Football Club CEO of the Year

Method:

An online voting request was sent out to our extensive database of football executives, asking them to vote directly for who they think should be the divisional winner within their league. Our judges were also asked to nominate their choices from across the divisions.

A winner for each division is announced in advance of the event and presented with their trophy at the ceremony. The overall winner is announced at the ceremony itself and they are invited back up to the stage to receive their ‘overall winner’ trophy.

A sample of comments about our winners:

Paul Barber, Brighton & Hove Albion

“The Club’s achievements speak for themselves and Paul is a big part of making that happen. Success on the pitch has been built in a sustainable way while also building all the aspects of the club – stadium, academy and community. I have also found him very responsive and engaged when issues are raised.”

“Paul has done an outstanding job on and off the field. Not only turning the team from one battling at the bottom of the PL to one challenging at the top for a place in Europe. He has also overseen a swing from a £50m+ loss to a profit with bigger profits to follow in next year’s accounts. Alongside this he has also been open, available, and willing to engage with supporters, broadcasters, media at all times – a world class CEO.”

Gary Sweet, Luton Town

“He has overseen the recovery of his club from the football conference to the top of the championship without risking its long-term future by overspending. Under his guidance the club has become an example for others and recognised by the authorities for its attitude towards the promotion of gambling and payments of living wage amongst other initiatives.”

“To be competing at the top end of the Championship with limited budgets and small gates illustrates the fantastic job he has done. A great season with limited resources.”

Neil Hart, Bolton Wanderers

“A good season on the pitch, winning the Papa Johns Trophy and competing at the top end of the league, has been matched by continued progress at the club off the pitch in ensuring that the club works in a financially sustainable manner. This takes focus and unity matched by strong leadership.”

“Neil, as CEO, has been front and centre in the overhaul and the progress that has been made at the club over the last couple of seasons. I’m sure this will have created a strong winning culture at the club.”

Sarah Barry, Harrogate Town

“Despite the obvious size constraints and the competition of well-established clubs in Yorkshire, Sarah has successfully led the club through its first phase as an EFL League Two Club. Off the field, she has professionalised the business operations, both matchday and non-matchday, creating a commercial and operational team which is one of the best in League Two. She has also laid the platform for a very successful community programme.”

“Sarah and her team have made Harrogate one of the most welcoming stadiums to visit for both club officials and supporters, despite the restrictions of their stadium.”

Steven Ferguson, Ross County

“Steven is an excellent communicator and always makes a big effort whenever hosting visiting teams or travelling away. He is a man that acts with integrity at all times and despite not being the biggest clubs in the SPFL he always puts his point across in the correct manner and looks at the bigger picture and in the best interests of the league and all the member clubs.”

“Steven is very experienced and knowledgeable, and he is a pleasure to work with on both a professional and personal level. He has introduced some exciting and new initiatives at Ross County. He is very genuine and approachable and has time for everyone as well as showcasing his club and Scottish football in the best light.”

Women’s Football Business Award

Bristol Rovers Community Trust

The innovative launch of Bristol Rovers Women’s FC used aspects of media in a way our charity hadn’t done before. Utilising the excitement from the Women’s World Cup in 2019 we launched the project using Bristol’s unique selling points of music, street art and history. We used all forms of social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram targeting females of all ages. We utilised the historical value of the team which previously existed in the 1980’s to restore pride back into our community. Delivery was targeted in an area of high deprivation to reach the communities in greatest need. We targeted specific partners to benefit the project financially and ensure sustainability. Our objectives indicated the need for volunteers and these have been at the heart of the project. Social action is fundamental, including physios, photographers and coaches. The project has a diverse participant and fan base and this can be seen from the number of LGBT and BAME players recruited. The project has become an inspirational goal for females within our community. The launch of the club has also created inter generational links between players, fans and families The project has clearly shown Impact and effectiveness through data collected.

Chelsea FC

Our brand goal is to continue to grow and deepen the connection with our fanbase by becoming the most exciting brand in women’s football We do this through engaging marketing initiatives underpinned by our brand platform: Nothing Stops Us Nothing Stops Us is a rallying cry to the entire women’s football community In a country which saw a 50-year ban on women’s football lifted only in 1971, the impact of the summer of 2022 can’t be understated Seeing the Lionesses earn – demand – the respect of the nation felt like a tipping point, a long-dreamed-of finish line for generations of women who have fought for the right to play Hard-won progress is not given up easily Nothing Stops Us doesn’t look to the future, doesn’t talk about ‘one day’: we believe that women’s football has arrived It’s the 30th anniversary of Chelsea FC Women this season League titles, global cover stars and a Stamford Bridge sell-out This generation of Blues stands on the shoulders of those before them: those who had a vision and never took no for an answer.

EA SPORTS FIFA: WE’RE IN THE GAME

EA SPORTS unveiled a significant commitment to women’s football through unprecedented integration of licenses and female athletes in FIFA 23 and a ground-breaking investment in women’s grassroots football.

FIFA 23 saw the unveil of Chelsea’s Sam Kerr as the game’s first ever female global cover athlete; joining Kylian Mbappe on the key art of the world’s biggest sports video game.

The introduction of new licensing agreements with competitions, leagues and clubs including UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) and Women’s Super League (WSL) underpinned the authentic integration of women’s football into FIFA 23 while the ‘head scans’ of 300 women’s players powered realistic in-game animation.

While FIFA 23 provides women’s football with a platform to reach millions of new fans and captivate the next generation, EA SPORTS also underlined its commitment across the entire women’s football pyramid by unveiling its ‘Starting XI Fund’; an $11m investment into women’s grassroots football.

Exeter City Community Trust

Exeter City Women’s Football Club has gone from strength to strength in recent years thanks to the support of Exeter City Football Club and its partner charity Exeter City Community Trust.
From being close to folding, the team is now thriving and a female football pathway, from tiny tots through to the women’s team, has been developed in Exeter.
Alongside this the organisation runs a successful Girls’ Development Centre and two Emerging Talent Centres, helping to develop the female footballers of the future.

Hibernian FC

The Women’s Team at the Hibernian Football Club was started in 1997, albeit they were known as Preston Athletic, switching to Hibernian in 1999. In the 25 years since its inception, the Club has won the League 3 times, the Scottish Cup 8 times, and the Scottish League Cup 7 times. Making it one of the most successful clubs in women’s football. However, the rich history of the women’s team was under pressure from outside forces and needing a boost. As of 1 July 2022, the women’s team which was a standalone entity, became fully integrated within the wider Hibernian Football Club. To bring the women’s team forward, the Club knew it needed to lead from the top and formed a Women’s Advisory board. The board consisted of well-connected individuals who have all been successful in business and had three key drivers—grow revenue, grow the fanbase, and use the wider Hibernian Football Club existing systems to grow professionalism. During the past year, the women’s team has broken the domestic record for attendance at a women’s game, and has competed in the League Cup final, being one of the first two teams to be shown on Sky Sports.

