford.

Norwich City Football Club & Visit Tampa Bay

Best summarised as a partnership that has allowed Norwich City to set in motion plans to internationalise the Club, plans that very conceivably wouldn’t have happened anywhere near as quickly had this partnership not been so successful.

Norwich City has a number of synergies with Visit Tampa Bay as an organisation, and we believe our relationship is leading the way in how international sponsorships should work.

Our warm weather winter training camp in Tampa, in November 2018, was a first of its kind in football, particularly at Championship level, and the links fostered from that have grown to the extent that Norwich City now has an official partnership with the Tampa Bay Rowdies, and long-term links with Tampa Bay Lightning and Tampa Bay Rays.

Our long-term goal is that soccer fans in Tampa Bay take Norwich City to their heart and we become the go-to option as a supporter of UK football, outside of the top 6 teams.

This would never have been possible without our partnership with Visit Tampa Bay, and the warm weather winter training camp was the culmination of a year’s hard work in planning.

Portsmouth Football Club & University of Portsmouth

At the start of the 2018/19 season, Portsmouth Football Club secured the University of Portsmouth as Front of Shirt and Main Club Sponsor on a three-year contract.

With both the Football Club and University of Portsmouth playing a huge role in the city, it seemed a natural fit that will not only benefit the current group of students offering them valuable work experience opportunities but more specifically help increase participation rates in higher education in the area.

In order to tackle this issue, the University of Portsmouth strengthened their relationship with Portsmouth Football Club and during the 2018/19 season have achieved some amazing accolades including over 950 young people having a First Team player visit at their school as part of an inspiring motivational UoP Outreach visit, 100 UoP students employed by the Club in part-time or full-time roles and a bespoke Purple Kit launched to showcase the strength of the partnership.

As we embark on the 2019/20 season, we are excited to continue working with the University of Portsmouth and further strengthening the relationship in and amongst the city of Portsmouth to help build on these relationships within the wider community.

Tottenham Hotspur & Hotels.com

Hotels.com launched its partnership with leading Premier League football Club, Tottenham Hotspur at the beginning of the 2018/2019 season. This was the brand’s first European sports partnership and as multi-faceted activation plan was developed and executed to meet their objectives to drive awareness, promote its rewarding and irreverent personality and generate revenue.

The partners provided a constant and relevant platform to promote the brand to the Club’s 463 million global followers. It used star players to create engaging content to amplify its key messages to a targeted, travel loving audience. Finally, it introduced innovative technology to integrate a value exchange for fans into the ticket purchasing journey and offered exclusive discounts to the Club’s supporters.

The campaign cumulatively reached nearly 100 million on digital channels and well over 100 million on traditional broadcast. This resulted in strong familiarity and favourability of the brand amongst surveyed Tottenham Hotspur fans. In addition, a cumulative quarter of a million supporters were offered a one-off discount voucher and a season long discount code for Club members generated hundreds of room bookings of which nearly half were made by new customers of Hotels.com.

Vanarama, Prostate Cancer UK and The National League

The MANarama campaign was a historic fundraising and awareness campaign in conjunction with Non-League Day (13 October 2018), leveraging a new partnership with the National League, and continuing Prostate Cancer UK’s relationship with longstanding partner, Vanarama, also title sponsor of the National League. Vanarama and the National League changed its name to the MANarama National League throughout the month of September until Non-League Day, with the ambition to raise £150,000. They donated £50 for every vehicle leased from the start of September until Non-League Day, and launched a successful digital awareness drive.

The primary objectives were to raise awareness of prostate cancer within the football community and beyond, while raising money to enable Prostate Cancer UK to ultimately focus on radical improvements in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and support of those affected by prostate cancer; primarily by:

Bringing to life the official partnership between the Vanarama National League and Prostate Cancer UK through a UK-first re-branding of a football league mid-season
Raising £150,000 for Prostate Cancer UK through Vanarama’s “lease a van, save a man” fundraising drive
Working with the National League’s 68 clubs to raise awareness of the campaign
To educate and reach at-risk men, and those who have a low awareness of the risk of prostate cancer by utilising the reach of Vanarama across all channels to the company’s 80% male audience, including Vanarama employees

West Bromwich Albion & Ideal Boilers

Ideal Boilers saw a unique opportunity to partner with West Bromwich Albion to achieve their objectives of increased brand awareness across the UK. The introduction of Boiler Man generated viral global coverage that has delivered unprecedented media content to bolster already impressive media values from the partnership.

