BEST FAN ENGAGEMENT BY A CLUB

o Aston Villa Football Club
“What a video, what a club, get me back”, “goosebumps watching that”, “unreal content”, “if my face doesn’t entice you to buy a season ticket, I don’t know what will”. A true fan-led campaign, with our supporters becoming involved as the stars of our 21/22 Season Ticket campaign to truly remind everyone of what they’ve missed from ‘that Villa Park feeling’.
300+ fan videos were used to create an authentically unique Season Ticket campaign, resulting in excellent positive sentiment, a record-breaking launch day of sales, a record-breaking total sales period, and a record renewal rate. Set against a backdrop of major uncertainty and hesitancy at returning to major events due to the global pandemic, our fans helped to remind each other of the unique atmosphere you can only experience together at Villa Park.

 

o Fulham Football Club
The Club formed a working group with the Fulham Supporters’ Trust with the objective of holding a memorial fixture for those supporters who had passed away in recent times. This was particularly poignant following the pandemic, during which the Club sadly lost several longstanding fans and associates. Fulham’s home fixture against Huddersfield Town was dedicated to Celebration Day, with a special edition matchday programme produced as well as a big screen video montage which featured the names and images of all those we were honouring. Ahead of kick-off the two teams congregated for a period of applause, while wreaths from Club and Supporters’ Trust representatives were laid on the pitch. Feedback received from fans following the Celebration Day provided us with a clear sense of the impact this day left on supporters, with a reinforced connection of the Fulham Family.

 

o Leicester City Football Club
The Leicester City Supporter Engagement department aims to consistently deliver on connecting with supporters from all backgrounds and leads the Club’s efforts to support and involve its communities. We provide best-in-class, once-in-a-lifetime experiences to our existing fanbase, generate new audiences to support the Club’s growth and develop its reputation as a responsible force for good.
Heading into its first FA Cup final in 52 years in the spring of 2021, the Club had not played in front of its supporters since March 2020. Despite a significant number of supporters unable to be present for the final, the Club could not let this limit engagement with its fanbases and community pillars throughout the build-up, on the day of the occasion and after the result. LCFC’s Supporter Engagement department, subsequently, were tasked with enriching lives in the Club’s locale, using the ‘magic of the cup’ as inspiration throughout a period of significant spotlight.

 

o Norwich City Football Club
Here at Norwich City, we developed a brand-new fan engagement tool aimed at junior supporters to achieve our objective of growing our future fan base.
We identified we were struggling to engage with junior fans digitally, on a regular basis. We then looked specifically at our online junior presence, in which, at this time we just had a Junior Canaries page on our main club website which hosted information events as well as a couple of PDF colour-in sheets, receiving on average 200 unique page views per month.
From that research we created a plan to build a bespoke Junior Canaries website, including some key elements of functionality. Highlights of this included the ability for junior supports to log-in to their accounts and access exclusive areas, a variety of interactive games and quizzes, and regular competitions.
Since the launch of the website in December 2020, we have drastically grown our junior fan base and enhanced our digital engagement, amassing over 165,000 unique page views and over 50,000 unique users. In January 2022 alone, we reached over 2,500 users and over 7,000 unique pageviews, an increase of 6,800 on our original junior web pages before the launch of the website.

 

o Pafos Football Club
In recent years Pafos FC was looking for the ways to establish strong and close connections with the audience to become one unique community and develop together not only sports industry but also life quality for our fanbase, especially within the city of Paphos. We needed the support from our people. We started “Pafos FC Family” campaign the main aim of which was to bring as many official Club’s framed jerseys to local organizations, businesses and governing bodies as possible. Each time giving one frame we were not only including several people from that organization in Pafos FC Family by providing them a piece of ourselves but also setting up personal connections our audience needed the most. Currently almost all of our partners and friends received their jerseys: for last half of the year, we presented over 100 official framed jersey and still planning to bring around 50 more. At our last away game, we already brought not 4 fans but full bus of fans to support their Club in very important game against strong opponent. That is a great achievement to only for our Club, but also for the whole city that now has unifying power through Pafos FC.

 

o Wigan Athletic Football Club / Stadimax
The #BELIEVE FansFund is a first in English Football, a voluntary subscription-based initiative through which supporters can select from a variety of packages and choose where their funds are channelled towards, with 100% of all proceeds being directed into the Club’s Football Operations (i.e. First Team Operations, Youth Academy and High Performance & Sports Science). #BELIEVE FansFund Founders may choose to spread their financial support evenly across one, two or all three areas.
The #Believe FansFund is one of the first ever fan-engagment programmes which truly engages the entire fanbase, both ticket buying, game attending supporters and supporters across the globe. Every fan has the opportunity to directly make a genuine difference to the team’s performance on and off the pitch.
All football clubs have an endless menu of ideas, coaching programmes and team infrastructure that they would like to implement and the #Believe FansFund monies provide a means to fast-track these menu items to make the team stronger sooner. Fans have also benefitted from surprise Zoom calls, the opportunity to be in the 1st Team photo and all FansFund Founders names make up our 2022/23 Third Shirt.