MatchFit

MatchFit is an independent sports PR and sponsorship activation agency with a deep expertise within football. We want everyone to love sport as much as we do. This is the inspirational guiding light and mission behind our existence. This mission flows through MatchFit; our model, people, work and clients.

There is no more exciting growth story in all of sport right now than that of women’s football.
As an agency that is so deeply embedded within the game, we saw it as our responsibility to seize this generational moment in time to push the industry forward and build on the foundations which exist to truly and sustainably grow women’s football.

This year our work has been felt across the game spanning grassroots and para PR campaigns such as ‘Let Girls Play’ for The FA, professional competitions and teams for the Women’s FA Cup and the Lionesses, as well as brand and sponsorship work for the likes of FOOTY.com and LiveScore.

We are incredibly proud that more than 35% of our PR agency output across April 2022 to March 2023 came in women’s football, and that trend is only heading in one direction.

MATTA

In 2020 UEFA’s goal was to make the Women’s EURO a record-breaking tournament. Cue a global pandemic – it’s postponed.

A new tournament brand was launched with the same goal – to make an impact. Women’s football wasn’t to be marketed as something different that needed sympathetic support. It was to be a world-class tournament. Sharing the drama, excitement and spellbinding potential of women’s football through an event that would grip a football-hungry nation.

Messaging needed to be positive and boldly confident. The creative campaign, ‘It’s Show Time’ made a promise to current fans and intrigued prospective fans, waiting in the wings to be won-over.

A ballot was used for the first time, after BBC1’s live draw, creating a sense of urgency. A record 575,000 tickets were sold – more than double any previous Women’s EURO tournament, with the final attended by more people than any EUROs Final in history, men or women!

Southampton FC

Southampton FC Women’s team has seen huge success Since reforming in 2017, they have gone from strength to strength, achieving consecutive back-to-back promotions.

The team now play in The FA Women’s Championship and all games are played at St Mary’s Stadium; the same stadium the men’s first team play at After achieving promotion to The FA Women’s Championship, the club took the decision to alter the status of the women’s programme from part-time to full-time.

This decision was taken to prepare the women’s team for the next challenge. The full-time model sees multi-disciplinary support at Southampton Football Club’s state-of-the-art Staplewood Campus for the programme, including access to all facilities and expertise. This was announced just ahead of the 2022/23 season starting.

The club is on a mission to grow the fanbase of the women’s game, grow participation in women’s and girls’ football and aim to achieve promotion to The FA Women’s Super League.

This has been underpinned by three milestone changes for their debut season in The FA Women’s Championship: the professionalisation of all women’s team players, moving home games to St Mary’s Stadium and acquiring Starling Bank as front-of-shirt partner to help deliver a positive impact for the game.

Wrexham

We are Wrexham AFC we were founded in 1864, based in between the Welsh mountains and Dee Valley we are proud to be the oldest football club in Wales and the third oldest professional association football team in the world.
We are more than just a football club we are a community club which brings communities together and provides individuals with hope and a sense of belonging, we make a positive difference.

That positive difference is no more evident than in our commitment to developing and growing Women and Girls Football in Wrexham and North Wales.

Sustainability Award

Birmingham County Football Association

Sustainability sits at the heart of our organisational strategy and collectively we embrace the opportunity and responsibility this brings. The work started so far has brought about much-needed accelerated long-term positive change to safeguard the grassroots game for future generations, a game which is centric to so many communities across our region.

Brighton & Hove Albion FC

Albion are proactively committed to improving the club’s sustainability Our challenge with the Amex stadium located in the South Downs National Park, we follow stringent restrictions to keep light pollution to a minimum, as well as keeping gas usage, traffic, litter and waste to a minimum to preserve the local wildlife The club has always had to encourage fans to use sustainable modes of transport and provide travel options to discourage them from driving We have introduced several new initiatives this season that include upgrading all external lighting at both stadium and training ground to LED, along with the Indoor Football Dome lights On top of this, four electric vehicle charging points have been installed at the stadium, all ground staff use electric mowers and security, grounds and maintenance teams use electric buggies. MyAlbion+ members the chance to swap their physical membership pack for planting five trees in our Albion Forest in Ecuador. ‘MyAlbion, MyPlanet’ is a new club tagline which will be used across all communications, tools and initiatives with dedicated page on our website for all environmental information.

Hibernian FC

The Hibernian Football Club is a leading professional football club in Scotland Established in 1875, the Club owns Easter Road Stadium which is its registered home ground for senior competitions In 2019 the Club was named in the top 3 green football clubs in the UK by PDE Waste Technologies, cementing the club as the Greenest Club in Scotland Since earning this distinction, we have embraced our role as leaders in Scotland in furthering environmental, social, and corporate governance Moreover, we have placed the UN Sustainable Goals in our forefront, becoming the first Scottish Football Club, and second British Football Club, to sign up to the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework The most notable accomplishment in the current year, was the installation of over 300 solar panels on the East Stand of the Easter Road Stadium, the home of the football Club The Club also installed over 200 solar panels in the training ground of the club Over the life the solar panels, the savings is expected to be over £1,000,000, and remove over 1,400 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere This installation was highlighted and featured on Sky Sports.

Liverpool FC

In early 2021, Liverpool Football Club launched its sustainability strategy, The Red Way. The strategy represents a holistic approach to sustainability, centered around 3 focus areas (people, planet, and communities), and is aligned to help contribute towards the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. When establishing The Red Way, the club’s intention was to provide an inspiring, credible, and authentic approach to sustainability. By using the platform of sport, along with the entertainment and inspiration it provides, LFC believes The Red Way helps to embrace sport’s opportunity to deliver positive social and environmental change through this platform.

Reading FC / University of Reading

For the 22/23 season, Reading FC embarked on a partnership with University of Reading aimed at increasing awareness of the global climate emergency amongst our fanbase, and football fans generally. University of Reading is an academic leader in climate science and supported the club in both actionable steps to reduce our own carbon emissions but also inspire, educate and mobilize football fans in to changing their own attitudes and behaviors around sustainability – using the world recognized ‘climate stripes’ to start Climate Conversations within football.

Sponsorship / Partnership of the Year

AFC Bournemouth & MSP Capital

AFC Bournemouth is proud to work with MSP Capital to authentically improve people’s lives within the community in which we operate.

Our relationship covers many different areas, including community projects, supporter competitions, promoting girls’ and women’s football, and to create positive content that captures hearts and minds.

The partnership is embedded in both organisations, with staff at all levels involved either by volunteering, or by being part of the planning and delivery of the various fan and community focused initiatives.