By working together Ideal Boilers and West Bromwich Albion have created a partnership proposition that has given the fans an emotional connection with the brand while simultaneously driving commercial objectives and value.

Albion in the Community and American Express

Albion in the Community (AITC) and American Express (Amex) have been working together to deliver ground-breaking community programmes since 2011.

The shared aim behind the collaboration remains to positively impact the community, engaging beneficiaries in innovative learning initiatives and inclusion programmes, co-ordinated by AITC and supported by Amex volunteers. The two organisations now have a strong reputation locally for delivering impactful and evidence-led interventions.

The partnership continues to flourish. In 2017 alone Amex volunteers benefited from 341 volunteer opportunities with AITC – up from 235 in 2016. That involvement saw 1,400 participants take part in sessions benefiting from volunteer involvement – up from 1,311 the year before.

The range and number of programmes and sessions delivered by AITC in tandem with Amex continues to grow, with initiatives now directly targeting local need to ensure maximum impact on communities throughout Sussex.

The relationship between AITC and Amex is something that is benefiting all involved: the charity, the company and, most importantly, the local community.

Everton in the Community

In November 2016, Everton Under 23 Manager David Unsworth and his entire team of backroom staff and players slept outside at Goodison Park at Everton in the Community’s ‘Goodison Sleepout’ event to raise awareness of homelessness in the city of Liverpool.

After taking part in the Sleepout on the coldest night of the year, David Unsworth and Everton CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale devised a fundraising campaign called ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is’ (HIWTHI) to support young people on the brink of homelessness across the city. Supported by a committee made up of staff from across the Club and charity, the group set themselves a fundraising target of £230,000 with the final goal of purchasing, and operating, a house close to Goodison Park to offer 16-23-year-olds who have fallen on hard times, or have perhaps fallen out of the care system, a place to stay in Liverpool. Aside from offering young adults a roof over their head in difficult times, the Club’s official charity will play a large part in their development by providing them with access to key services including health and wellbeing support and assistance with education, employment and training as well as encouraging them to volunteer.

Huddersfield Town FC

Huddersfield Town’s ‘Keep It Up’ campaign is a unique and innovative CSR partnership between the football club and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance which aims to raise funds for the lifesaving charity as well as for other deserving local causes. Now in its 9th season, the campaign has raised over £1.9 million and this year saw £200,000 raised via its main event, the Pedal for Pounds 9 bike ride 175 Town supporters cycled 300 miles over five days through France and Belgium to commemorate the lives of six Town players who were killed in World War One, in its 100th anniversary year. In addition to raising funds, the campaign and its Pedal for Pounds events have engaged hundreds of Town supporters of all different ages, abilities and backgrounds to get on their bikes, get fit, raise money and make friends. Moreover, it has successfully engaged our local business community to undertake their own CSR activities. At HTAFC, we have never lost sight of the important role we play in our community and being able to impact so many people and causes through our Pedal for Pounds events over the last 9 years is something we are incredibly proud of.

Luton Town FC

Luton Town’s Club Charity of the Year Programme has been established since 2015, and helps to raise in the region of £25,000 for the beneficiaries each season.

The Club are committed to continuing the programme long into the future, to demonstrate our passion for local community-matters, proving that we are a Club at the heart of the Community, with community at its heart.

Each season the Club select 3 official charities of the year, a Club Charity, Supporters’ and Players Charity – each of whom benefit from a dedicated matchday and the focus of our fundraising and awareness drives.

Swansea City FC

The Swansea City defibrillator programme was launched following the tragic death of local footballer and fan Mitchell Joseph, who suffered a cardiac arrest while playing for his local league team. There was no defibrillator available at the playing field and Mitchell sadly passed away in hospital.

After Mitchell’s friends and family raised £10,595 for his pregnant partner with a bucket collection before a home game, the club came up with the defibrillator initiative.

