Meet the Member: “There is such a buzz around the club and that energy transcends all the different departments.”

Ahead of this Friday’s Premier League curtain-raiser between Burnley and Manchester City, we caught up with the newly-promoted side’s Head of Commercial, Marcus Mellor to speak about the energy around the club and the challenges around dealing with partnerships when you can’t be sure what league you will be in.

So Marcus to kick off, take us through your journey in sport?

My journey working in the business of sport began at TRM Partners, a boutique sponsorship sales agency. When I was there we worked as white label sales proposition for some premium rights holders such as Mercedes F1, UEFA and Cricket Australia. My role was based around research, analysing and understanding cohesive brands to approach on behalf of those particular rights holders. 

Following this, I went to work for a company called The Energy Check, I started there as a Partnerships Manager and then worked my way up to Head of Partnerships. At the company’s peak involvement in sport partnerships, we worked with over 40 rights holders, both in the US and the UK. My main role was to drive ROI through our relationships, different marketing campaigns and branding assets with multiple rights holders across a variety of sports.  

I then moved to work for Social Chain, becoming Head of Commercial Partnerships. This was a step outside of sport, with Social Chain being a company that focused on e-commerce, social commerce and media publishing as well as being a marketing agency; my role here involved developing relationships with brands in a slightly different way, as we would work on campaigns that focused on content delivery and traditional media metrics on socials (impressions, reach, engagements etc.). I worked with brands such as BT & EE, Ebay, Logitech and EPOS, focusing on content delivery and returns through ecommerce sales.

So essentially, all roads lead to Burnley… kind of! I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Social Chain but I always kept a keen eye on any relevant opportunities in sport. Being a football fan, I was aware of the waves Burnley were making, and meeting the management and ownership as part of the interview process only affirmed that, I knew I wanted to be part of the journey immediately! 

You have been at Burnley for 10 months now, talk to us a bit about your time at the club and what has surprised you the most?

Honestly, as cliche as it might sound, the first 10 months have been an absolute whirlwind and felt more like 10 days. I don’t think there have been many weeks where we haven’t announced something new and exciting, whether it be JJ & Kealia Watt’s involvement, Vincent extending his contract (amongst much PL interest), multiple partner announcements, promotion… the list goes on! 

We are actually a very young organisation in terms of the people we have, I like to describe us as a startup, with 140 years of history and it definitely feels that way in the office. Cliche again but we want to get 1% better everyday, growing fast and learning from our failures (which I have plenty to learn from). No day is the same at the moment and it really is an exciting time for the football club. 

The pace at which the club is moving is incredible and we have a plethora of amazing young talent in our ranks who are driving us forward every day. We have extremely ambitious owners and we are all bought into the ethos of evolving, we are making massive leaps forward in terms of establishing the club as an exciting brand in sport and football.

How has it been different to other roles you have held previously?

It is my first time working for a rightsholder in my career and it has been really interesting being this side of things. I think understanding the market and what brands are looking for from rights holders has probably been the biggest difference, everyday I seem to uncover something which may not have crossed my mind in my previous roles, I have really enjoyed that learning aspect.  

Fundamentally, there are a lot of similarities between what I do now and what I have done before which has put me in good stead. My position allows me to both pitch to brands, trying to bring on new partners as well as focusing on delivery. I think the best part about working for a football club is the opportunity to be creative, working collaboratively both internally and with brands to ideate on unique concepts. I love taking ideas to brands we work with and pitch new things, it’s the best part of my job! We really want to break the mould with what we do with partners, I will definitely be leaning on Dude Perfect for some content ideas!

It was a great season for the club on the field earning promotion back to the Premier League, what has it been like behind the scenes?

It has been great, there is such a buzz around the club at the moment and that energy transcends all the different departments. I’d also like to shout out our women’s team, they came incredibly close to promotion last season, we’re all hopeful they’ll follow the men with promotion this upcoming season. Thankfully, in my role, both our men’s and women’s teams’ success has supported us to have an extremely successful period of onboarding new partners as well. For us, it has really been an opportunity for us to supercharge our off field operation also.  

We continue to try and emulate that success we have seen on the pitch through exciting partnerships and business developments. We have introduced a brand new ecommerce site, slightly rebranded (you may notice the slight change in colour of our crest), and announced a unique partnership with Dude Perfect to combine and grow our youth audience, hopefully capturing new football fans and making them Burnley FC fans for life! We also continue to develop innovative transfer announcement videos with our amazing content and social team continuing to smash it out of the park. 

Everyone is really excited about the strategy we have for this season both on and off the pitch, we will do our best to achieve off the pitch and fingers crossed both Vinny and Rebecca can get the teams to do the magic on it.

