Fulham Football Club

Amidst all the headlines about playboy footballers on eye-watering salaries, it’s easy to forget that behind the headlines lie football clubs and businesses which need to generate revenue and develop their brand like any other.

With all the global exposure of the Premier League in particular, one of the main potential routes of revenue for any club is in sponsorship - of shirts, of hoardings, even of entire stadia. And in many cases, the top football clubs are chasing the same brands around the world for these partnerships.

We were introduced to Fulham Football Club after previously working with Manchester City during their search for a naming rights partner (which in that particular case ended in the sale of the entire club!).

Fulham needed to start a global search for a new sponsor, made all the more challenging by needing to do this within a difficult global economic landscape.

We set about understanding and ‘digging deep’ into the club and their unique position in the world of football. We discovered so much, from their unique riverside location, their rich history (they were London’s first professional club), to a great roll call of players over the years from George Best to Johnny Haynes.

However, we also needed to understand and communicate the more commercial opportunities such as their affluent fan base, the opportunities for brand visibility, the exposure of Fulham on media channels, and future stadium plans.

We proposed, directed and produced a film that provided an introduction and platform for commercial conversations to happen – showcasing how brands could raise their profile and align their brand with the club in a number of different ways, whilst bringing out all the uniqueness of Fulham as a football club.

The film was contained within the metaphor of a storybook, which gave us the platform to give weight to different messages as required. Each potential partner was shown a bespoke version of the film, incorporating their brand logo in various settings such as the stadium roof, advertising hoardings and TV interview backdrops – to visually engage them with the opportunities and the club.

Using this film as their primary introductory tool, Fulham clinched their biggest ever sponsorship deal with FXPro, and subsidiary deals with other secondary partners such as Jack Wolfskin.