Company: Sela & Newcastle United
Nomination Submitted by: SPECTACLE
Company Description: Founded in 1997 as Saudi Arabia’s first FIFA-recognised player representation company, Sela has grown to be a leading organisation specialising in the sport, entertainment, culture, leisure and hospitality industries. Across these sectors, the company conceives and delivers spectacular experiences and creates iconic destinations that millions of people enjoy each year.
Nomination Category: Virtual & Live Event Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Award for Innovation in Entertainment Events
 Nomination Title: Unsilence the Crowd by Sela and Newcastle United
- Optionally, you may list creative and production credits for your event - a list of the people and organizations that contributed to its development:
Sela
Newcastle United
Prism Sport & Entertainment, a division of VML
SPECTACLE
CuteCircuit
- Provide the date on which this nominated event was staged:
13th April 2024
- Provide an essay of up to 625 words describing the nominated innovation(s) in event conception, development, planning, promotion, and/or execution.
Total 617 words used.
A first of its kind partnership between Sela, RNID and Newcastle United culminated in Unsilence The Crowd, a groundbreaking campaign, which delivered the world-first use of new technology designed to increase accessibility to football for deaf fans. Sela’s brand visibility across the global football community was siloed to countries across the MENA and NUFC fans. Sela used the campaign to position itself across targeted earned and paid media as a leading club sponsor to fans of other clubs, global sports media outlets and prominent stakeholders, setting the new standard in sponsorship activations. Research conducted by Sela, revealed that 71% of people surveyed believe new technology can be used to make live sporting events more accessible. With this research underpinning the collaboration between club, sponsor and charity partner, Sela set out to improve the fan experience and deliver a world-first deployment of new technology in sports. Sela and technology provider, CuteCircuit, incorporated haptic technology into replica NUFC match shirts that transforms the noise of the stadium into real-time touch sensations, allowing deaf fans and fans with hearing loss to experience the atmosphere of a live football match in an all-new way. The technology debuted at NUFC’s Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur in front of 50,000 people, with millions more on TV and a match take over that brought the campaign to life. Junior Deaf Football Club children taught NUFC players how to celebrate in sign language, with Dan Burn going on to enact the celebration during the game on live global broadcast. The footage went viral, showcasing the impact of Sela’s campaign beyond just the technology itself. With a multilayered story to tell to media and fans, the campaign was split up into ‘tentpole’ moments, each with their own news release and social media content. The key message running throughout was Sela's commitment and ambition to redefine the fan experience, for all fans. Deaf fan, David Wilson commented: “What a game, what a day, what a shirt. I felt part of the singing, part of the stadium. The vibrations just continued through the full game. We felt involved in all the goals and all the singing, so I just want to say thank you.”
Sela also donated its front-of-shirt sponsorship for the match to RNID - a historic occasion marking the first time a hearing loss charity has been promoted on a Premier League front-of-shirt.
To target Sela's B2B audience, representatives from the world’s largest football institutions travelled to witness the technology first-hand including the Premier League, European Club Association and Serie A. The UK Government, UEFA and FIFA all attended to explore how the technology can be incorporated into wider football.
Unsilence The Crowd has been described by the global football community, sports industry and global sports media as a “game changer”, “revolutionary” and an example of “raising the bar”. More widely, the campaign delivered on Sela and NUFC’s strategic sponsorship activation pillars – to be seen, be known, be loved - building positive sentiment and capability reputation, whilst driving visibility, understanding, resonance and credibility of the Sela brand within global football. The impact of the campaign is already being seen throughout global football with commitments from several major European football leagues to introduce the technology to improve inclusivity of the sport including: the English Premier League, La Liga and Serie A. With consistent messaging and tone of voice, complimented by the match day activation, the result was a compelling and credible story to tell the media, fans and the industry at large. The campaign achieved a consolidated reach of 5.08 billion, 15.4k mentions which saw Sela rise to the lead share of voice vs top 6 English Premier League club sponsors.
| Attachments/Videos/Links: |
|---|
|