It is refreshing to see an organisation with a very niche target market that perhaps would not be front of mind when thinking of brands committing to a football partnership, recognising, and investing in a partnership with AFC Bournemouth to enrich people’s lives and give them experiences they will never forget.

We are looking forward to more exciting and rewarding projects to come and hope that our partnership continues for many years ahead.

American Express Shirt Buy Back – with Brighton & Hove Albion FC and Hope&GloryPR
As a long-term sponsor of Brighton & Hove Albion FC (BHAFC) and a backer of the local community, American Express sought a way to celebrate its 10 seasons of support for the Club, activating around the final game of the season in a way that would directly engage fans – including both existing and prospective Cardmembers – and cause an uplift in brand consideration.
The American Express Shirt Buy-Back put Brighton’s long-standing fans at the heart of the story, giving them the chance to get a new season BHAFC shirt for free in return for a shirt from the previous 10 seasons. Thanks to American Express, fans got a coveted Club asset for free, resulting in a positive boost for the brand on social and editorial media.
The story reached over 30 million people, generated 49 positive press articles and resulted in an 18% increase in brand consideration amongst non-Cardmembers following the campaign.

Arsenal FC & Visit Rwanda

Rwanda is Open

Visit Rwanda has been Arsenal’s first and only official sleeve partner since 2018. This ground-breaking partnership sets out clear objectives to leverage Arsenal’s global profile and reach to promote Rwanda as a luxury eco-tourist destination.

Like elsewhere in the world, COVID-19 deeply affected Rwanda’s positive tourism growth. For two seasons, Arsenal was unable to facilitate any core rights – no talent visits to the country took place. 2022 was therefore a crucial year to reconnect with Arsenal fans and beyond to showcase what this amazing country has to offer.

Once Rwanda was ‘open’ again, a record number of player, legend and influencer visits were activated, to catch up with reduced activity during Covid-19:

Rwanda continues to make significant progress in its efforts to achieve sustainable economic growth, despite the global challenges that were faced during COVID-19.

In 2022, the partnership contributed to a remarkable increase in tourism revenues, with $445M recorded in 2022 compared to US$164M in 2021, representing a 171.3% increase.

There’s clear evidence that through the Arsenal x Visit Rwanda partnership is reaching a global audience which is increasing consideration of supporters visiting Rwanda.

Crystal Palace FC & cinch

At the start of last season Crystal Palace set out on a mission to find a principal partner that could unite fans, engage with the community, and enjoy the benefits of working with an established Premier League football team. The perfect partner was found in cinch, a brand which has been rising through the ranks in the marketplace and leading the way with innovation and technology behind their product. cinch currently appear on the men’s front of shirt for the first team, as well as the women’s front of shirt, all academy teams’ front of shirt and replica retail kits, making them the first brand to ever appear across all shirts at the Club. The partnership has not only made a positive impact in the local community, cinch have united our fanbase with an increase in replica shirt sales, up 15% compared to this point last season and have benefited from a positive increase in car sales on their platform.

EE & the Home Nation FAs

Purpose is the core of EE’s ‘4-3-3 Game Plan’: the most ambitious sponsorship strategy in UK football that straddles the four Home Nations Football Associations.

The goal? Supercharge overlooked areas of the game: para and disability, women’s and grassroots.

It’s a lead partnership like no other – a promise to elevate the game and positively impact society. The work is a true embodiment of the brand’s ‘We Connect for Good’ purpose, and our mission is a simple one – how can EE continuously positively impact football communities, making the game more accessible, innovative & inclusive than ever before?

We’ve been busy and this year, some highlights that are doing just that, include…
• Recruiting our 100,000th EE Playmaker, a major milestone in EE’s support of the grassroots game
• Starting our search for the world’s first British Sign Language football pundit team
• Giving 28,000+ grassroots players the digital skills they need to tackle online hate
• Telling the stories of seven non-binary teams to raise awareness about discrimination in football
• Supported both England and Wales teams as they played each other in a historic men’s FIFA World Cup game

Liverpool FC & NIVEA MEN

‘For us, this is a brand doing exactly what their product describes: caring for men And using this platform in partnership with Liverpool FC, we can truly show there is strength in numbers’ Ben Akers – CEO of Talk Club.

NIVEA MEN with Liverpool FC hold significant synergies that help to showcase NIVEA’s modernity and relevance in a way which is authentic to men across the UK Season 2021/22 saw Liverpool FC and NIVEA MEN cleverly intertwine their assets into three campaign executions, creating a platform to create change and challenge negative stigmas in Men Across two executions of the infamous Dear Liverpool series, one Strength in Numbers campaign and a heartfelt stand-alone piece with Sir Kenny Dalglish and life-long Liverpool Fan, Eric Farrington, NIVEA MEN far exceeded their return on objectives objective Resultant to the three campaigns in season 2021/22, NIVEA MEN and LFC interviewed over 450 UK Men, to find that having viewed the stand-alone content pieces, men were 89% more likely to consider speaking about their mental health 88% found the 1-10 tool useful to discuss their mental health Furthermore, the Anthony Nolan stem cell donation, foundation received an increase in 400% sign-ups in the first week

Southampton FC & Starling Bank

Southampton FC Women have gone from strength to strength, experiencing three consecutive promotions and rising to The FA Women’s Championship.

Southampton Football Club is on a mission to encourage fans to support the women’s team. As part of this drive to grow the women’s game, all Southampton FC Women’s games are played at St Mary’s Stadium. The team also trains at Staplewood Campus, the same facilities as the men’s side, and are now full-time professionals.

When Southampton FC were looking for a new front-of-shirt partner for their women’s team, it was important to find a brand that shared their goals in growing and developing the women’s game. Starling Bank is on a mission to do exactly that. Coming off the back of their successful sponsorship of UEFA Women’s EURO 2022, they were looking for a partner that would invest and grow the game together.

The overarching partnership goal of ‘empowering positive change’ was set out and increasing participation in women’s football, particularly across grassroots football coaching was also identified as a key objective.

Tottenham Hotspur & AIA

Tottenham Hotspur and its Global Principal Partner, AIA, celebrated their 10th season in partnership in the 2022/23 season, making it one of most established front-of-shirt partnerships in Premier League history. AIA is the largest life insurance company in Asia with a presence across 18 markets and it uses its high-profile partnership with the Premier League club to support its ambition to generate business leads, incentivise agents / employees to move the business forward and drive awareness through the promotion of its core brand message supporting the population to live Healthier, Longer, Better Lives.

The Club’s tour to Korea in July 2022 presented a unique opportunity to activate on the ground in a key AIA market for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, a strategic campaign was developed and delivered in the three months around the tour to help meet AIA’s objectives. Overall, promotion around the visit generated 146% of the KPI for lead generation, over 5,000 employees / agents were directly engaged through various activities and AIA brand awareness increased by 9%.