The club matched the funds raised and initially purchased 15 defibrillators before pledging to add an additional defibrillator for every goal the team scored until the end of the season, taking the overall total so far to 38.
Teaming up with Cariad, a Welsh defibrillator charity, the 38 defibrillators have now been placed in sporting venues and schools in the area, with Mitchell’s family and friends at the heart of the selection process.

The club has also held training events at the stadium where members of the public can learn how to use a defibrillator, together with a schools’ programme to raise awareness of the life-saving defibrillators.
Through such a tragic loss, the initiative has helped the community come together in Mitchell’s memory and potentially save lives.

The Aston Villa Foundation

Aston Villa launched the ‘Supporting Our Own’ initiative in September 2017. Managed by the Aston Villa Foundation, Supporting Our Own provides an identity for the club’s work in the community and its approach to corporate social responsibility.

The aim of the scheme is to connect the club to the local community and make the club, the Foundation and its community work something staff and fans can be proud of.

The scheme supports volunteers and community groups near Villa Park through recognition, training, development and financial assistance to ensure the club is a ‘good neighbour’ and community asset, contributing to key local issues and priorities.

At the same time, Supporting Our Own is there to benefit the wider Aston Villa ‘Family’, whether through helping fans facing difficult personal circumstances, or supporting them with their own fundraising efforts.

Supporting Our Own is financed in a number of ways – many involving fans, who also get a chance to determine how resources are best deployed.

Supporting Our Own is unique in providing a collective identity and brand for the club’s CSR work that engages players, employees, fans and the local community alike.

adi.tv

ADI’s content delivery platform and remote production service totally transforms the way the EFL delivers its product to existing fans and new audiences.

Developed for the EFL, ADI has installed a fibre network that connects every league stadium to the company’s UK operations centre. The result is that live match feeds are available for the first time; delivered to broadcasters and other stakeholders, including streaming services, instantly.

In order to increase its reach, and revenue, the EFL has launched an innovative live streaming platform (iFollow) that revolutionises the way football fans can follow EFL teams. The service gives international and domestic fans access to a huge volume of matches – available to stream live for the first time, opening up a huge potential audience.

Connectivity provides immediacy of access to content, which is hugely valuable for the EFL’s proposition, however, when combined with ADI’s innovative new Remote Production platform, clubs can deliver broadcast-like multi-camera coverage to boost the quality of their ‘product’.

The EFL, and its clubs, now have the potential to transform revenue they receive from match rights whilst growing a global fanbase.

KSS

KSS are the largest architectural practice specialising in sport in the top 40 of the AJ100 with 100 staff in London and Sevenoaks, Kent.

They are recognised as a leading professional service in football and focus on stadia and elite training centres.

KSS work with clients to create venues of high quality and intense sporting and spectator experiences. They assist clients in growing their business, driving increased revenue and developing their brand. KSS provide a full range of sports design consultancy services in master planning, architecture, interior design, branding, graphics and wayfinding.

KSS’ sports team leaders have over 27 years of experience in stadium and training centre design and are proud to have worked globally in this field.

Key highlights are Coimbra Stadium in Portugal, Stade Océane in France, Sammy Ofer Stadium in Israel, The Amex Community Stadium for Brighton & Hove Albion FC, Anfield Stadium and new Training Facilities for Liverpool FC, Selhurst Park Redevelopment for Crystal Palace FC and new Training Centre for Leicester City FC.

Mishcon de Reya LLP

Mishcon de Reya’s multi-disciplinary Sports Group comprises a dedicated team of 12 contentious and non-contentious lawyers (supported by experts across the firm) who are passionate about sport. Whilst our client work is predominantly confidential, we actively support a number of pro bono and charitable initiatives including:

Women in Football (WIF) – Assisting in the promotion of the #WhatIf Campaign. Acted as the pro bono legal supporter for WIF, giving advice to women in the industry who face discrimination at work (including Dr Eva Carneiro).

Society of Football Intermediaries and Agents (SOFIA) – Helped found the Society and drafted its rules and regulations Hosting a series of educational seminars for intermediaries.

Best of Africa (BoA) Awards – Partner for the BoA awards; helping to highlight the philanthropic achievements of footballers of African heritage.

Sports Law Academy – Delivering 8 educational seminars to help graduate students to gain a practical insight into the legal issues affecting the business of football We feel we make a strong contribution to the football industry from a professional services perspective, providing excellent legal support to our clients, but also providing support to the areas of the industry benefitting from pro bono advice and charitable backing.