BEST DIGITAL / SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM

o Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club
Our challenge is to grow our brand and retain the same values that made the club such a central part of the city; its vibrancy, inclusivity and renowned sense of creativity. We are all passionate about the club and our fans, so our approach has been not to use our social media channels to just broadcast our message from our Premier League high tower, but to do fundamentally what these channels were created for; to engage and connect. We use what is available to us and in this instance, what is entirely free, conversing. Building an online, engaged community who regularly interact with us, listen to the fans, their sentiment and appreciating their support, altering our tone of voice, being human and relatable, replying to fans has increased our growth rates significantly. In launching our newest channel TikTok we have listened and welcomed constructive feedback, responding to almost every comment for the first few hours after posting. We have built a community and wider following of football fans not just Albion fans.

 

o Leeds United Football Club

With one of the smallest team sizes in the EPL – The Leeds United social and digital team continues to overperform, engage, educate and inspire the most passionate fan base in soccer. Delivering a huge range of content to fans, partners and sponsors.

The team has evolved to create more on-demand and appointment to view on digital content than ever before – including the acclaimed podcast hosted by ex-player Jermaine Beckford, Harry Potter star Matt Lewis and TV personality Emma Jones. The newly launched ‘WarmUp’ show with ex-player Dominic Matteo and a host of sequential episodes of LUFC Spotlight, All The Angles and Leeds Uncut.

Taking a full omnichannel approach, both on and offline, featuring brand and transactional content. A “street style” brand guidelines for club social media graphics was deployed at the start of the 21/22 season, and the production of original long and short-form content and partnership activations with the likes of global brands JD & EA Sports, all help the club to appeal to a younger audience.

The user base of the club’s owned media channel, LUTV, has grown from 7,000 subscribers to 22,000 during the 2021/22 season, generating 7-figure revenue.

 

o Motherwell Football Club
After success in the Best Digital/Social Media Team category at the 2021 Football Business Awards, Motherwell Football Club has continued to go from strength to strength.
With fans returning after a year-long absence due to Covid-19, the digital team at the club were tasked with devising the strategies and campaigns that would ensure the club would be in an even stronger position than the one it was when fans were removed from the stadium in March 2020.
The challenges remained the same. Motherwell Football Club has an average annual turnover of £4m, it lies in the regional shadow of Celtic and Rangers, based 12 and 15 miles away respectively.
The club has leaned heavily into communicating its mission statement – To improve people’s lives – through strong emotional storytelling of our values. In having a bigger purpose other than winning matches, and being a champion of our community, we stand out as a club with an authentic and differentiated identity.
The success of the campaigns led to another remarkable year of growth for the club, posting a club record for season ticket sales, and an industry-leading 64% growth in social media followers, compared to a 14% growth the year prior.

 

o Southampton Football Club
Southampton FC’s Football Content department achieved club-record impressions and engagements on their social media channels during the 2020/21 season, continuing their reputation for producing innovative and clever content that appeals to Southampton fans, while also reaching far beyond the club’s own supporter base. The highlight of their season was the viral “STOP THE COUNT” Twitter post that achieved in excess of 500,000 engagements, in response to the Men’s First Team fleetingly going top of the Premier League amid the fallout from the US presidential election, making it the most engaged tweet of any club in the division in 2020/21.
With fans having been absent from games for an extended period due to the pandemic, the Football Content team also sought to ensure they continued to feel both valued by, and connected to, the club and the players who represent it. As well as spending significant time engaging directly with supporters on social media, the Football Content team also implemented a number of changes to improve the accessibility of its output and remove barriers that some fans may experience when attempting to consume content across social channels.

 

o The FA WSL X Little Dot Sport
Combined with personnel from The FA, and specialist content agency Little Dot Sport, The FA WSL team is a perfect example of a collaborative partnership within the world of social media.
Their work across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook has allowed the league to reach fantastic follower growth, incredible levels of engagement, and impressive video watch time. In 2021, the channels’ success helped The FA WSL to land their biggest ever broadcast deal with Sky Sports and the BBC, with live matches, highlights and interviews being hosted on these channels. This is an incredible milestone for women’s football, and a step in the right direction for increasing gender diversity within the sport.
The team is one full of digital and content experts, who have an unmatched understanding of how each platform operates, knowledge of what good content looks like, and a true passion for football.

 

o Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club
Wolves have broken new ground across football social media and digital in 2021, launching a variety of progressive, innovative, and entrepreneurial digital projects.
Headlines include the club-produced documentary Raul Jimenez: Code Red, which was acquired by the BBC and premiered on BBC iPlayer in November 2021. It then aired globally via Premier League rightsholders as a special episode of Premier League World, before landing on the club’s own channels and amassing a massive 2.2m views.
To feed football fans’ insatiable appetite for audio content, the club also launched its own 24-hour radio station, Wolves Radio. With the goal to avoid the resource drain that a traditional station demands, the club created an ‘always-on’ radio stream within the Wolves App, pulling together the best audio content the club produces, including regular dedicated shows and live events.
Wolves also brought fan engagement into the digital age by launching Ask Wolves, where supporters could submit questions to be answered by the club’s hierarchy. Released as fully accessible videos on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, as well as a full transcript and podcast series, Ask Wolves videos were watched 150,000 times and gave fans unparalleled access to the decision-makers of a Premier League football club.

BEST CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY SCHEME OR INITIATIVE

o Aston Villa Foundation
Villa Vision is a partnership between the Aston Villa Foundation, Aston University and Essilor, funded by the Premier League, PFA and University.