Innovation Award

AiSCOUT

Any boy or girl that has kicked a football as a child has dreamt of one day lifting the FA Cup, or winning the league in front of thousands of adoring fans.

But, aside from the requisite skills, the one thing that stands in their way, is being spotted.

The AiSCOUT platform is revolutionising the opportunities for aspiring players, scouts and clubs, using AI to find amateur footballers globally, through a mobile phone.

And it really works…

Outstanding beta & MVP testing resulted in 77 amateur players being trialled & signed for professional football clubs, as well as being selected for national squads – 47 of these players trialling in 2022 alone. The player and scout app has been proven to deliver 100% efficiency gain for scouts, as well as uncovering talent that simply would never have been found using traditional methods.

AiSCOUT is being successfully used by professional clubs including Chelsea FC, Burnley FC, and amateur players in 125 countries.

In September 2022, AiSCOUT was signed by Chelsea FC as its Official Academy Recruitment Partner, with the platform to become an integral part of the club’s recruitment and scouting process for academy players over the next five years.

Bristol Rovers FC

Bristol Rovers became Bristol Razors, as players, coaches and club staff shaved their heads in support of defender Nick Anderton, who was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in October 2022. To raise awareness and funds for Nick, we engaged in a variety of activations, from events, national media appearances and setting up a GoFundMe, which currently stands at more than £44,000.

DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga
The technological speciality of our international Bundesliga 2 production is based on three topics: cost-effective cloud-based remote production in the AWS Cloud, automatization, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). DFL media partners, and therefore international fans, now have access to ready-to-air live stream signals of all 306 Bundesliga 2 matches per season. Amongst others, viewers of ESPN+ in the USA, Viaplay in Scandinavia and OneFootball in Brazil have benefitted from the upgraded live stream. The success of this solution is clear: international broadcasts of Bundesliga 2 matches have almost doubled (+98%) and international reach has almost quadrupled (+189%), compared to the previous season. With our integrated business model and extensive experience in media production, the DFL is not content to only produce the highest quality of live sport. In fact, innovations are constantly tested and – if they prove successful – are quickly adopted into series production. The collaboration between the DFL’s specialised subsidiaries, such as Sportcast, Sportec Solutions and DFL Digital Sports, is key to success.

Hawk-Eye Innovations
Hawk-Eye’s Semi-Automatic Offside Technology (SAOT) is the world’s first optical tracking innovation that detects the precise location of the ball and individual player in real-time so that officials, fans and more can see the exact moment an offside incident occurred in a state-of-the-art virtual replay of the event.

Hawk-Eye’s SAOT offers a new level of technological intricacy and accuracy that no other provider can, impacting the game of football, broadcasters and fans alike all over the world.
Match officials can use the system as part of the VAR process to support offside decisions in live major football matches. The state-of-the-art replays are then made available to the broadcasters, commentary teams and big screens in-venue for clarity to all fans and viewers watching at home.

Through its seamless integration with officiating and production workflows, the system makes the game significantly faster, ensuring less broadcast air-time wasted and a reduction in extra time due to officiating decisions. What could have previously taken minutes, now takes seconds!

Hibernian FC

As one of the biggest Football Clubs in Scotland, it was identified that our match day hospitality and catering had not been refreshed nor upgraded for several decades Inspiring to be the leading club in Scotland off the pitch in a number of areas, the summer of 2022 saw the Club undertake a complete refurbishment of our matchday hospitality offering for the 2022/23 Season When reflecting on how these six new match day hospitality offerings have performed overall since launch, there can be no playing down of the success of the project Of the over 800 covers available each match day, 580 now belong to seasonal members With the remaining covers being sold on match-by-match basis, the new offering has been completely sold-out at every game of the 2022/23 season In comparison to previous seasons, this has seen the number of hospitality guests at Easter Road increase by over 55% each match day which has in turn seen profits increase by over 100% We are immensely proud to have improved the level of matchday hospitality at Easter Road by such drastic proportions over such a demanding length of time

Hoof
hoof is the ground-breaking social media platform to be the first of its kind dedicated solely to football.

The platform is taking a stand against big social media with a zero-tolerance approach to online hate and discrimination following a rise in digital abuse throughout the game.

An abusive language auto-rejection system and a dedicated moderation team is at the
foundation of hoof’s proactive, preventative approach to any form of intolerance with the guarantee to ban accounts found to be posting discriminatory content.

Unique content creation tools, including in-depth statistics, curated topic feeds on the
biggest talking points and database-powered graphics, are all available to users to not only fuel unrivalled discussion and produce innovative posts, but ensure that the conversation never stops.

In addition to content creation, users can also follow the action across a variety of divisions around the world all in one place with hoof’s live league tables, fixture lists, game statistics, minute-by-minute match updates and commentary.

Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, hoof is the new home of online football.

The FA: England Football X Fifty Digital

In 2021, The FA created England Football. A public-facing brand with an ambition to link the grassroots game to England’s elite. The goal? To build the ultimate grassroots community to drive widespread UK participation across all forms of the game. From casual players and spectators, to referees and volunteers.

Armed with a logo and a vision of ‘creating chances for everyone,’ we built a fresh brand with a clear personality and a meaningful social community.

From a standing start, we’ve grown the England Football brand significantly. Achieving 53% unprompted awareness among English audiences and a 16% increase in football participation.

We did this using a mix of football culture, reactive moments, platform innovation, community outreach and grassroot programme activations. Key to our growth and success was creating an engaged audience of players and clubs and we have seen a marked increase in engagement across platforms.

WSC Sport

WSC Sports’ proprietary AI and machine learning technology is revolutionising the way teams, leagues and broadcasters create content and engage their footballing fanbases.
Utilizing advanced AI technology, the WSC Sports platform automates the creation and distribution of sports highlights for 300+ rights holders, including global soccer clients, such as LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Premier League Productions, UEFA, the English FA and Italian Football Federation.

During 2022, WSC Sports continued to innovate its industry-leading product and pioneered a partnership with Google to automatically publish video stories in real-time to the top of Google Search – the most valuable real estate on the internet – during live matches.

WSC Stories – the proposition developed for Google integration – was utilized most prominently during the FIFA World Cup when more than 20 broadcast partners benefitted from the reach and engagement associated with having video content posted directly to the most popular search destination on the web.
WSC Sports has consistently delivered incredible results for its football clients by significantly increasing the volume of video shared on social, owned and operated channels which has, in turn, universally delivered greater reach and engagement than ever before, alongside major uplifts in social followings and monetization opportunities.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Award

Aston Villa FC

After a key moment in women’s sport in summer 2022, Aston Villa Football Club wanted to continue the positive conversation that had started breaking down barriers to support and participation in women’s football.