Onside Law

Onside Law has become one of the leading law firms in football. Its client base includes Paris St Germain, West Ham United, Leeds United, Eden Hazard, Eric Dier, Alan Pardew, and many other clubs, players, intermediaries and sponsors. We are also well known for working with the families of academy players, guiding them through the early stages of their careers and their relationship s with agents and clubs. As a niche firm specialising in sport we use our experience in all different sports to provide added value to our clients. The size of the firm also allows us to be nimble and to provide the swift turnaround required in football. Founding Partner Oliver Hunt (a former Board member of Kidderminster Harriers) heads up the football work. Our headline matter this year was advising Kohler on its sleeve sponsorship deal with Manchester United.

STATSports Group

STATSports is the world’s leading provider of GPS player tracking and analysis solutions for elite sports teams.
In 2012, STATSports released the pioneering Viper system, which enabled elite sports teams to gather intricate data on their athlete’s performance. Many teams adopted this cutting-edge technology and saw the benefits it could bring. There was always room for improvement with the Viper system, even if it was the best system available on the market at that time.

Building on the success of Viper, STATSports released the brand-new Apex system for the 2017/18 season. STATSports Apex device is five years more technologically advanced than competing devices and is the first ever device to incorporate both GPS and Ultra-Wideband technology making the product suitable for both indoor and outdoor environments, a key development for the elite sports industry.

Apex incorporates Bluetooth LE which enables coaches to receive accurate and reliable live data to an iPad, mobile phone or smartwatch.

The success of the Apex system has allowed STATSports to grow at an exponential rate. Over the last 6 months, STATSports have signed many lucrative partnerships including with US Soccer, the Brazilian FA, the Chinese FA and Chinese Super League.

StreamAMG

StreamAMG are in the vanguard of the OTT video revolution which is changing the face of professional football and sports as a whole.

The company video platform served more than 5 million hours of playback time during the 2017-18 season and delivered more than 500 live events on behalf of clubs.

StreamAMG provides OTT video solutions and live streaming to more than 25 football clubs in England and Wales.

Its sports operations are overseen from MediaCity in Manchester, where the team work with the StreamAMG head office in London and technical operations team located in Birkirkara, Malta.

Following the EFL’s assignment of international streaming rights to clubs, StreamAMG delivered such to eight Championship clubs – a number which has grown further for the 2018-19 campaign.

A suite of custom-built products, including Media Platform and the Cloud Pay payment system, offer unrivalled control, customisation, reliability and ease of use for clubs and rights holders.

Thomas Cook Sport

Thomas Cook Sport was established in 2003 as a dedicated sports travel business, and quickly became one of the UK’s leading sports tour operators. As Official Partners to the likes of Everton FC, Manchester United, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur, Thomas Cook Sport offer exclusive supporter travel breaks which include Official match tickets to Premier League games and an overnight stay in top hotels across the country, as well as travel to clubs it’s partnered with, taking squads, backroom staff and coaching teams to away fixture both domestic and abroad.

This year, Thomas Cook Sport worked with Manchester City on their pre-season tour to the US with their highly experienced team leading a logistically challenging tour.

adi.tv & Supponor

The perimeter branding space that frames our best loved sports is worth hundreds of millions in advertising revenue to clubs and sporting federations. Digital LED displays positioned around the pitch, court, track or field have become commonplace in football, rugby, basketball and many other sports. In the Premier League alone they are responsible for delivering over £50million in sponsorship and advertising revenue for member clubs.
ADI is already responsible for supplying the majority of those systems, providing them for 22 clubs across the Premier League and Football League, as well as rugby, horse racing and other sports.
Now, through innovation and collaboration between ADI and Supponor, we are fundamentally changing the way in which sports clubs and federations can commercialise such media space, and the development is due to transform the revenue potential of perimeter media space for sports clubs and federations.

Everton FC

Jack’s Virtual Mascot

This is a sport campaign with a difference. Working alongside No Isolation and Well Child Everton was able to utilise the power of sport and technology to make a young football fan’s dream come true.

Jack’s dream of becoming a mascot must have felt like it was disappearing after being confined to his home and becoming oxygen dependent after his health deteriorated.