80% of learning is done with our eyes and Villa Vision is a UK first that sees staff from the Aston Villa Foundation deliver a programme of innovative and exciting football-themed educational lessons using technology, virtual reality and creativity to highlight the importance of eye care and health in inner-city schools in Birmingham.

Alongside driving education and awareness, a qualified optometrist from the Aston Villa Foundation undertakes screening and full eye tests, supported by Aston University optometry students. This volunteering opportunity sees students given a real-life experience supporting education, screening and testing to inner-city children alongside their academic studies.

Screening and testing are done in a mobile testing van fully equipped with the latest equipment and technology courtesy of optics company Essilor. Those children that require them are given two free pairs of glasses to remove any barriers such as cost, with other pupils and parents coming away with a greater understanding about the importance of eye care and links with their local opticians to ensure their most valuable learning tools are cared for in the future.

 

o Dons Local Action Group (part of the AFC Wimbledon Foundation)

Dons Local Action Group, part of the AFC Wimbledon Foundation, was started in March 2020 by a small group of long-time AFC Wimbledon fans who strongly felt that, as a community club, there was a responsibility to help local people affected by Covid-19.

Since then, an army of over 2,000 registered volunteers has worked tirelessly in the London boroughs of Merton, Wandsworth and Kingston to help people most in need – those falling through the gaps and without access to basics such as food and education.

While the more obvious impacts of Covid e.g. quarantining and lockdowns have lessened; the effects of the pandemic are still creating poverty in our community. Our work is needed as much now as it was at the height of the pandemic.

In 2021, we collected and distributed over £1 62 million worth of goods. This included 555 metric tons of food delivered to individuals, families, food banks, community kitchens and shelters. Our “Keep Kids Connected” campaign through which we collect, refurbish and distribute donated laptops, tablets and PCs, delivered 1,300 devices to under-privileged children when schools were closed due to Covid.

 

o Hampshire FA
In October 2020, Hampshire FA commenced a commercial partnership with the Havant & East Hants Mind charity (HEH Mind) due to the rising effects of Covid19 and its detrimental impacts on mental health HEH Mind became the ‘Official Charity Partner’ of the association. Hampshire FA already has trained in-house mental health first aiders, however, saw an opportunity to expand on the work to support the wider grassroots football community in Hampshire As part of the partnership, the charity has provided the county FA with a communications plan so that guidance around mental health is extensively promoted alongside football-related content utilising Hampshire FA’s social media channels and website.

The partnership is ongoing but has already produced a number of successful initiatives, including Twitter Q&As to support online discussion about mental health in football, Time to Talk Day 2021 activities to get children thinking and talking about mental health, a World Mental Health Day 2021 Tournament that featured as the focus of two new promotional videos to promote the important role that sport can play in supporting mental health, and a variety of campaigns supporting HEH Mind’s Active Families Project (supporting families in leading a more active lifestyle).

 

o Scottish Professional Football League Trust
The SPFL Trust uses the unique power of professional football, attachments to local clubs and their inspiring, committed staff to deliver activities which improve the lives of people across Scotland; often those who are hardest to reach.
Christmas can be a magical time for many, for others it can be quite the opposite and so we created Festive Friends.

Delivered in the hearts of communities across Scotland via 41 SPFL clubs, Festive Friends engages socially isolated elderly people at Christmas. Through collaboration with local partners, clubs worked to identify socially isolated, and vulnerable elderly people in their communities.
They are then provided with a Christmas food hamper, treats and games, a wrapped Christmas present or voucher and most importantly – company and conversation.

Engaging local support organisations means clubs signpost beneficiaries for additional and often, much needed support that can benefit them throughout the year.
Over 4500 people benefited from the scheme throughout December 2021 with one man brought to tears having received a gift voucher alongside his Hamper, as it meant he could now buy his wife a Christmas present.
Festive Friends has benefited over 11,000 elderly people across Scotland since 2016.

 

o Swansea City Football Club
The Boot Room is the idea of Swans fan Carl Bradley, who wanted to help provide football boots for children whose families were unable to afford to kit out their young footballers.

This affects alot of parents when their children are growing out of their shoes so frequently and the price of boots is increasing so regularly. Looking to ensure the community’s young players were not prevented from participating in the game they love due to a lack of equipment, Swansea City and a number of local businesses backed the scheme by acting as drop off points for donated boots.

The initiative to help children and young adults in Swansea and the surrounding community has now been extended to include The Kit Room until 2024.

The Bootroom now has another 7 locations throughout the UK including London, Plymouth and Liverpool and this is all the work of a huge Swans Supporter who just wanted to make football more accessible and make sure there weren’t any barriers for children to have the tools they need to play the game.

 

o Southampton Football Club
More than one in five people have experienced homophobia or transphobia – with reports revealing incidents of sexual-orientation-based abuse surged by 95% in the 12 months preceding the 20/21 season.

As part of our commitment to ensuring we treat all fans fairly and equally, we needed to do something. We believe that your sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity shouldn’t mean you’re marginalised or excluded from experiencing the joy of supporting our club.

We worked with our kit partner hummel to challenge LGBTQ+ preconceptions and prove there is no place for homophobia in football. We created a manifesto, pledging our support to the LGBTQ+ community. Our men’s and women’s players took to social media to encourage fans to sign their names in support. Fans could purchase limited-edition rainbow shirts and we partnered with graffiti artist Jay Kaes, who created a mural in Southampton to bring the petition to life.