Having conducted an extensive piece of research with local young people, it was clear that negative perceptions still exist – with accessibility to ‘safe spaces’ and visibility of other women in sport being key challenges to growing the game.

To tackle these, the club created the #BeTheInspiration campaign – highlighting the unconscious bias that still exists but also the positivity of the growth of the game at all levels. From amateur local kick abouts, to elite performances, to supporting your team, we wanted to create a digital safe space where young women could inspire others and create a community.
With great results across impressions, video views and engagements the campaign inspired hundreds of young women to join our UGC wall using the hashtag, in turn inspiring others and helping to grow the women’s game.

Brighton & Hove Albion FC

Brighton and Hove is a vibrant and inclusive city. The LGBTQ+ community is 6 times higher than the national average and we have the highest proportion in the country identifying themselves as non-binary. Our challenge is to reflect this demographic, ensure an inclusive experience for all and help educate by setting the best example. New initiatives for 2022/23 include extending our activation with our official LGBT supporter groups, making them an integral part of our everyday. We have introduced the Albion Ally scheme, fans pledging to support and stand up for our LGBTQ community. Without being prescriptive or judging, we are running a pilot scheme in using non-binary references with coaching and communications, making it clear that we are open and accepting difference. Internally we are proud to have enhanced our Gender Identity training and an active LGBTQ network. We are active all year round in Brighton and Hove, supporting a new active open space in the city centre for all things LGBTQ, supporting volunteers and culminating in now our 9th year of partnership with Brighton Pride.

Chelsea FC

Our call-to-action Season long at Chelsea FC is that we are committed to advocating, supporting, and motivating allyship, through ensuring LGBTQI+ rights are a fundamental part of our internal and external campaigns, policies and initiatives. We want to create a club and communities that are open and welcoming to all. As part of our campaign we ensured we addressed our four key buckets of ED&I Educating, Celebrating, Communicating and Motivating allyship and action through our players, employees, fans and society. We are proud to be reminded of the longevity of our British Diversity Award shortlisted Say Yes to Rainbow Laces & No To Hate campaign as colleagues continue to choose to wear rainbow lanyards, and our Stamford Bridge and Kingsmeadow stadiums include permanent progressive flags on the Shed end wall and entrance respectively. Our commitment to education across the club continues, as well as playing an active part in addressing any form of discrimination whilst home or away.
As a club we continue to be at the fore front of progressing LGBTQI+ inclusion in football to ensure football is a welcoming and inclusive environment for all.

Fanatics

Global digital sports platform Fanatics is the ultimate one-stop sports fan destination that ignites and harnesses the passion of fans and maximises the presence and reach for preeminent sports partners globally.

Fanatics partners with many of the world’s leading football clubs and institutions, including (but not limited to) Manchester United, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), the FA, UEFA, the DFB, Atletico Madrid, Everton and Aston Villa.

In August 2022, Fanatics embarked upon a partnership with campaigning organisation Kick it Out, to spark positive change in the football and wider sporting industry, as well as offer fans the opportunity to show their support through officially branded merchandise. Fanatics designs, manufactures and sells a diverse, fashion-forward range of Kick It Out-branded merchandise across its owned sites and partner network, with all net profits from the sales of this merchandise donated directly to Kick It Out to support its work.

The partnership allows Kick it Out to leverage Fanatics’ extensive resources and experience in licensed merchandise design, manufacture and retail, as well as Fanatics’ partner network of 900+ sports teams, clubs and organisations, as a platform for Kick It Out, supporting its mission to tackle discrimination and promote equality and inclusion in all sports.

Level equals (level=)

Level= is a consciously inclusive talent acquisition solution, with a mission to help every sporting organisation implement inclusive recruitment practices that are designed to eliminate bias and ensure that all candidates are given a fair chance to showcase their skills and abilities.

Level= conducted extensive research as part of its #campaignforchange and identified several key areas where football organisations needed support with fair and inclusive practices.

To address these issues, level= developed an innovative, debiased process that involves attracting diverse talent, using anonymised applications, assessing work samples that test applicants on their skills and ability, conducting structured interviews, providing personalised candidate feedback on performance, and producing hiring and diversity reports.

Level= has worked on multiple projects with Brentford FC, and The Premier League, to aid the development of inclusive cultures. By targeting diverse communities and using a debiased approach, level= has helped to increase the number of employees from underrepresented groups within these organisations.

Overall, level= is disrupting the status quo to drive positive change, unearthing vital talent, attracting more diverse candidates, reducing time spent on recruiting for hiring teams, and providing a positive candidate experience, with an average score of 85% from all those who have encountered the process.

Liverpool FC

Red Together is Liverpool Football Club’s overarching approach to equality diversity and inclusion. It encompasses its internal efforts around increasing diversity of the workforce and creating a sense of belonging and inclusion for its people. Externally, it is focused on how the club assumes its responsibility to be a champion and advocate for equality, diversity, and inclusion; using its global brand and reach to educate, raise awareness, and ultimately challenge all forms of discrimination in-stadia and online.

Preston North End Community and Education Trust

As part of the wide-reaching PR-Community Campaign, we delivered the following:

Break Your Fast event.
Multi-Faith Prayer Rooms.
Match tickets to local mosques and Muslim groups.
Diversification in employment of staff.
Show Racism the Red Card workshops to partner schools.
Visit from NHS Health Inequalities Lead, Dr. Bola Owalabi.
EDI Officer, Mo Patel featured on the panel at the EFL Trust Conference.

The overriding objective was to embed EDI across the organisation at all levels, aligned with our EDI action plan.

Primarily, we wanted to:

Work with underrepresented groups across the city, in particular the South Asian community, Special Educational Needs, Disability [SEND] community and LGBTQ+ community.

Make our staff, participants and the Preston North End fanbase more diverse and widely represented, so we better reflect the make-up of our local community.

Improve the overall knowledge and understanding of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion across the city, promoting integration between different groups and sections of society. For example, the Preston Supporters Collective attended our Break Your Fast event and PNECET staff joined the breaking of the fast, to broaden their understanding of the religious event.

Proud Baggies

Proud Baggies is run as a not-for-profit organisation by a motivated group of volunteers lead by Piero Zizzi and Neil Basterfield. The Group have 300+ active members and their work extends beyond WBA into the local community, working closely with a number of partners across Sandwell and Birmingham. In 2022 they co-founded the Pride House for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games which was the most inclusive Pride House of any major sporting event to date.

