On 24 May, leveraging the climax of the UK football season and ahead of the late running UEFA Euro 2020, The FA, SFA, WFA and IFA partner BT launched a new football team, called ‘Hope United’, to front a new campaign tackling online hate.
Rolled out in the build-up to the rescheduled Euro 2020 tournament – which will run from 11 June to 11 July – the British telco and broadband giant aims to educate its consumers and the wider UK audience about online abuse through an initiative which also supports its victims.
The campaign aims not only to raise awareness of the problem, but also to generate support for the cause, to educate the nation on how to protect themselves and be good digital citizens and thus drive behavioural change.
A lead partner of each of the four UK Home Nations football teams (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), BT has assembled a strong squad of famous football faces from all four teams – including current England Team stars Marcus Rashford and Lucy Bronze and legends like Rio Ferdinand, plus Gareth Bale, Andy Robertson, Jordan Henderson, Ethan Ampadu, Rebecca Sellar and Demi Stokes – to front its integrated project combatting online abuse and hate.
The ‘Hope United’ concept and campaign was developed by Saatchi & Saatchi in collaboration with BT and the agency developed a team brand identity, logo and kit as well as produced the spearhead creative campaign assets including TV, press, OOH and social media content.
As well as running on owned and paid media channels, the Hope United ambassador squad will all support and amplify content across their own social media channels.
The campaign’s hero ‘This Is Hope United’ launch film features members of the team and was created by a team at Saatchi & Saatchi and helmed by Director Matilda Finn of Stink Films.
It was posted online on 22 May and premiered on air on BT Sport on 26 May during the UEFA Europa League Final and shows a powerful depiction of the shattering impact receiving online hate has.
The campaign followed on from research commissioned by BT which revealed that 10% of people in the UK have been the victim of online abuse during the last 12 months.
“With the European Championships on the horizon, all eyes will once again be on the footballing world and with the inevitable online hate that comes with this BT is taking action,” explained BT Marketing Communications Director Pete Jeavons at the campaign launch event. “Our mission is to connect for good and Hope United will galvanise the nation to make a stand against social media hate, providing people with the necessary tools not only to understand the devastating effects of online hate, but also to show them how to be part of the solution. It’s part of our commitment to help 25 million people to make the most of life in the digital world through our Skills for Tomorrow programme. That is why this summer, and as sponsor of the Home Nations, we are asking the country to make Hope United their second team. If everyone stands together, unified through both words and action, hope will emerge victorious over hate.”
Saatchi & Saatchi led the project and partnered with design studio Nomad in developing the football related iconography and kit and worked with Digitas to develop the Hope United website and with Publicis Poke on retail display and activation. Media buying was led by Essence, with PR handled by Pitch Marketing Group and sponsorship by Cake. The campaign also includes a partnership with Reach PLC who will support the project across print and digital media.
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The campaign not only dovetailed with BT’s combined, four football association home nations partnership ‘We Connect For Good’ activation, but it also rolled out in parallel with BT Sport’s May ‘Draw The Line’ anti online hate initiative which included spots starring ambassador Rio Ferdinand, David Haye and Austin Healey.
This campaign included Ferdinand’s ‘If You React You’re Feeding The Animal’, Healey’s ‘Would That Person Actually Say That To Me?’ and Haye’s “I’ve Never Seen As Much Hate Ever”.
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