The shirts raised £12,500 for charity. The money went to projects on LGBTQ+ awareness in the community. Off the back of our campaign, the first official LGBTQ+ supporters’ group for Southampton Football Club was formed. Naming themselves the Rainbow Saints, we are proud to see our campaign bringing our fans together.

BEST CLUB MARKETING INITIATIVE

o Aston Villa Football Club
“What a video, what a club, get me back”, “goosebumps watching that”, “unreal content”, “if my face doesn’t entice you to buy a season ticket, I don’t know what will”. A true fan-led marketing campaign, with our supporters becoming involved as the stars of our 21/22 Season Ticket launch to truly remind everyone of what they’ve missed from ‘that Villa Park feeling’.
300+ fan videos were used to create an authentically unique Season Ticket campaign, resulting in excellent positive sentiment, a record-breaking launch day of sales, a record-breaking total sales period, and a record renewal rate. Set against a backdrop of major uncertainty and hesitancy at returning to major events due to the global pandemic, our fans helped to remind each other of the unique atmosphere you can only experience together at Villa Park.

 

o Leeds United Football Club

For the 2021/22 Christmas Retail Campaign, We wanted to take on the large consumer-facing brands and FMCGs who spent millions on Christmas Adverts with our own in-house production across all channels.

The creative featured a heartwarming take of the Father and Daughter heading to a Leeds United match at Christmas in tribute to their late Dad/Grandfather – the Daughter gripping a photo of her Grandfather and wearing his infamous cap.

The whole sequence took fans on an emotional journey of their memories of Elland Road and tied in the magical element of Christmas time around the club.

Released December 5th prior to the club’s first game of the festive period. The video was shared on all club socials, played on outdoor media sites around the city, in club stores and in the stadium bowl to help people believe in the magic of Leeds.

The purpose of the advert was to help amplify the brand, as well as make the most of the Christmas retail period. 2,522,662 impressions, 189,246 engagements and 415,111 video views helped the club acquire new fans and followers, it also resulted in 100% retail transactions sales volume to the previous game week.

 

o Bradford City AFC
During the 2020/21 season, football clubs were forced to play their matches behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For Bradford City this took away the soul of the Club… it’s supporters!
“Take me home” is the Club’s 2021/22 season ticket campaign. It has a very reflective narrative and showcases not only the feelings of the Club’s supporters, but also the re-opening of a working-class city and the people at the heart of it.
The campaign centres around a short, feature film which follows an older supporter who has isolated throughout the pandemic, right through to his journey to the stadium for his first match since 2019. Taking in the sights of the city, he meets a few familiar faces along the way, ending with a truly emotion occasion as he enters the stadium for the first time since pre-pandemic.
The film features a specially commissioned version of fan favourite song Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver. The music was re-recorded into a heartfelt orchestral version of the original track, to match the emotional cinematography of the film.
It’s a tastefully shot, emotive campaign showcasing a community and its people on the dawn of a new normal.

 

o Chelsea Football Club
Since 2019, boxsets – long-form features and short films – have been an integral part Chelsea’s video strategy to grow overall video views on owned platforms and YouTube. In May 2021, Chelsea Football Club won their second Champions League. The backstory of the success made the win even more special. Thomas Tuchel, the new head coach had only been at the club for four months and was working with a squad boasting numerous academy graduates for whom this was only their second Champions League campaign ever. Following the close-season and easing of lockdown restrictions, Porto Uncovered, a two-part boxset, was identified as another premium Netflix and Amazon Prime-style boxset production. The series took fans behind the scenes on our road to European glory and featured exclusive interviews with the likes of Thomas Tuchel, Antonio Rudiger and Kai Havertz. The two-part series, shot and edited cinematically, looked back on Chelsea’s impressive advance to the Champions League final and ensuing success.

 

o Fulham Football Club
Fulham FC is more than just the XI on the pitch, it’s a family. A family that takes in every fan that follows us, every player, all our teams and everyone who works here. And it’s an impressive, committed, diverse team of different individual skill sets and experiences. Some have been with us for years, some just a short while. Some cheer and sing as loud as they can, while some quietly play a supporting role. They all make our Club special and proud to pull on the famous white shirt. Following a period where players, fans and staff were physically apart due to the pandemic, Fulham’s 2021/22 season Kit reveal would celebrate the heroes behind the scenes. Staff whose contribution each day help make the Club what it is. Used as the key launch creative, the reveal saw staff wearing the shirts in their own unique setting with pride, the campaign was able to make the connection and bond between our supporters and Club closer and more personal, highlighting the personnel our community come into regular contact with. We couldn’t feel prouder to witness the passion shared by everyone involved and the subsequent feel-good factor this campaign produced

 

o Norwich City Football Club
In November 2021, Norwich City revealed its new Club crest which will used across all Club branding from June 2022.
The club undertook a review of its brand, which confirmed a number of technical challenges and accessibility issues centred around the main club crest which was drawn by hand in 1971, 50 years ago. There were also inconsistencies with the versions of crests used, with different iterations around our own stadium and incorrect crests easily accessible online.
Together with industry-leading agency SomeOne, the club created a modernised, evolved crest which will ensure consistency across all platforms.
Integral to the success of the project was the rigorous process. We brought in club legend Jeremy Goss to sit alongside directors, supporters and staff from all areas of Carrow Road and the Lotus Training Centre to discuss every area of the design process.
Fans were consulted via a questionnaire, which received over 5000 responses, and through multiple focus groups. We then discussed the final designs with fan group representatives, the official supporters panel and the local media before the final design was unveiled.
Following the reveal, potential impressions hit 78million, while positive sentiment sat at 89%- incredibly high given the emotive subject matter.