Whilst Proud Baggies focus is on ensuring a safe and welcoming environment for WBA’s LGBTQ+ fans, they are also heavily engaged in LGBTQ+ awareness across the local Region, engaging in schools outreach work with The Albion Foundation (WBA’s official charity partner), providing advice and guidance to numerous local organisations as well as delivering inhouse training to WBA’s matchday stewards and wider workforce. Additionally, the groups’ innovative campaigns for Rainbow Laces and Football v Homophobia have won praise whilst raining awareness of LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport.

The group are already multi-award winners and were shortlisted for Football v Homophobia and Football Supporters Association (FSA) awards for 3 years running.

Watford FC (and Watford FC’s Community Sports and Education Trust)

Watford Football Club drives the message that football is a game for everyone, and with its reach, it has the power to educate, role model, and implement inclusion amongst diversity to all. Led by a dedicated team of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion personnel, the way of Watford is so much more than just words. This can’t be achieved by one team alone though, collaboration is their finest asset, both internally and externally, with strong partnerships built with national and local organisations, agencies, and charities.

Best Use of Technology in Football

GroundWOW

GroundWOW® is the world’s first autonomous full colour stadium ground printer with a central premise is to turn under-utilised ground real estate into advertising inventory. The technology enables clubs to generate new revenue streams by turning their turf into billboards. From sponsorships and advertising applications, corporate hospitality, and events, to conferences and exhibitions, GroundWOW® can be used to fit any occasion in a club’s calendar. Deployable in under 10 minutes, autonomous technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning and an end-to-end cloud platform combine to create images as accurate as a blade of grass. There’s a GroundWOW® for every purpose, with a robot to suit every budget and individual requirement. We make printing on ground as easy as printing on paper™.

Imagineear

Imagineear is the leading producer of multimedia content and technologies for self-guided and group-guided tours at major sports clubs, stadia, related museums and sports heritage attractions worldwide We turn stadia into leading visitor attractions, using our content and technologies to create visitor experiences that bring venues to life and take fans behind the scenes on non-event days Imagineear worked closely and collaboratively with their client, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, to produce multimedia digital tour solutions with the aim of widening their audiences, providing learning and engagement opportunities on-site, encouraging visitor interaction with the environment as well as tour guides and to provide further opportunities for Deaf and hard of hearing visitors as part of their commitment to inclusivity Imagineear provided bespoke, innovative multimedia solutions, delivered on their proprietary on-site devices which include the following features:
• Contextual images and videos
• 360º media
• Interactive content
• Games and quizzes
• Interactions with environment
• Languages
• Inclusion and Access
• Internal training tool
• Tech Tour
• Virtual Reality Promo Experience
“The Imagineear team have been brilliant to collaborate with and we are thrilled to now provide a multi-language offer on Stadium Tours at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.”

Monterosa

Monterosa / Interaction Cloud is the SaaS platform that helps companies innovate more quickly at scale. By adopting a single platform to power all interactive experiences, companies benefit from efficient high-volume support, internationalisation and secure first party data capture.

Entain partnered with Monterosa to launch an innovative Free to Play format; the Ladbrokes Halftime Quiz. This interactive quiz format uses the Interaction Cloud to drive new customer acquisition, deliver continuous engagement and a compelling experience for fans. Integrated seamlessly into Ladbrokes’ existing site and app and delivering real value via gamification and participation.

Pixellot

Stats Perfrom chose Pixellot’s AI-automated technology to provide Italy’s Serie A with a new innovative AI-powered professional Tactical angle for analysis and commentary, which was not available before for live broadcasters.
The solution helped Serie A broadcasters, commentators, and analysts with a unified seamless live feed of the entire field covering the movement of all 20 field players and providing accurate match data and insights to broadcasters and analysts. This was augmented by Stats Perform Opta data leading to improved coverage and engagement.

Plymouth Argyle FC x Other Media

Plymouth Argyle FC have been going from strength to strength both on and off the pitch in recent years enacting their campaign to become a sustainable championship club.

Taking the bold and liberating step to go it alone developing their own website, app, and streaming service was the gateway to taking the fan experience to the next level. Argyle’s new digital experience entertains, informs, and connects with supporters across the globe better than ever before.

Everyone associated with the club can now be proud of their outstanding, custom-designed digital destinations. The supporters’ reception has been fantastic with top ratings on the app stores and great reviews on social. How well the new digital experience has been received is ratified by the stats showing huge increases in page views and visitor numbers as well as impressive conversions with huge increases in retail, ticket, and streaming sales.

Built on green hosting and with a carbon footprint significantly cleaner than any of the other League One title contenders, the Plymouth Argyle digital fan experience is one that delivers for fans, club, partners, and the future.

StreamAMG

StreamAMG is an OTT agency that offers technology, operations services, and expertise to some of the biggest players in the sports industry. The company has a strong track record in football and provides streaming services for most Premier League and EFL Championship clubs. In 2022, StreamAMG aimed to reinforce its status as a leading specialist in football streaming and increase its client-base across a broader range of regions, levels, and business models. StreamAMG announced new clients, including Premier League side Brentford, Championship club Millwall, Inter (Italy), and FC Copenhagen (Denmark), launching new OTT services with StreamAMG. In partnership with the Vanarama National League, StreamAMG created National League TV, a central league service with revenue distributed equitably. Priced in line with other international football streaming services, fans can watch all matches on the matchday and switch between matches at any point. Following months of planning, the National League TV was launched, with subscriptions past the 25,000 milestone, a positive start to an exciting new era for the fifth-tier of English football and possibly football leagues in general. StreamAMG has built a model that is a foundational blueprint for the demands of rights-holders in the future.

Ticketmaster Sport

Football clubs at all levels have always struggled with their away allocation. They’re a pain to handle and it creates wastage as unused physical stock often needs to be sent back. Most importantly it costs every club time and money.

Ticketmaster’s Away Ticketing technology solves all that in a single solution. Clubs can digitally sell their home and away allocation on their platform, and save themselves hours of admins and most importantly, they can re-invest the huge amounts of money saved into where it matters the most: the club and the fans.

TOCA Social

TOCA Social is an immersive soccer-based, socializing experience that uses technology to transform the way people meet and play. At its core, the experience is based around the TOCA Social box, where up to 12 people can enjoy an interactive, mixed reality soccer experience. Cutting edge computer vision and artificial intelligence systems track the ball and the player in real-time. The games are projected on a large, high-definition screen while state of the art sound and video content delivery systems and bespoke football shooting machines enable a holistic experience that puts you at the center of the action. The games are designed for all ages and abilities, making TOCA’s experience accessible to all, even those who have never kicked a ball.

TOCA Social puts a fresh spin on the old model of sports, food, and drinks. In addition to its innovative ball delivery system, TOCA integrates its proprietary sensing technology into its four interactive games. But TOCA’s technology is not the only thing that helps it stand out against its competition. It also offers a multidimensional appeal of sports, games, food, drinks, and live music. TOCA Social also recently added national team captain Harry Kane as an investor.