It is obviously tricky to put a value on your sponsorship packages when you’re not sure whether you are going to be in the Premier League or in the EFL Championship. Tell us a bit about how that process works?

We were in quite a fortunate position because we had a good steer that we were probably going to get promoted from about half way through the season. I think the conversation very much depends on who you are speaking with. We are certainly leading conversations with the journey we are on as a club, we have made some really unique strides with the likes of JJ & Kealia coming on board as investors as well as working with Dude Perfect, so utilising this as a key way we value our proposition. Having this to leverage certainly assists in ensuring we have a stable level of outreach and impressions no matter which league we are in.

Our owners continue to work closely with us to evolve our story, we are improving on the infrastructure we have off the pitch to ensure great delivery for partners, we want to deliver no matter what happens on the pitch, and we have a clear strategy to deliver content and activations with this in mind ie. our Sky Documentary and further BTS content with our partners. These considerations have been a key part of valuing our assets, while also understanding that on-pitch success and the broadcast reach of the Premier League is a huge factor to valuing our key media facing assets and will in turn assist our owned channels growth. 

It is another big challenge to try and stay in the top division. With your partners how does a multi-year deal work when you can’t be certain what league you are going to be playing in?

Again, this is through open and honest conversations, as well as really leading with the journey we are on as a club and our story. This is something we have been really strong on as well in my opinion, and has been supported through the unique work we have done already.

I think it also comes back to understanding the different assets that are available in the EFL to the Premier League. For example, we have been flexible in the development of our contracts meaning that some partners will take up some on-kit assets if we are relegated, this is to ensure we still deliver value to them as a brand marketing tool even in The Championship. 

If you could work for another sports organisation, in or out of football, who would it be and why?

I think for me it would be the PGA Tour. I am a massive golf fan and the idea of touring with a sport I love is something that really appeals to me. I’d also love to end up in the USA at some point. 

That being said, I am really loving my time here at Burnley, and I truly thank the management and owners of the club who were willing to give me an opportunity at this truly amazing club. UTC!

Tom Brady announced as minor investor in Birmingham City

Tom Brady will become Chairman of the new Advisory Board, working directly with the Club’s Board and members of Birmingham City Football Club’s leadership team.

As Chairman of the Advisory Board, Brady will apply his extensive leadership experience and expertise across several components of the Club, including working alongside the sports science department to advise on health, nutrition, wellness, and recovery systems and programs. In addition, Brady will work closely with the Board and the management team on global marketing efforts and the identification of new commercial partnership opportunities for the Club.

An NFL legend who is universally recognised among the greatest players in league history, Brady retired in 2023 after 23 illustrious seasons. Among his innumerable accolades and accomplishments, Brady holds the record for most Super Bowl victories with seven and most Super MVPs with five. In addition, he earned the NFL Most Valuable Player Award three times, the NFL Offensive Player of the Year twice, and has been honoured with multiple ESPY Awards and Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year distinctions, along with his naming to the NFL 100th Anniversary ‘All-Time Team.’

Even in retirement, Brady has continued his relentless pursuit of sporting excellence, and his passion for competition has culminated in several highly successful global endeavours with Knighthead across a variety of sports. In addition to the Birmingham City Ltd. partnership, Brady joined Knighthead’s ownership group for a Major League Pickleball team in 2022, and in March 2023, Brady’s lifestyle apparel clothing company, BRADY™, was announced as the Official Apparel Partner of Knighthead’s World Endurance Championship racing team, Hertz Team JOTA, which competed at the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans this past June. Taken together, these ventures are illustrative of Brady’s unyielding commitment to exercise his entrepreneurial instincts and to bridge the gap between athlete and entrepreneur.

Chairman of the Board, Tom Wagner, said: “Tom Brady joining the Birmingham City team is a statement of intent. We are setting the bar at world class. Tom is both investing and committing his time and extensive expertise. As Chair of the Advisory Board Tom will have a direct impact on the Club. The Men’s, Women’s, and Academy teams are going to benefit from the knowledge. The goal that Tom has committed to own is to make Birmingham City a respected leader in nutrition, health, wellness, and recovery across the world of football.

“A commitment to Blues fans was made on Monday 8 May 2023, to add experts from the world of sport and football to the team, putting in place the building blocks for future success. With Garry Cook as CEO, Hope Powell as Women’s Technical Director and now Tom Brady we are off to a fast start. Success does not come overnight. It takes time. But when you have great leaders in place everything becomes possible.” 