 

o Rangers Football Club
Rangers have entered the Football Business Awards 2022 Best Club Marketing Initiative – non Premier League category. Rangers have celebrated their 150th Anniversary over the 21/22 season, which saw an incredible season long rebrand to celebrate. There was also a huge focus on their Christmas campaign, where they wanted to show how the club, fans, and players are ‘Forever Together’.

BEST BUSINESS SERVING FOOTBALL

o Ahead in Sport
Ahead In Sport are at the forefront of football, and wider sport related, education and training programmes.
Working globally with organisations and academic institutions, they provide industry expertise and support curriculum development to create unique and innovative programmes, including the industry-leading on-line BSc(Hons) in Applied Football Studies delivered in conjunction with the University of Salford Business School.
Designed specifically for those involved in the football industry it provides a flexible HE offering and allows learners to combine studying with their existing football commitments.
The programme accurately reflects the nature of the modern game, providing content which combines learning in key areas such as leadership, talent development and psychology with practical business skills and an understanding of the interaction across various football departments.
Supported by professional insight, including guest webinars from those such as Steven Gerrard, Kevin Thelwell, Iffy Onoura and Dr Alex Culvin, learners also benefit from our unique Industry Mentor initiative, enabling them to seek advice and guidance from those that have experienced the transition from playing into education or employment.
In recognising the need for education to be a key component of the athlete-transition process, and through its innovative use of technology, we are proud to have developed a ground-breaking programme for those who wish to turn their passion for football into a sustainable career.

 

o Eleven Sports Media
As football clubs battle accusations they are losing touch with their local fanbases, Eleven Sports Media reconnects clubs with communities, forging deeper ties for supporters and providing a platform for growth for local businesses.
Founded in 2009 in north-west England, Eleven’s portfolio of community partnerships and award-winning fan-engagement technology serves over 700 local businesses and scores of football clubs. Its role was never more important, as businesses battled to get back on their feet through the pandemic.
Following a difficult start to the year, Eleven refocused on its three main pillars: Sport. Technology. Community. Its commitment to the commercial economy of football in these three areas saw Eleven break all its records in 2021. In the UK, it signed long-term partnership renewals with Celtic FC and London Stadium. Eleven also expanded into the US market, with a landmark partnership with New York City FC.
Despite Eleven’s rapid growth, community remains at its heart. It became NYCFC’s Academy shirt sponsor, adding that to its sponsorship of Celtic’s B Team and Women’s team shirts, and a roster of shirt sponsorships across the EFL.
Eleven finished 2021 as global leaders in the creation and execution of community-driven sports partnerships, underpinned by transformative technology.

 

o Football Fun Factory
The Football Fun Factory is a truly unique children’s football coaching organisation that creates magical and memorable football experiences for boys and girls of all ages and abilities. We are serving football by encouraging young boys and girls across the country to get involved and take their first steps in the game.
We are creating football communities across the country where children, parents and families feel a huge sense of belonging and benefit from all of the wonderful opportunities that football provides.
Our programmes offer the opportunity for children to take part in a range of fun and exciting inflatable football experiences that alleviate pressure and allow children to simply focus on having fun!
Our coaching ethos revolves around encouraging both physical and personal development. Sessions are not about rewarding natural ability or talent – instead focusing on personal enjoyment and the development of a love for the sport, which helps to create a positive relationship with football throughout life.
Over the past 12 months the Football Fun Factory has trebled in size with new franchises opening across England, Scotland and Wales. Our bold ambition and audacious goal is to become the world’s leading children’s football coaching organisation.

 

o Piglets Pantry
Piglets Pantry is an award winning supplier of baked sweet and savoury items based in West Sussex Family owned with 65 kitchen production staff and a Management and support team of 12, Piglets focus on great products, hand crafted and decorated for clients of all sizes.
Our highly skilled Chef team develops all of our recipes and products in house, everything from the next best selling sausage roll to hand decorated birthday cakes in your team’s colours. Moving to our new 28,000sq ft premises in August 2021 has opened up new opportunities for us to expand our best selling range of Afternoon teas, cakes and sweet lines as well as introducing a dedicated vegan savoury section.
Piglets Pantry offers a solution unlike any other within the industry As we are not machine led we have the ability to turn our business at a moment’s notice incorporating our clients ideas into our products and making any request a reality At Piglets our ethos is ‘The answer is yes, now what was the question ’ A whole range of retro brownies using well loved biscuits, no problem, a vegan loaf cake for your special event, of course, bespoke biscuits for your club

 

o Premier Relocation UK
Premier Relocation was created in 2011 by founder and CEO Andrew Wells, to provide household goods moving services with a clear focus on quality and customer service. Andrew’s background in First Class Travel service gave him a deep understanding of the needs and expectations of the customer.
Moving home can be stressful for anyone but for of our customers the requirement to move often comes with little or no notice and requires the player to be “on the training ground” the next day with little or no time to make the necessary arrangements. Premier Relocation is focussed our supporting these needs.
Our vision and mission are very clear to all our team and through training, mentoring and focus on care and attention to detail we have built a team that share our purpose. Attention to detail is key, we have unprecedented levels of training for our team members on all aspects of packing ensuring that everything we touch is handled with care and packed to the highest standards there are. Good enough is not acceptable to us.
In the words of Andrew Wells, our CEO; “We have managed to tailor our service to complement the extraordinary lifestyles of extraordinary people”.

