Football Foundation Marketing FY23 Round Up

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS FY23

ROUND UP

INTRODUCTION

In FY23, we celebrated our biggest year of funding to date and focused on bringing the Football Foundation work to life through storytelling. Our key marketing and communications objectives remained the same:

• Grow attribution - increase recognition of Funding Partner investment and the impact it makes, particularly amongst Local Authorities.

• Unlock Partnerships – support the preapplication, application and post award process.

• Support the Grassroots Football community –make every engagement with the Foundation as easy and possible and ensure clubs and teams are aware of all funding opportunities are available to them.

• Secure next tranche of additional government funding – increase engagement with MPs and Government to showcase how we’re scaling up to deliver our biggest year of funding to date.

FY23 KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

This round up highlights the strong marketing and communications activity this year. Here are the key achievements:

• Our work to engage with MPs has included 30 meetings with key cabinet members, influential local MPs, campaigning to get better grassroots facilities for their community.

• The Marcomms teams across the partnership have worked collaboratively with more Football Foundation content shared on partner channels than ever before.

• We celebrated the impact of Football Foundation investment with the creation of bespoke graphics for County FAs, Local Authorities and MPs, leaving them in no doubt about the ambition of the Foundation and the benefits of investing into their communities with us.

• Reached new audiences working with Supporters such as Ian Wright and Jill Scott and partners such as EA SPORTS to simultaneously post Football Foundation led content on Instagram.

• We announced our Multi-sport commitment and expansion of PitchPower to the RFU, RFL and ECB at an event in Gunnersbury Park in London.

• Kicked off 2023, with our Let’s Go 2023 campaign, highlighting our biggest ever level of support for sports clubs and organisations across the country and promoting all the funding available.

• Launched our HERE TO PLAY campaign and opened the first two Lioness Women’s Euro 2022 legacy sites.

• Opened the Rocky x Wrighty Arena, working with an engaged and authentic advocate of the importance of great places to play positively impacting local communities.

• Our media reach has grown hugely to 383m, with high profile campaigns and well-known faces we have got far wider attribution for our partners across national, local and regional broadcast, online and print media.

• We've continued to optimise our digital ecosystem, streamlining the process of identifying and applying for funding and bolstering online resources that support applicants such as the Community Engagement Toolkit

• Our social media channels have continued to grow, with increased engagement from clubs, MPs, volunteers, local authorities, our Supporters and beyond. This has supported our web traffic, with an 82% increase in web traffic from organic social.

1. HOW WE’VE DEMONSTRATED IMPACT

IMPACT ASSETS – FOUNDATION AND FUNDING PARTNER CHANNELS

We created graphics to showcase the incredible impact of our Funding Partners’ investment since 2000.

CALENDAR YEAR IN REVIEW

Rounding off 2022 with a Year in Review video to bring to life the impact of our Funding Partners’ investment, this piece of content amassed over 25K organic impressions across social media channels.

WORKING WITH COUNTY FAS

Throughout the year, we have worked closely with our partners at local County FAs. We produced bespoke impact graphics to demonstrate the investment into each County FA since 2000, as well as end of year summaries. County FAs then shared these assets on their various social media and digital channels.

End of Year summaries

Impact Graphics

CASE STUDIES

Over the last 12 months, we’ve produced more case studies than ever before. They demonstrate the positive outcomes from partner investment and inspire a broad range of applications.

Football –blind football festival

Bloomsbury

Berkhamsted Raiders

Wortley FC x Kalvin Phillips

Peter May Sports Ground x Harry Kane

Nottingham Lions – LGBTQ+

OUR MULTI-SPORT COMMITMENT ANNOUNCEMENT

In August, we held an event at Gunnersbury Park Hub to announce our commitment to invest 40% of our funding into multi-sport projects that support both football and an additional sport by 2025. We also launched the expansion of PitchPower to the RFU, RFL and ECB.

What we did

• Hosted a media event with stakeholders from Football, Rugby League, Rugby Union and cricket.

• Achieved coverage of the campaign across a spread of national, regional, trade print and broadcast media.

• Collaborated with our Funding partners and NGBs on content so the campaign reached their audiences too.

• Captured content to use on event day and throughout the year to amplify our multi-sport message.

• Created a suite of assets to increase awareness and use of PitchPower as an easy to use and effective tool.

• Targeted emails to grass pitch sites and MPs to inform them of our commitment and funding.