However through an innovative approach Jack was able to be a matchday mascot from the comfort of his own home.

Utilising the AV1 robot Jack had a full behind-the-scenes experience by interacting with the Everton players and feeling what it would be like to walk out through the tunnel and onto the hallowed turf of Goodison Park in front of 40,000 fans.

Fanatics

Fanatics has completely transformed the licensed sports industry by identifying gaps in the market and establishing its innovative concept of vertical commerce or “v-commerce”, completely changing the way apparel and fan gear is designed and distributed.

This disruptive, innovative model combines a world-class technology platform with an agile global supply chain and on-demand manufacturing to create the broadest and most responsive assortment of high quality merchandise in real-time regardless of where fans are shopping: online, on mobile, in stadiums and arenas or at some of the world’s biggest events.

Aston Villa were the first football club outside of North America, where Fanatics has deals with all major sports leagues, to realise the potential of this full vertical commerce model. The new kit, designed by Fanatics and local Birmingham retailer Luke 1977 has seen sales of the replica kit up 700% year on year, reaction from the Aston Villa fans has been positive and the home kit design was awarded GQ’s best Championship kit 2018/2019.

Manchester City FC

Manchester City Football Club launched a world first in football for the 2017/18 season by introducing a brand new hospitality concept: The Tunnel Club. This pioneering new hospitality suite redefines the customer experience on a global scale by bringing hospitality supporters closer to the action than ever before, as they watch their heroes walk out onto the pitch through the 250m² glass tunnel.

The Tunnel Club is the first hospitality suite of its kind in the Premier League, giving supporters the chance to stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the world’s greatest players, seeing the tension-fuelled rituals as the players get ready to meet the crowd. No other Premier League club offers this same unrivalled behind-the-scenes access to the beautiful game by inviting guests to listen to match-day game tactics from the Club’s Performance Analysts and observe the post-match media interviews from the comfort of their luxurious seats.

Video footage:
The Tunnel Club –
https://proxy.mancity.com/thetunnelclub/preview/

Southampton FC

When we were faced with replacing revenue when the second Robbie Williams concert date that did not take place here, we had to think of different options to fill the left over pitch event slots and replace revenue.

With only a couple of months lead in, we had to research and look into different ideas; this lead us to come across the Ultimate Strong Man Productions. This is the group that runs the Ultimate Strong Man competition across the UK, with athletes competing in various disciplines to get qualification points for the chance to participate in International Competitions.

STATSports Group

STATSports is the world’s leading provider of GPS player tracking and analysis solutions for elite sports teams.

In 2012, STATSports released the pioneering Viper system, which enabled elite sports teams to gather intricate data on their athlete’s performance. Many teams adopted this cutting-edge technology and saw the benefits it could bring. There was always room for improvement with the Viper system, even if it was the best system available on the market at that time.

Building on the success of Viper, STATSports released the brand-new Apex system for the 2017/18 season. STATSports Apex device is five years more technologically advanced than competing devices and is the first ever device to incorporate both GPS and Ultra-Wideband technology making the product suitable for both indoor and outdoor environments, a key development for the elite sports industry.

Apex incorporates Bluetooth LE which enables coaches to receive accurate and reliable live data to an iPad, mobile phone or smartwatch.

The success of the Apex system has allowed STATSports to grow at an exponential rate. Over the last 6 months, STATSports have signed many lucrative partnerships including with US Soccer, the Brazilian FA, the Chinese FA and Chinese Super League.

Swansea City FC and Other Media

The Official Swans app is engaging fans and augmenting the excitement and anticipation of the big kick-off for fans at the game and at home and keeping the buzz going after the final whistle. The app made Swansea fans the first to hold matchday tickets on their phones at the start of the year.

The app offers a way for fans to connect with their club, with each other, and feel part of a community, consuming everything Swans they need (and this really is about need when you are so passionately supporting your football team) at their fingertips.

Tottenham Hotspur – Seven League and Animal Vegetable Mineral

Seven League are a sports digital agency, retained by Tottenham Hotspur to accelerate its digital business. Seven League Senior Consultant Jon Ford works as the Club’s Head of Content, with CEO Richard Ayers playing the role of Senior Digital Advisor.