Best Non-Football use of Venue

Liverpool FC

As Liverpool Football Club’s Official Publication Partner, Kodansha aim to Inspire Impossible Stories through engaging with young people all around the world and encouraging them to read, write, and be creative. Each year, the Club runs an event at Anfield for World Book Day, and in 2022 Kodansha were the driving force behind the most engaging and enjoyed edition yet. 350 children were invited to Anfield Stadium to engage with a series of literature and storytelling activities. The literacy rate amongst school aged children in the Anfield area is a particular issue, falling significantly lower than the national average. Kodansha and the Club set out to tackle this issue on World Book Day, creating a substantial platform to educate and leave a legacy within Liverpool.

Manchester United Foundation

Manchester United Foundation’s Schools United events inspired hundreds of Greater Manchester school students through two days of unique and engaging lessons, covering 16 different topics, and involving 19 members of club staff and six members of partner staff, to inspire our next generations by learning at our Old Trafford school.

Pupils overlooked the stadium’s pitch while gaining unique insight based on both curriculum subjects and club culture from our teachers The events proved to be headliners in a period when the stadium emptied due to the World Cup break, resulting in 1 7 million views of related social media content, and local and national media coverage.

Altogether, 429 pupils – and former United defenders Wes Brown and Danny Simpson – attended our Schools United events, from across 52 partner primary, secondary and Special Educational Needs schools, with 91 per cent of attending secondary school students agreeing that they enjoyed the event.

Our event was described as the ‘best school day ever’ by one pupil, while teachers referenced the importance of their pupils seeing for themselves the extent of job opportunities within the club – vital outcomes that epitomise the Foundation’s aim to provide physical, mental, social and employment benefits.

Rangers FC

To celebrate Rangers Football Club’s 150th anniversary, the Board decided to mark this milestone with the construction of a signature, world-class multi-purpose venue. Edmiston House opened in January 2023 and sits alongside the iconic Ibrox stadium. It hosts the Club’s main retail outlet, a club museum, café, and an event space that can be used for concerts, conferences, and large dinners/weddings The event space is used as a fan zone and is already embedded in fans’ consciousness as a must-visit-venue on match day.

It’s the first facility of its type in Scotland, a ground-breaking development and represents a multi-million-pound development in the city and the parish of Ibrox. The business model appeal is wider than the demographic of football supporters. Social awareness factors, supporting social enterprises and key environmental drivers were hard-wired into the development and operation of Edmiston House. We’re delighted that, later this year, Ibrox Stadium, and Edmiston House, will officially become tourist destinations. This is a significant recognition by the City of Glasgow and the open-top tour bus company Citysightseeing who convey tourists in their thousands around Glasgow.

Rochdale AFC Community Trust

With a mission to make Rochdale a better place to live, work and play, Rochdale AFC Community Trust are on a renewed journey in terms of how it serves its community.
A traditional ‘Football in the Community’ scheme has been reborn, looking to innovate and find alternative ways to deliver solutions to the many issues faced in Rochdale.

Central to this new journey over the last 12 months has been The One Stop Bus Stop.
Providing a focal point, an easily identifiable, alternative space, “The Bus” is serving the community and facilitating change in people’s lives in unprecedented ways.

A one stop shop to support people who were still in need, we needed space to run it and we needed to break down the stigma and barriers to access – many were afraid to seek support from the traditional foodbank, job centre, GP or traditional services that exist.

The wider impact of the bus on all of our projects cannot be underestimated – its’s physical presence, look and feel and the craziness of a bus on the car park has lifted the prominence of the community trust and provided an ice breaker for many first-time visitors to the club.

Sodexo Live! & Newcastle United FC

St James’ Park – home to Newcastle United Football Club – is famous not only for Premier League football, but also for thriving meetings and events operation, as our team pride ourselves on delivering not only exceptional service, but unforgettable experiences for guests. Over the past year we have focused on creativity, innovation and continuous improvement as we’ve challenged and evolved on previous standards, packages and offerings, putting both customers at the heart of everything we do.

Over the last twelve months, our meetings and events operation has gone from strength to strength as we’ve hosted an incredible 2063 individual events, with a combined attendance of 71,430 guests as we hosted meetings or conferences (62.5% of total business), to exhibitions (3.1% of total business), social events such as Christmas parties, private lunches or celebration events (26% of total business) and more.

We’ve seen a significant increase in business levels as the good feeling around the football club, and the city, returned following the October 2021 takeover, while in addition to the In addition to the incredible growth and financial achievements, guest feedback has been outstanding as we’ve built relationships with key local and national businesses for which we’ve secured multiple significant events.

Best Club Marketing Initiative – non Premier League

Birmingham City FC

The Football Club recognised the pressing need for blood donation across the diverse demographics of the Second City and wished to raise awareness by supporting the NHS’ Give Blood campaign. As a result, it identified the online disruption caused by the announcement of incoming player transfers, across its Men’s and Women’s teams, as an appropriate platform to achieve this and paired new signings with case studies of people impacted by blood donation. Through a collaborative effort between Birmingham City and the NHS, engagement surpassing a reach of more than three million from the initial announcement posts alone was achieved and met with positive feedback from multiple stakeholders. These were supplemented by additional digital content, including bespoke video storytelling and infographics attempting to inform and dispel myths surrounding blood donation.

Millwall FC

Not many clubs can say they have hosted a supporter from the Åland Islands – an autonomous region with a population of just 30,000. Millwall Football Club has orchestrated a colossal rise of international supporters attending fixtures at The Den from across the globe, by utilising our CRM system and our resources at hand.

We hosted over 5,500 international supporters over the course of 2022, which is over 2,000 more than 2019 – our last full calendar year of supporters being able to attend football matches. As well as attracting our foreign fans back to The Den after being absent for so long, we also gained a new bulk of international Lions.

From tweeting in Norwegian to sending out thank you letters from The Chairman to supporters in Japan, we have rolled out a variety of marketing measures in the past year.

With the continued rise of international Lions engaging with the club, we will be launching a tailor-made International Membership, using the comments and feedback from our international supporter surveys, to further enhance our connection with fans from each corner of the earth.

Norwich City FC

The process started with a simple question- how could we use our platform to potentially save a life?

At Norwich City, we recognise the wider role the Club plays outside of Football. We understand that we have a huge reach and challenged ourselves on how we could use our platform for good.

We uncovered a stat we knew would resonate with our audience- the age group most likely to commit suicide were males aged 45-49. The average age of our season ticket holders is 49.

We took the bold step of using the hook of our annual kit launch campaign, one of the most viewed pieces of content every year, to deliver a hugely impactful piece on mental health and specifically, the growing rates of male suicide. We were truly humbled by the outpouring of support and responses from fans who confirmed the campaign had prompted them to get the mental health support they needed.