COMMITMENT ANNOUNCEMENT DIGITAL RESULTS

We created a wide-range of content to ensure a drumbeat of activity across Football Foundation and partner channels, both on event day and over the following days/weeks/months. Since the launch, we’ve achieved:

Total reach (including partner channels)

Users to website Impressions across all Foundation social media

Emails sent

SNAPSHOT OF SOCIAL MEDIA COVERAGE FROM MULTI-SPORT COMMITMENT ANNOUNCEMENT

MEDIA RESULTS FROM THE MULTI-SPORT COMMITMENT ANNOUNCEMNT

50 Interviews in 2 hours

20 National and regional interviews with broadcasters on site or down the line.

130m Reached with national and regional broadcasters on site

282 stations featured Robert's pre record

Generating 971 items of coverage

8.7m listening in

138.7m

Total broadcast reach

Online reach of 31m

GET YOUR PITCH MATCH FIT

Building on our multi-sport commitment launch in August, we launched our ‘Get your pitch match fit’ campaign in November to coincide with the key window for football pitch inspections on PitchPower.

What we did

• Captured content of sites who have used PitchPower and have benefitted from Grass Pitch Maintenance Funding.

• Targeted emails to grass pitch sites to encourage them to use PitchPower and apply for funding.

• Successful test paid social campaign with our new campaign videos, which will continue into FY24 (see next slide).

• Sent press releases to regional media with local case studies.

• Ran a competition to win a Gareth Southgate ball for sites using PitchPower.

52.2k 16.8k 600k 3k 1.9k

Media reach Webpage visits Impressions across all Foundation social media (paid and organic)

Emails sent New PitchPower users (since start of campaign in Nov)

FOOTBALL FOUNDATION GROUNDSKEEPING COMMUNITY

In the last year:

• The community has grown by 14% to 3538 users, remaining consistent with the rate of growth seen in the previous period.

• There’s been consistently high engagement with the learning resources, with over 129k card views across the platform.

• The community continues to stimulate high levels of conversation – there's been 886 posts and comments between users.

• There has been a 4% increase in the total interactions of users in the Community Support group compared to the previous period.

• The monthly average number of users accessing the communities was 395.

• The Regional Pitch Advisors (RPAs) on the platform have also been involved in 147 post or comment responses to volunteers in the community.

MEN’S WORLD CUP

The FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar kicked off on 20 November. It provided a great opportunity for us to showcase the importance of grassroots football facilities and how our funding is supporting the facilities for the next generation. What we did

• Launched our ‘Foundations’ content series, which celebrated the role of grassroots football and community facilities in the journey of members of the England squad - Kalvin Phillips, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Harry Kane.

• Three regional case studies based on the squad members Foundations stories.

• Letters to MPs with players in their constituency

• CEO blog, talking about the importance of grass pitches.

WORLD CUP DIGITAL RESULTS

We created a wide-range of content to ensure a drumbeat of activity across Football Foundation and partner channels, both on event day and over the following days, weeks and months. The campaign achieved (results from 20 Nov – 18 Dec):

Total reach (including partner and media channels) Organic shares on Facebook of Kalvin Phillips’ grassroots story. Our most shared post this year

Impressions across all Foundation social media

Increase in traffic to the website from social

LET’S GO 2023!

We kicked off 2023 with a campaign highlighting our biggest ever level of support for sports clubs and organisations across the country and how easy it is to apply for funding.

What we did

• We created a suite of assets to use on our digital channels across paid and organic. The assets were shared with funding partners and CFAs to use too.

• News story on the website to direct social posts – this included details of all support to clubs and organisations.

DIGITAL RESULTS

We created a wide-range of content to ensure a drumbeat of activity across Football Foundation and partner channels, both on event day and over the following days/weeks/months. Since the launch, we’ve achieved:

1 in 5 182% 225k+ 6.5k

of those referred from paid social who clicked through to make a grant application

Increase in looking for funding webpage views (when compared two period before campaign launch)

Impressions across all Foundation social media (paid and organic)

Emails sent

HERE TO PLAY

The Lionesses roared their way to victory at the UEFA Women’s EUROs last summer and we continued building on their success through our HERE TO PLAY campaign, which we launched in February.

HERE TO PLAY aims to:

• Demonstrate our funding partners’ investment and commitment into making facilities equally accessible to women and girls​.

• Inspire women and girls to get playing.

• Encourage clubs and sites to create welcoming facilities for women and girls.

How we’ve showcased this so far:

• Launched HERE TO PLAY at our first Lioness-named site opening – the Jill Scott pitch in Jarrow.

• Opened the Jill Scott and Ella Toone pitches and collaborated on content from their site openings and on their ‘Foundations’ series – content showcasing the Lioness' grassroots clubs and bringing to life the Football Foundation facilities and the benefits they bring to the local community​.