Animal Vegetable Mineral (AVM) are a production agency specialising in 360, AR and VR, enlisted as supplier on behalf of the Club by Seven League.

After 118 years, Spurs’ world famous football stadium White Hart Lane closed on 14th May 2017, following a 2-0 victory over Manchester United.

The Club wished to “archive the atmosphere” of the venue its global fanbase called home.

Seven League and AVM collaborated to create an explorable model of the ground, packed with embedded rich media, delivering an average dwell time of half an hour. More than just a 360 film, The Lane 360 is a world-first content platform with infinite inventory available to sponsors.

The Lane 360 combines the opportunity (the venue and its closure), the technology (AVM’s development), the video capability (numerous 360 video clips captured by AVM, facilitated by 7L for the Club) and archive rich media underneath an overarching innovation concept.

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/the-lane-360/

Aston Villa FC

The ‘Part of the Pride’ campaign aims to put fans at the heart of the club and to unify everyone and everything. This overarching brand marketing campaign is used across all marketing, forms part of the club’s charitable arm Aston Villa Foundation and our equality diversity programme AllIn.

Developing our fan experience and building and rewarding loyalty has been a central priority for us, and so a campaign that is agnostic of results on the pitch but focuses on the emotional connection between fans themselves and with the Club gave us a platform to face the challenges met by any brand marketing team head on, while truly engaging our fans and driving commercial results.

From receiving over 284k mentions across social media and engaging over 116k fans with activations, to consistently breaking commercial records across Kit Launches (+260% up year-on-year) and Season tickets (+161% up year-on-year), #PartOfThePride is now well and truly a part of our Club’s brand and something all of us, fans and staff alike, are extremely proud of.

Cardiff City FC

Following Cardiff City FC’s recent promotion to the Premier League, we’ve noticed a natural increase in attendance and general interest in the Club thus far, whilst season ticket sales have increased phenomenally from last season to this season. One of the biggest targets we face as a Club now is to maintain, if not increase this figure over the forth coming seasons regardless of performance and results on the pitch – we aim to do this through the strength of our fan engagement strategy.

Although the actual match-day experience is something we believe should create a positive impact on our fans, regardless of the end result after ninety minutes, we also believe that non-matchdays and our strategy to engage with local schools, groups and communities is indeed fundamental.

Chelsea FC

In collaboration with health & fitness guru and Chelsea fan, Joe Wicks aka The Body Coach, the club hosted the first ever High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) session inside a football stadium, aptly named #HIITONTHEPITCH. With DJ Marvin Humes providing the tunes, Joe led two pulsating sessions on the hallowed turf at Stamford Bridge, streamed live across Chelsea FC & Joe’s Facebook and YouTube, allowing 1200+ fitness enthusiasts to work out, with thousands more taking part online.
Attendees shared once-in-a-lifetime snaps on the pitch, received a branded tote bag, and even got the chance to meet Joe. The unique setting and giant HIIT ON THE PITCH lettering in the goalmouth provided perfect photo opportunities, with hundreds of posts across Twitter and Instagram generating reach and driving brand heat.
This activation was part of a wider ‘beyond football’ marketing strategy. Joe Wicks proved to be a perfect brand fit, providing an authentic voice with a highly engaged audience passionate about health & fitness. The event allowed the club to start growing the appeal of the brand through a previously untapped vertical.

Watch the video: https://vimeo.com/278464294

Everton FC

Everton Football Club is known throughout world football as ‘The People’s Club’; a name given because of our relentless efforts to connect with our fans, to give them experiences – on and away from matchdays – they will never forget, and our unrivalled connection with our community through our charity. These are the things that make Evertonians ‘Proud to be Blue’ and we continue to work tirelessly to continue to build and develop this unique connection and affection with our fans that we protect so fiercely We listen to and engage with our fans on a daily, hourly and minute-by-minute basis We share responsibilities, allow fans to join in and make decisions that shape the club they love, and we pull together and stand together when needed.

We consider ourselves a ‘family’ and we are proud of how we live and breathe values that underpin any family The 201718 season saw the Club’s Fan Engagement department challenge themselves to further develop these values and build on the special relationship that the Club has with its fans and so ‘Creating Memories’ was formed – giving us the opportunity to bring ‘to life’ experiences that Evertonians will talk about forever.

