Hi everyone,
McDonald’s has unveiled its new football campaign – which celebrates the coaches, volunteers, parents, clubs and leagues who all make grassroots football happen in England – at the season’s curtain-raiser, the FA Community Shield.
The new communications campaign supports McDonald’s long-standing sponsorship as the Community Partner of The Football Association since 2002, supporting grassroots coaching and clubs.
Created by Leo Burnett and LeoSports, the new campaign was launched at The FA Community Shield, sponsored by McDonald’s, at Wembley – with Premiership Champions Manchester United defeating neighbours and FA Cup winners Manchester City 3-2.
The campaign comprises of broadcast sponsorship idents, as well as event branding and print creative. Featured in the advertising and branding are the real stars of grassroots football, who have all been recognised in The FA Community Awards or are from FA Charter Standard clubs twinned with local McDonald’s restaurants.
The broadcast sponsorship idents feature three young footballers from Hampstead FC, a FA Charter Standard Community Club supported by McDonald’s.
The short films tell the story of what it’s like to be a football Player Escort, where kids get the chance to walk out at Wembley with their football heroes.
The Player Escort programme is just one of McDonald’s long running activities to reward the stars of grassroots football.
The spots will play out around the live coverage of the match on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 1HD and around the highlights to be broadcast on ITV1 – a 30 second edit was also shown to the Wembley Stadium crowd at the Community Shield.
The stadium branding and print creative features the stars of the grassroots football within a football card idea.
The cards record individual’s length of service to the game and their respective roles – for example, Lewis Laine, one of the FA Community Award nominees for his outstanding contribution to grassroots football, started back in 1969 and fulfils the role of ‘Gate man and Kit washer’; equally the young footballers are celebrated in the same style.
Alastair Marks, McDonald’s head of sponsorship, said: ‘The new football campaign is a really important step forward for McDonald’s, where we tell the story of our long-standing support of community football through the coaches, volunteers, parents and clubs that make the game happen at the grassroots level’.
‘We are an active partner in local communities through the UK helping to raise standards and enjoyment of people’s football experience’. [Source: Sport Industry Group]
Karl Lusbec
Football Marketing XI 
It seems like Grassroot Football is in the new a lot this year. The FA also had their “Just Play” campaign with Mars not too long ago. I am not sure if you saw that? We have been working on a web application for pickup soccer since January with the vision of uniting people through football so all this excitement around the subject is quite interesting. Why the sudden interest? New market opportunity? Health concerns? Early development of futur football fans?
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Hi Jeremy,
Grassroots have always been a focus for brands (Nike, adidas, Puma, Under Armour, etc…) and Football Associations (FFF, FA etc…) with different interest and focus.
In my opinion, Grassroots have become a stronger interest as kids grow with the brand or show a stronger interest in his/her F.A. I believe the interest in grassroots is increasing with brands such as McDonald’s and Coca Cola to a certain extent and offers them another strong marketing platform. I followed the “Just Play” campaign of the FA and it was a great activation.
Thanks for sharing Jeremy! 🙂
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