• Shared best in class examples of sites who are making a difference to women and girls football.

Grass Pitch Revolution: New funding to improve football pitches

MEDIA CHANNELS THAT COVERED THE JILL SCOTT AND ELLA TOONE PITCH OPENINGS

DIGITAL RESULTS FROM THE JILL SCOTT PITCH OPENING

We created a wide-range of content to ensure a drumbeat of activity across Football Foundation and partner channels, both on event day and over the following days, weeks and months. Since the launch, we’ve achieved: 16m

Total reach (including partner and media channels

e.g. Lionesses, BBC News and Mundial)

Increase in new followers (Instagram). Our highest daily spike in followers this year.

Impressions across all Foundation social media

Emails sent

SNAPSHOT OF SOCIAL MEDIA COVERAGE FROM THE JILL SCOTT PITCH OPENING

Grass Pitch Revolution: New funding to improve football pitches

DIGITAL RESULTS FROM THE ELLA TOONE PITCH OPENING

We created a wide-range of content to ensure a drumbeat of activity across Football Foundation and partner channels, both on event day and over the following days, weeks and months. Since the launch, we’ve achieved:

4.5m 94.8% 400k

Total reach (including partner and media channels e.g. Lionesses, BBC News and Mundial)

Increase in content interactions on Instagram (when compared to previous period).

Organic impressions across all Foundation social media

SNAPSHOT OF SOCIAL MEDIA COVERAGE FROM THE ELLA TOONE PITCH OPENING

Grass Pitch Revolution:

ENERGY SUPPORT PROGRAMME

In March, we launched a new £6m package of support to help grassroots football clubs and organisations with rising energy costs. The Programme is broken down into two Funds: The Energy Fund and The Floodlight Fund. The Energy Fund will be targeted at energy-saving measures for clubhouses and pavilions. The Floodlight Fund will support the upgrading of metal halide ('halogen') floodlights to LED floodlights on our funded floodlit football turf pitches (FTPs).

What we did

• Designed guidance specifically for football clubs to with useful tips to help reduce energy costs.

• Ran a paid social campaign via LinkedIn achieving 44,784 impressions and a click through rate of 0.67% (average is 0.39 to 0.65%).

• Targeted emails to sites to encourage them to submit an Expression of Interest.

• One of the most visited pages on the Football Foundation website in 2023, with over 9k visits from 5k users.

ROCKY & WRIGHTY ARENA OPENING

In April, we opened the Rocky & Wrighty Arena at Ian Wright and David 'Rocky' Rocastle’s primary school Turnham Academy in Lewisham, South-East London. The new pitch will be used by the whole community - local residents, children at Turnham Academy and local club Hillyfielders FC.

What we did

• Worked in partnership with EA SPORTS who also funded the pitch to host an opening event with Ian Wright, key stakeholders, media and the local community.

• Achieved coverage of the opening across a spread of national, regional, trade print and broadcast media.

• Collaborated with our Funding partners and EA SPORTS on content so the campaign reached their audiences too.

• Captured content at the spade in the ground, mid-way build point and opening event as well as with Millwall Community Trust who are running sessions at the site.

• Promoted that the Rocky & Wrighty Arena will appear in EA SPORTS FIFA 2023 game.

MEDIA CHANNELS WHO COVERED THE ROCKY & WRIGHTY ARENA OPENING

Grass Pitch Revolution: New funding to improve football pitches

DIGITAL RESULTS FROM THE ROCKY & WRIGHTY ARENA BUILD TO OPENING EVENT

We created a wide-range of content to ensure a drumbeat of activity across Football Foundation and partner channels, both on event day and over the following days, weeks and months. Since the launch, we’ve achieved:

45m+

Total reach (including partner and media channels e.g. EA SPORTS FIFA and Ian Wright)

156%

Increase in organic social media referral traffic (taken a week after opening of site)

1.2m

Impressions across all Foundation social media

SNAPSHOT OF SOCIAL MEDIA COVERAGE FROM BUILD TO OPENING

3. MEDIA COVERAGE

383m 1323

Media reach

(+176% on last year)

Our reach has increased significantly this year with high quality meaningful pieces and broadcast coverage secured at the multi-sport launch, HERE TO PLAY campaign and Rocky & Wrighty Arena opening

185 97%

Media articles

(+2% on last year)

Alongside a significant increase in reach, a small growth in articles demonstrates the ambition for quality coverage over quantity

Pieces of broadcast coverage

(-4% on last year)

Despite a slight fall in the number of broadcast coverage pieces, the reach of this coverage has more than doubled as over a third of the pieces were national, compared to just 5% last season.