Fulham FC

Fulham FC’s commitment to strengthening the bond between the Club and its supporters by signing the Memorandum of Understanding with the FST, is just one aspect of engagement with fans.

A summary of three core objectives establish this season are as follows:

1.Continue to grow the number of juniors and families attending matches at Craven Cottage
– Look to achieve a strong junior season ticket renewal rate as well as attract new fans.
– Build on a close relationship with our FFC Foundation and the local community to assist in communicating initiatives the Club has to offer

2.Commitment to delivering an outstanding match day experience for all fans
– Key emphasis placed on ensuring Craven Cottage delivers the warmest possible welcome and that all fans are informed ahead of their visit.
– Having an matchday entertainment schedule that offers something for everyone, involving supporters in our decision making.

3.Strengthen the Club’s engagement through a variety of initiatives in 2017
– creating memorable experience on match days and non-match days, as well as enhancing our dialogue with supporters (as seen with the MOU signing) and our local community.
– improving the Club’s online interaction to make all fans of Fulham feel closer to the Club.

Huddersfield Town FC

Huddersfield Town are a Yorkshire football team that play in the Premier League. A key part in our promotion from the EFL was through Fan Engagement, by improving the atmosphere in the Stadium, and then continuing this into our Premier League matchday experience. Our drivers were to keep this excellent experience going, involve the fans both young and old, and be recognised throughout the league for our atmosphere.

With items such as our Fanzone, Terrier Brass, FanKlappers, themed games (including a celebration of the Chinese New Year of the Dog), the Cowshed Loyal and more, we introduced a number of new initiatives to help us to make our experience unique.

In the Premier League match day fan experience survey at the start of 2018, the Club scored 4.9 out of 5 for match day atmosphere and 4.8 out of 5 for overall match day experience.

The Club also came top in the BBC Price of Football Survey for 2017/18.

Leicester City FC & DJS Research

In 2017, Leicester City Football Club (LCFC) commissioned DJS Research to conduct a research project focused on disabled access at King Power Stadium, the home of The Foxes.

By engaging with disabled fans, stakeholders and experts, the team were able to gain insight and understanding into the experiences of disabled fans throughout the Club.

Following research stemming from detailed supporter case studies, interactive reports and engaging video output from button-hole camera footage, LCFC have since implemented a raft of improvements throughout the Club. These include, but are not limited to – accessible kiosks, improved ticketing systems, an ‘at seat’ service, fully accessible changing rooms and disabled access lines in the stadium Fanstore.

“I think every club should go through this approach – every club should go through a detailed consultation with their supporters” – Expert Interview.

Portsmouth FC

Faced with the challenge of making the transition from the biggest fan-owned club in England to being owned by the family of American businessman Michael Eisner, the incoming Board of Portsmouth FC took the strategic decision to continue to embrace and enhance the fan engagement which had served it so well under community ownership. The first key test for the new regime was around re-designing the club crest to protect the brand. Through a structured consultation process with supporters through the engagement channels honed in the previous five years, the end result was a crest fans almost universally endorsed. From the Heritage Board, which has supporters’ trust representatives as an integral part of scrutinising the executive, through to a Fans’ Conference to engage with the wider fan base, Pompey has a scheduled and structured mechanism for having dialogue with fans. More ad hoc supporter events, attended by the senior management team, help build trust, while supporter polls, allowing genuine feedback which is taken on board, we believe that Portsmouth FC is among the most forward-thinking clubs in terms of supporter engagement in the country.

Chelsea FC and Joe Wicks

In collaboration with health & fitness guru and Chelsea fan, Joe Wicks aka The Body Coach, the club hosted the first ever High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) session inside a football stadium, aptly named #HIITONTHEPITCH With DJ Marvin Humes providing the tunes, Joe led two pulsating sessions on the hallowed turf at Stamford Bridge, streamed live across Chelsea FC & Joe’s Facebook and YouTube, allowing 1200+ fitness enthusiasts to work out, with thousands more taking part online Attendees shared once-in-a-lifetime snaps on the pitch, received a branded tote bag, and even got the chance to meet Joe The unique setting and giant HIIT ON THE PITCH lettering in the goalmouth provided perfect photo opportunities, with hundreds of posts across Twitter and Instagram generating reach and driving brand heat This activation was part of a wider ‘beyond football’ marketing strategy Joe Wicks proved to be a perfect brand fit, providing an authentic voice with a highly engaged audience passionate about health & fitness The event allowed the club to start growing the appeal of the brand through a previously untapped vertical.