Given the success, we then followed this up with meaningful activations on World Mental Health Day and Time To Talk Day, and have built a dedicated Mental Health resources hub online to support those in need.

Pafos FC

Paphos district is one of the biggest in Cyprus and consists of multiple distant towns and villages, where some of the families doesn’t have an opportunity to easily travel and to come to the game with their kids. But the Club wanted such families and especially kids to know and to feel that they are a very important part of Pafos community and that their football club is much closer to them when they thought. This is how Pafos FC has launched it’s Christmas project “XMAS Presents” – one of the biggest and most unique projects ever created by a football club. The idea was simple but ambitious: to present a Christmas gift from the Club to every single kid at the Paphos region, from kindergartens to high schools. In general, Club has prepared 18.000 gifts for the kids with different age group, traveled 165 km, visited 155 communities and appeared in 76 schools, presenting unique packages to all of the kids. This project was widely broadcasted in all national medias, making Pafos FC the biggest agenda of the year.

St Mirren FC

St Mirren FC alongside partner, Kibble’s Communications team, implemented an integrated marketing campaign to launch the 22/23 away kit. The away kit was revealed through a video featuring lifelong St Mirren fan and Scottish DJ, Ewan McVicar with his chart-topping hit “Tell Me Something Good”. McVicar took a break from playing iconic festivals such as Glastonbury and Creamfields to join the first team, women’s team and youth teams to release the kit.

The campaign performance exceeded all expectations as away kit sales reached extraordinary levels with the first delivery completely selling out in only four days. To date, the club has sold 10x more strips compared to the previous season.

The home kit launch also exceeded sales targets with as St Mirren legends Tony Fitzpatrick, Hugh Murray and Stephen Thompson revealed the 22/23 home strip.

The momentum of the kit launches carried through to ticket sales as St Mirren has since experienced record-breaking match attendances. The club has been swept away by the ongoing support and the impact can be seen by St Mirren’s first-team performance on the pitch this season too.

Best Club Marketing Initiative – Premier League

Aston Villa FC

After a key moment in women’s sport in summer 2022, Aston Villa Football Club wanted to continue the positive conversation that had started breaking down barriers to support and participation in women’s football.

Having conducted an extensive piece of research with local young people, it was clear that negative perceptions still exist – with accessibility to ‘safe spaces’ and visibility of other women in sport being key challenges to growing the game.

To tackle these, the club created the #BeTheInspiration campaign – highlighting the unconscious bias that still exists but also the positivity of the growth of the game at all levels. From amateur local kick abouts, to elite performances, to supporting your team, we wanted to create a digital safe space where young women could inspire others and create a community.

With great results across impressions, video views and engagements the campaign inspired hundreds of young women to join our UGC wall using the hashtag, in turn inspiring others and helping to grow the women’s game.

Chelsea FC

During the January transfer window Chelsea set out to control the narrative around their transfers, build the profiles of their players and disrupt the market and the ‘normal’ way of doing things.

Leading with premium imagery and raw, BTS video that brough out the personalities of the players and landed our brand, The Pride of London, proved extremely successful. Across our 8 signings we owned the story, the narrative and led with content that was both widely shared and revered.

With over 344M people reached, 50+ third party publications sharing our content, and 185M video views we had our most sucessful transfer window and set the new standard in how elite football clubs announce the arrival of new players.

Everton FC – – 12 Days of Christmas

’12 Days of Christmas’ was launched by Everton in December 2022 during the World Cup break as a method to engage with current fans, while also aiming to attract new supporters from a wider, peripheral audience.

Money-can’t-buy and exclusive prizes were on offer from both the Club and its commercial partners, including hummel, Stake, Christopher Ward, Sportsbreaks.com, BOXT, Davanti Tyres and Marc Darcy.

These prizes included a tour of the site of the Club’s new stadium being built on the banks of the River Mersey, hospitality for a Premier League fixture at Goodison Park, and Premier League home and away match tickets.

The engaging campaign went beyond Everton’s planned objectives and overachieved in every area as it spread Christmas cheer and drove an uplift in entries, shares, views and new data compared to the previous year’s festive initiative.

Liverpool FC

Mohamed Salah’s new contract was a hot topic heading into the summer of 2022. The LFC media team worked with the player to capture the announcement at his holiday home in Mykonos and release it without a single murmur of it happening in the press or online. They built up to the announcement by working with Salah and his agent to post a number of cryptic messages on social media throughout the day to confuse supporters and press alike before finally dropping the news fans had been waiting for: he had signed a new long-term deal with Liverpool. All content was captured on location in Mykonos and released the same day, meaning a short turnaround time for those on the shoot; however, the plan and execution worked to perfection, first creating mass confusion before making the surprise announcement.

Palace for Life Foundation & Crystal Palace FC / Made in South London Campaign

Palace for Life Foundation is the official charity of Premier League club Crystal Palace F.C.
Our campaign, Made in South London, was designed to resonate with those in our community, and tighten the connection between the club, charity and the people around us… and crucially, help secure £1m in donations over 3 years to help us reach thousands more young South Londoners in need.

Palace’s internal media team collaborated with Palace fan Ben Bailey Smith (aka Doc Brown), a multi-talented creative. Ben wrote, produced, directed, and starred in a short film where he strolled the streets of south London, running into familiar Palace first-team players in unfamiliar roles, including star player Wilfried Zaha (the driver), Marc Guehi (the lollipop man), Eberechi Eze (the barber), Joel Ward (the fruit seller) and club manager Patrick Vieira, en route to Selhurst Park. Hollywood actor Chiwetel Ejiofor even joins for a video message, and boxer Richard Riakporhe is sucker-punched by a kid.

Since launch, the campaign has generated £300k enabling Palace for Life to work with 898 more youngsters than the year before.

Southampton FC – Season in Numbers

Southampton Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the Premier League.

Consumers see thousands of marketing messages and adverts every day, posing a problem for us as marketers – how can we reach and engage with our audience in a memorable way. Our annual Season in Numbers campaign places our fan’s journey of the season at the forefront – making for emotive messaging throughout.

The campaign is a personalised and interactive review of the season based on our fan’s engagement with the club.

One of the challenges we had was how do we build on an existing campaign to make it more memorable for fans. The other was how to make our fans feel valued and drive emotional engagement amongst our most loyal supporters.

Initially, our first Season in Numbers campaign took the format of a simple email report, but we knew we needed to take it to the next level if we wanted to surprise and create bragging rights for our fans.

Now, our Season In Numbers campaign takes nearly 30,000 fan’s data into a bespoke algorithm and compiles a list of metrics, which we then use to create a completely personalised video highlighting their season.