 

o Stadion
Stadion is a team of creators – designers, strategists and engineers, passionate about creating beautiful digital experiences for clients in the world of sport.
We create digital products and use them as the foundation for shaping bespoke, cutting-edge experiences for global sports entities – powering everything from websites and apps to voice interactions and beyond.
Our focus is on helping rights holders grow through the use of digital media – Commercial growth through sponsor and fan revenue, International growth through multi-language and geo-targeted experiences, and Content growth by creating tools to publish any type of content on any platform.
Our client partners include top Champions League football clubs, leading rugby clubs, national and international governing bodies and federations such as FIFA, Team GB, and the Australian Olympic Committee.

 

o Visa
In 2018, Visa announced a landmark multi-year partnership with UEFA, becoming the first ever UEFA sponsor dedicated to women’s football. The historic announcement offered an exciting platform to position Visa as a champion of diversity and inclusion across the board, whilst showcasing its commitment to celebrate and support women’s football at all levels. In 2020 Visa extended that support to underscore its ongoing commitment to female empowerment through to the launch of The Second Half: a career development programme for professional female footballers. The aim of the programme was to help build confidence in players in their abilities off the pitch, recognising their transferable skills and enabling them to see that a career in the business world is possible when they choose to hang up their football boots. Following a successful year in the UK, Visa announced its expansion of TSH into Spain in September 2021, in partnership with La Liga. After running two cohorts of TSH in the UK as well as one in Spain, Visa is proud to say they have supported many female footballers. TSH will continue to build and grow in the current markets as well as expand into new markets in the near future.

 

o Other Media
Other Media are the professional advantage behind sports organisations big and small, local and global, connecting sports with fans everywhere for over 20 years.
We craft bespoke, engaging products – websites, apps, and voice – to connect fans with everything from their sport: from news, results, tickets, retail, hospitality, loyalty, to stadium entry, F&B ordering, and more besides.
Our Clubcast Fan Experience Platform simplifies the management of these digital touchpoints, giving editors ease of control of content, sponsorship, advertising, and fan engagement functionality across the whole fan experience.
Fan interactions build the Data Cloud within Clubcast that powers personalised content and communications to deepen engagement.
With world class user journeys engaging fans, all seamlessly integrated and easily managed, connections with fans deepen and revenues grow, delivering substantial ROI with no upfront cost.
This season we’ve delivered solutions for new clubs and pushed the boundaries for existing clubs with cutting edge voice skills, membership services, widgets, and much more.

 

BEST BRAND ACTIVATION INVOLVING FOOTBALL

o Axi
At the heart of City Slickers or City Kickers campaign is the quiz, putting City superstars, John Stones, Bernardo Silva and İlkay Gündoğan through their paces and testing their trading knowledge. Using three players who have great comradery and are highly regarded by football fans ensured we created a humorous, light-hearted piece of content that was instantaneously engaging, helping to deliver against our educational objective.
To add some friendly competition between the City players and still wanting to continue to aid the City in the Community Foundation, the winner of the City Slickers or City Kickers quiz would take home $25,000. All of which was then donated back to City in the Community.

 

o BT
After a year’s postponement, EURO 2020 was set to unite the nation. Yet, the huge increase of online abuse towards football players overshadowed the excitement and became an issue that could no longer be ignored.
While many brands pledged their support, pressuring social media companies to take action, BT as both a national champion and lead partner of the national teams, stepped up to take a bold and challenging stand against it.
Putting its brand purpose – ‘We Connect for Good’ into action, BT formed Hope United – a star-studded team comprised of elite women, para and men’s football players from across the four Home Nations, who’s one goal was to educate the UK on how to tackle online hate.
With an iconic kit, club crest, famous coaches and fan base, Hope United became the nation’s second team last summer and a game-changing campaign that educated millions, with 1 in 4 now more likely to take action and report online hate.

 

o En2End
Mastercard have been a top sponsor of the UEFA Champions League since 1994. One of Mastercard’s sponsorship rights is to offer children the chance to be a player mascot. This was undeliverable due to the pandemic. Mastercard tasked us with finding a way we could still engage with the children who should have been travelling to Porto for the final of the Champions League 2021 and provide them a money can’t buy experience.
We had the idea of taking the children into the tunnel with the players virtually. Before the event the kids were sent a full technical kit and mascot uniforms. We then set up an LED screen in the player arrival tunnel in the stadium. We had ex Chelsea player Ashley Cole interact with the children & their families before the live show along with a BBC children’s host to make sure they were excited for the players arriving in the tunnel.
Despite COVID, our hybrid delivery solution enabled Mastercard to successfully utilise an exclusive right which would have otherwise gone unused. This activation provided an elevated experience, giving the children an opportunity to interact with some of their footballing heroes and forging a lasting impression.