Positive sentiment

(-2% on last year)

Concerns were in trade and regional press and related to the environmental impact of new 3G FTPs as well as calls for greater support from the Football Foundation and Premier League for grassroots football.

SNAPSHOT OF NATIONAL MEDIA

SNAPSHOT OF REGIONAL MEDIA

SNAPSHOT OF SPORT, TRADE AND THIRD SECTOR MEDIA

4. DIGITAL & SOCIAL MEDIA

+2.6k% 25% +47% +82%

Increase in Instagram reach compared to previous year

Increase in Facebook page visits

Average engagement rate on Twitter posts (0.7% above industry average)

Increase in web traffic from organic social

FOOTBALL FOUNDATION WEBSITE ENGAGEMENT HAS INCREASED

+25% +20% 51% 11%

Increase in total site users (year on year)

Increase in users accessing site through organic search (year on year)

Increase in users accessing the site through paid search (year on year)

Increase in grant application link clicks

KEEPING UP WITH THE NEWS AGENDA ON SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

SUPPORT FROM THE FUNDING PARTNER SOCIAL

The FA

Premier League

5. UNLOCKING PARTNERSHIPS

SECURING ADDITIONAL GOVERNMENT FUNDING

PUBLIC AFFAIRS ENGAGEMENT

• Three visits with Secretary of State for DCMS – including a FaceTime with Lioness Jill Scott, attendance at the opening of The Ella Toone Pitch and 1:1 meetings with Robert

• Meeting with Labour Leader Keir Starmer and his team to introduce the Football Foundation

• Visit to newly opened BEAP in Bradford with Sports Minister Stuart Andrew

• Personalised letters sent to every MP and Council Leaders

• Personalised graphics created for every MP and Local Authority showing the impact of Football Foundation investment

• Shared LFFPs directly with every MP, encouraging them to share on their social channels and requesting a meeting

• Three meetings with Metro Mayors, including Tracy Brabin (West Yorkshire), Andy Burnham (Greater Manchester), and Jamie Driscoll (North of the Tyne)

• Planning for an engagement event at Parliament to provide MPs an opportunity to hear more about their local plans in early FY24

SoS Lucy Frazer MP at Ella Toone Pitch unveiling Minister Stuart Andrew MP visits BEAP

DCMS colleagues with Ian Wright, Robert and Partner reps at Rocky & Wrighty Arena

Jill Scott facetimes SoS Lucy Frazer at Here to Play launch

SoS Michelle Donelan MP at Rastrick High School

MP ENGAGEMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

• In June 2022 the Football Foundation and Sport England led a round table discussion with CEOs from national governing bodies such as Hockey, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Cricket, Tennis and Netball around the benefits of multisport facilities and how we can work collaboratively together to deliver them. It was a great discussion about the various elements each organisation can bring to this work and a huge amount of enthusiasm to get this work delivered.

• Robert has written a number of first-person pieces to position the Foundation as a leader in the sport sector field.

• A number of team members represented the Foundation at a number of conferences including SALTEX, SAPCA and EA SPORTS x Sony this year. These appearances have ensured that the Foundation has had visibility and led conversation around key topics for the grassroots football community, and industry leaders

6. SUPPORTERS

SUPPORTER ACTIVITY

• Gareth Southgate and Karl Standley (Grounds Manager for Wembley) joined us at our multi-sport event. Gareth coached children and took part in a PitchPower inspection alongside Karl Standley.

• John Ledwidge, Head of Grounds at Leicester City FC supported our multi-sport content on his social channels.

• We continued our content series with Liv Cooke, showcasing the build of the 3G project at Bamber Bridge Leisure Centre, near where Liv grew up.

LOOKING TO FY24

We’re looking to build on the successes of FY23 in order to continue driving attribution to Funding Partners, unlocking partnerships, supporting the grassroots football community and securing the next tranche of additional government funding.

Notably, 2023 will see the launch of the Football Foundation’s PlayZones - small-sided multisport pitches based on community need that will provide spaces not only for football but other sports such as rugby, cricket and basketball.

Our HERE TO PLAY campaign will continue to build momentum during the Women’s World Cup in August and we’re set to open more Lionesses pitches.

And with the General Election taking place in 2024, we’ll be ramping up our Public Affairs activity to increase engagement with MPs and Government and demonstrating the impact of Partner investment on local communities.

We’ll also continue to increase our social media, digital and media reach to fulfil the objectives of the Foundation and its Funding Partners.

We look forward to continuing to work with Funding Partner Marketing and Communications team to increase the awareness and understanding of their investment into the Foundation and the impact of its work.