The Northern Home of Football
Sky Bet and The Overlap had a problem:
The betting market was a cluttered and intimidating space, full of loud voices and big personalities. Cut-through had become difficult and thought-leadership and cultural relevance had become more essential to creating that cut-through. Sky Bet and their sponsored football discussion podcast The Overlap, hosted by Gary Neville, had initial success, but lacked the perfect studio space to house the content, and therefore to become a true home of the northern football conversation.
We had an idea:
We had everything we needed in our in-house studios to become home to The Overlap, but we needed to design and craft the perfect space – a space that brought not only the luxury and gravitas that could house the range of Gary Neville’s guests, but also the down-to-earth charm that made the space feel both on brand for The Overlap and Gary Neville, and evocative and inviting for northern football fans.
No one has heart for the beautiful game like northerners. So, in creating this space, we started with the very people we were trying to connect Sky Bet and The Overlap with: the northern fans. We carried out an in-depth qualitative research phase to codify that northern footie aesthetic. In our study, fans reminisced about smell of Bovril, the walk through the streets and past the chippy on the way to the ground, the cult footie figures they loved growing up, the key moments that defined them as a fan. This gave us something to bottle, to bleed into our set design and craft.
“It’s right up my street, it looks absolutely brilliant, it’s amazing.”
Gary Neville
The results:
The Overlap won YouTube series of the year, podcast of the year, and averaged 3.2m views per episode. These awards and engagement figures prove we were successful in creating a space that truly became the home of northern football conversation and gave Sky Bet and The Overlap a leading role in football culture.
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