 

o Hampshire FA
In 2021, Hampshire FA launched the Hampshire FA Academy with SCL as its designated education provider. The programme offers young people (16-18 years old) a truly unique learning opportunity that combines full-time education with top-class football development opportunities and unparalleled access to industry experience. The aim of the programme is to help students achieve a future career in sport, whether that’s playing professionally, or progressing to other areas of the industry, such as journalism, media, physiotherapy, coaching, refereeing, facility management and more.
The challenge for Hampshire FA’s in-house Brand Lead was to adapt the existing Hampshire FA brand to match the appearance of a professional club and consequently attract new students to the programme based on the truly professional experience that it aims to deliver.
Following a comprehensive research and planning stage, the Brand Lead has been able to create a dynamic brand concept based on high-quality imagery merged with geometric graphic design, often incorporating high-contrasting colours and simple buzz words or symbols to add meaning.
The Academy has been able to use digital content across Twitter and Instagram to quickly establish a youthful and engaging brand identity the remains consistent with the overarching Hampshire FA brand.

 

o Hatch
Nationwide Building Society and England Football wanted a PR led project that hit its key young family demographic, a group that is often hard to reach through traditional paid media. The campaign needed to open up channels of discussion around kindness, accepting differences and how important it is to respect people, on and off the pitch.
Hatch identified a consistent theme that the coin toss, which starts every football match, is the first moment of respect in every game. It’s a respected symbol of fair chance, but until now, no official coin has ever existed. So, we brought the Coin for Respect to life.
The overall campaign exceeded all expectations and KPIs (+200%) set at the start of the campaign. It was done under challenging and ever-changing circumstances in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic with multiple different touchpoints and stakeholders including Nationwide Building Society, The FA and England Football, media, families of entrants and grassroots football clubs. Most importantly, it has left a lasting legacy on grassroots football with 15,000 referees in the UK using these coins week in week out.

 

o La Liga
El Clasico is the most followed club match in the world and at LaLiga we sought to position it as a global entertainment event. With this strategy, we provided the event with its own brand identity and consistency to increase its impact and recognition internationally.
The launch of the new identity included activations in offline media: merchandising, launches on screens, box signs and banners in the El Corte Ingles shopping centre in Madrid, implementation of the identity on television and other media: social media using the look & feel of the brand identity in all communications and branded content actions, among others; and in owned media: LaLiga apps, national and international broadcasters, social media, ambassadors, etc.
On the other hand, to roll out this new identity and continue to make the match relevant, international activations were carried out in Indonesia, India, China, Colombia, Mexico and South Africa, raising awareness of the new identity with teaser actions and high-impact events.
Finally, with this strategy, we managed to reach both the general public and the younger target, as well as reaching the female target with a high media impact totalling over €14 million.

 

o Tecno Mobile and Manchester City with AND THE NEW
Tecno Mobile, Official Partner of Manchester City, approached AND THE NEW to help them better engage and convert their global target audience – emerging middle classes in emerging markets – through the power of football.
#AnnounceYourself is a fully-integrated digital campaign designed to give global fans the chance to experience what it’s like to sign for Man City, score the winning penalty at the Etihad, become a legend, and announce themselves to the world! With targeted distribution across paid social, organic social, email, geo-targeted website takeovers and a first in Premier League marketing – a web-based augmented reality fan and penalty shootout gamified experience used to win the ultimate VIP trip to Manchester City – Tecno were able to show off their aspirational and innovative brand values and their core message of ‘Stop At Nothing’ whilst giving the opportunity to fans outside of Europe, unlikely to visit Manchester soon due to the hangover from COVID, to go deeper into the team they love.
The campaign surpassed all target KPIs within the first week and has achieved over 30 million impressions, over 448,500 total in-experience minutes, a 19.37% cross-platform engagement rate, and a 97.1% positive brand sentiment.

AGENCY OF THE YEAR

o Cake
Cake is a creative agency specialising in sport, entertainment and culture.
Our work in football spans everything from talent-packed integrated campaigns and cutting edge experiences to campaigns supporting grassroots, female, male and disability footballers for brands like Arsenal, EE, BT, The FA, PUMA and PayPal.
Everything we do is about helping businesses get closer to people through the moments, interactions and passion points that matter most to them. It’s what keeps us creative, connected to culture and delivering consistently bold work for our clients.
Our football work is among some of the most exciting and meaningful in the industry, but most importantly, it’s work that works. At the heart of every project is a commitment to delivering on our clients’ objectives: creating conversation and driving action in their desired audiences. We’ve transformed the famous Wembley turf into the world’s first 5G AR Foosball Tournament for EE, encouraged more women and girls into the grassroots game with BT and helped disabled footballers remain connected and active following lockdown for The FA.
It’s fair to say 2021 was a special year for Cake; we’ve delivered for our clients, looked after our people and produced results that truly demonstrate the power of football.

 

o Eleven Sports Media
Blackpool’s own Eleven Sports Media has worked to forge lasting, valuable commercial partnerships between clubs and their local business communities since 2009. In 2021, against the headwinds of the ongoing pandemic, it regrouped, reorganised, and reinvested in its technology and its core purpose.
Driven by its mission to serve both clubs and local businesses with a platform for recovery and growth, Eleven not only rebounded itself, but connected clubs to more than 700 new commercial partners. Its technology served to help both clubs and brands reach 30-million-strong audiences at a time when fans were distanced from their grounds.
After a difficult start, Eleven ended the year having broken all its records. It signed long-term partnership renewals with Celtic FC and London Stadium, and announced a suite of new partnerships, including with Leicester City.
It also expanded beyond the UK. A landmark partnership with New York City FC saw Eleven begin its expansion into the USA and beyond. True to its commitment to community, Eleven also became NYCFC’s Academy shirt sponsor, adding that to its sponsorship of Celtic’s B Team and Women’s team shirts.