Watch the video: https://vimeo.com/278464294

FC Barcelona and Beko

Beko is the international home appliance brand of Arçelik Group, it offers product lines that include major appliances, air conditioners and small appliances.
The 15th of February 2018, Beko announced the extension of its sponsorship of FC Barcelona.
Our challenge was to make the world aware of the partnership extension, increasing Beko brand awareness, consideration and market share.
We discovered a worrying tension amongst our core target audience, mainly families with children, which is that childhood obesity is growing rapidly worldwide.
We leveraged a powerful insight to engineer the solution, which is the fact that children do not always listen to their parents, but they do listen to their heroes.
This is why we launched “Eat Like A Pro”, a global initiative to help parents feed their children healthy food to tackle the global epidemic growth of childhood obesity. We showed FC Barcelona players cooking healthy meals Tiki Taka style using Beko products and creating engaging content across integrated channels all aimed at helping parents feeding their children healthy food.
We then helped actively the cause by donating 1M EUR to Unicef through a stunt during the last El-Clasico. The campaign delivered astonishing results worldwide.

Leicester City FC with Adidas

Following Leicester City’s historic title-winning season in 2016, the Club has undergone a rapid period of growth, with the progression of international retail strategy one element of its long-term commercial objectives.

Echoed in summer 2018 when LCFC announced a new technical kit deal with global sportswear giant adidas, a renovation of the Club’s Fanstore was scheduled for the close-season. Leicester City would go on to dedicate significant effort and resource into creating a successful brand activation event alongside the store’s grand opening.

Working closely with external agencies and direct with adidas, Club departments went about designing a solution that brought the brand closer to the fans with a uniform, ‘street smart’ refit – all whilst staying true to Leicester City’s roots.

Coupled with various free activations outside of King Power Stadium on launch day, the store’s unveiling helped cement Leicester City’s new association with adidas while contributing to impressive sales and footfall throughout.

Manchester City FC & SAP – Momentum Worldwide

SAP created a global social media campaign to drive fan understanding of their partnership with Manchester City football club through a series of playful, stats-based videos, where the fans’ knowledge was put to the test.

‘Who’s the Blue?’ showed four Manchester City players performing a variety of football skills…all while disguised in full-body morphsuits. The only clue to each player’s identity was their stats. Fans were encouraged to guess their identity for the chance to win big.

It was one of the most successful Manchester City social campaigns. Ever. Helping generate awareness of SAP in millions of supporters.

Manchester United with #Alexis7

In the ever-growing competitive landscape of the football transfer market, there is also a need for the quick turn-around of player transfer announcements. Manchester United strives to create new and innovative ways in which to produce shareable content quickly combined with a well-orchestrated release plan across multiple digital platforms. The news of a new signing is not just a club announcement, but also a rebranding exercise in which any new signings are cemented as a Manchester United player as soon as a contract is signed. The ability to gain traction in the ever growing demand for the latest news and entertainment in the social media sphere allows the club to engage with fans and media outlets, as well as grow the club and individual player’s social media following. Overall there were 17.3m total interactions across official Manchester United social media channels on the day of the Alexis Sanchez announcement which eclipsed all other stories of the day on social media, with the official launch hashtag #Alexis7 trending at number 1 on Twitter worldwide within 15 minutes of the announcement being made. Alexis also increased his social media personal social media following by 500k+ within 24 hours of the announcement.

Norwich City FC & bidstack

Bidstack & Norwich City Football Club asked the question, does the World’s first Football Management eSport Champion have the transferable skills to take his skills from the game to the dugout, manging the Norwich City Legends team’s inaugural fixture vs. Inter Milan’s unbeaten Legends team, Inter Forever.

In an effort to promote bidstack’s newly acquired status as exclusive in-game advertising agency for Sport Interactive’s Football Manager franchise, bidstack & City partnered up in attempting to remove the virtual from virtual reality, and showcasing the power of native in-game advertising.