 

o Fifty Digital
Fifty Digital was created with the intention of building an expert team that can help brands and rights holders to navigate the world of social media and football culture.
That vision still stands today and our 90-strong multidisciplinary team actively embraces our collective mission: to enrich people’s lives by building closer connections through sport.
Fifty Digital is a market-leading creative and social media agency in sponsorship and football. The depth and breadth of our client list demonstrates our commitment to the sport and our understanding of the game from grassroots to the elite.
In the last season, we have expanded our football portfolio to include: The FA, England Football, FIFA World Cup, Chelsea FC, LiveScore and Cristiano Ronaldo, Qatar Airways and UEFA European Championship, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Football Marketing Asia (FMA) and Playermaker.
Our consistency in exceeding client expectations in content strategy, creative ideation, content production, video, motion and static post-production and editorial output has enabled us to grow substantially in the last 12 months, with our in-house team trebling in size.

 

o Goodform
Celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, Goodform is one of the UK’s longest established sports marketing agencies. Goodform’s expertise in data and research services provides clients with a holistic audience view informing strategy and omni-channel marketing, driving better engagement and audience growth.
Goodform deliver services for: the EFL (and by extension 72 EFL clubs), Watford FC and Wrexham AFC, and have a successful history with the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. A key objective for Goodform in 2021 was to drive outstanding revenue and ROI outside of matchday, which has never been more important.
As retained CRM & Data agency for the EFL, Goodform has played a critical role in the growth of iFollow, the EFL’s OTT product, significantly contributing to £42 million in revenue raised for EFL Clubs during the 2020/21 season, providing targeted and automated marketing campaigns, data analysis and supporter research, managed centrally for EFL Digital clubs.
Additionally, Goodform ensured that fan views informed development of the Racecourse Ground, following new ownership of Wrexham AFC. For Watford, Goodform’s highly targeted retail campaigns have achieved over 1000% ROI in 2021. Overall, the positive and measurable impact of Goodform’s services have been widespread across football.

 

o Hatch
Hatch is an independent agency based in Leeds and London, offering PR, social media, events, content production and sponsorship activation with a specialism in the sport sector.
Brands and organisations we’ve worked with include The EFL, The FA, Leeds United, Sky Bet, Powerleague, Nationwide, Remington and Hisense
Our board has worked in football for the last 20 years, and as an agency full of football fans we have a really clear understanding of what will and won’t work, and most importantly, what will leave a positive lasting connection with the fans.
The last couple of years have been challenging due to the pandemic. It was our job to overcome these challenges and keep providing a service that clients and fans both love, and the innovation of our team’s thinking led to us running activities that were more creative than ever.
As an agency, we worked across a range of incredible projects that have brought us and our clients some excellent results in 2021. We now count Premier League teams on our roster as well as sponsors of international tournaments.

 

o Little Dot Sport
Little Dot Sport, part of Little Dot Studios, is a specialist digital content and media agency, enabling sports rights holders, clubs, sponsors and federations to connect fans with premium content, and generate revenue in the process.
With a 60-strong team of digital experts and content superfans, including social media and platform managers; editors; account managers and data analysts, they recently acquired WING – a sports-specialist production company who create captivating branded content, films and commercials for their partners.
The agency works with some of the biggest names in football, such as The FA, Chelsea FC, Serie A, Juventus and the SPFL. Their expertise has allowed their partners to reach exceptional growth across digital platforms; generate millions in revenue; and create engaging conversations with global football fans.

 

o MatchFit
MatchFit is one of the fastest-growing independent PR and sponsorship agencies in football.
We’re deeply embedded in football culture, with clients including The FA, LiveScore, The EFL and one of the world’s biggest clubs.
Spanning brands and rights holders to clubs and services, we help our clients connect with their audiences from the elite through to the grassroots of the game.
We focus our energy and creativity on our clients, not our ego, using PR, content and sponsorship to tell the stories which matter most to them.
From the heart of the football industry, we make a big impact in the beautiful game, underpinned by a remote-first model which is MatchFit for the modern age.

 

o Ten Toes
Ten Toes is a young, hungry 4+ year-old agency.
We started with two people, no clients, a little bit of money and a large ambition to change the industry with a more strategic, insightful, holistic and authentic approach.
From 2 to 20 people our business also grew, with constant year-on-year increases – 2021 Net Fee Revenue up 54% and Profits up 62%.
Underpinning our work is a passionate belief – that ‘authentically fuelling fan culture’ drives impact, engagement and commercial benefit for players, brands and organisations alike.
Personal brand building for talent has always been a pillar of our offering, and our unique insight also attracted brands who we provided with bespoke ideas to achieve their goals.
Most recently, we launched our strategic consultancy, bringing clubs, leagues and federations closer to their ‘fans’ through the ever-changing modern digital landscape.
We are uniquely placed to deliver this ambitious proposition through the experience our team has from inside and outside ‘the industry’ – The FA, Tottenham Hotspur, Wasserman, M&C Saatchi Merlin, AKQA and Anomaly.
Each area of our business complements one another, delivering more ‘complete’ solutions than others.
You could argue that we have many competitors, and equally that we have none.