Tom Brady said: “Birmingham City is an iconic club with so much history and passion and to be part of the Blues is a real honour for me. BCFC is built on teamwork and determination and I’m excited to work alongside the board, management and players to make our Second City club second to none. I’ve been part of some amazing teams in my day, and I’m looking forward to applying my perspective to create that same success here in Birmingham.”

iSportConnect Sports Tech Index powered by SportsTech Match – 3 August

Who’s hot in Sports Tech? Who is doing deals, launching new products and generally doing some of the best work in the sector? That’s what the Index attempts to dig into. Whether established players or the up-and-coming stars, we go a little deeper for you…

Edition number six of our monthly sports tech index sees Fanbase (fan engagement platform) hold on to the #1 spot following five new client announcements (in rugby and football) over the past 4 weeks.

Sport:80 (NGB and sports membership management) hold on to second spot on the back of two 5-star customer ratings (from Basketball Wales and USA Climbing) and our top five is completed by Genius Sports (sports data) at #3, Ticketmaster (ticketing) at #4 and Seat Unique (ticketing) at #5. 

Kitman Labs (athlete performance analytics) at #20, appearing in our top 20 for the first time, is our only representative from the Athletes & Performance sector (helped along by a new deal with Iowa State University) and GameOn Technology (AI chat platform) at #19 is another first timer following a new deal announcement with the UBS Arena in New York.

Want to know more?

Subscribe to the SportsTech Match monthly newsletter for an overview of the activity that generated points towards the index this month (via the footer on the website).

The iSportConnect Sports Tech Index is designed to help rights owners and investors quickly assess who is “hot” from a product and new business perspective and provides sports tech vendors with an incentive to focus their PR announcements on what matters to the market. It follows a simple scoring system (see below).

The iSportConnect Sports Tech Index is published on a monthly basis on iSportConnect.com.

Click here to read more about how the Index is calculated.

World Table Tennis announces Liebherr as Official Partner

World Table Tennis is delighted to welcome Liebherr as an Official Partner of WTT Champions Frankfurt 2023 which will take place at the Süwag Energie Arena between Sunday 29 October and Sunday 5 November.

The family-run German manufacturer and technology company, a long-term partner of table tennis, will have exclusive rights at the only European WTT Champions event across both the refrigeration and construction machine categories.

WTT Champions Frankfurt is Liebherr’s first partnership with World Table Tennis and follows the successful partnership earlier this year at the ITTF World Championships Finals in Durban, South Africa.

Steffen Günther, Managing Director of Liebherr-International AG, said: “Liebherr is proud to be an Official Partner for the first WTT Champions Frankfurt event later this year. We have been involved in many world level events and are excited to see the new WTT Champions event format in Germany, Liebherr’s home market. We look forward to welcoming the fans to Frankfurt and watching the best players in the world putting on another incredible show.”

With less than 100 days to go, Frankfurt is set to delight when the top 32 men and women arrive in Germany to battle it out for US$800,000 in prize money as well as all-important 1000 ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking points as players push hard to qualify for the season-ending WTT Finals.

Jonny Cowan, Europe General Manager at World Table Tennis said: “Liebherr has been a long-term partner of international table tennis and we are very pleased to add Liebherr to our World Table Tennis partner roster for WTT Champions Frankfurt. It is always a superb atmosphere in Germany with passionate fans both in the German market and those who will travel to Frankfurt to see the worlds’ best table tennis players.”

The House View: Why cricket needs free-to-air TV to make the most of the Ashes

Cricket has become an elitist game and can no longer claim to be the nation’s summer sport, as it did for most of the 20th century.

As a cricket fan and low-standard club player, I love it when cricket generates enough cut-through with the wider public that my friends become interested in it. This has happened a lot over the past six weeks thanks to a blockbuster of an Ashes series which seized the attention of a few people before the Premier League returns. It has also been helped by the lack of a major men’s football tournament and the women’s World Cup only getting underway on July 20.

Similar cut-through was achieved  in 2019, when a World Cup and Ashes double-header of a summer brought cricket briefly back into the wider public domain. Thanks to Sky Sports sharing their broadcast with Channel 4, England’s World Cup Final win was watched by a peak audience of 8.3 million. 

But that summer was never properly capitalised upon and many new fans fell away. 

The last time the England team consistently played on free-to-air TV was the 2005 Ashes, another epic series that saw England emerge victorious for the first time in 18 years. The viewing figures for that series make impressive reading. The numbers  peaked on the final day of the Fourth Test at 8.4 million. The final day at the Brit Oval attracted a peak of 7.4 million viewers despite being on a Monday.

We do not have peak viewership figures yet, but the total viewership across both the Men’s and Women’s Ashes series for both Sky’s live coverage and the BBC highlights was only 17.6 million. This isn’t massive, but it is still a 14% increase from the 2019 series.

Cricket went behind a paywall in 2006 after Sky Sports won exclusive rights to live coverage of home Tests and other international matches. This followed five years of innovative coverage on free-to-air Channel 4 after decades on the BBC. Andy Duncan, CEO of Channel 4 at the time, said: “[The loss of] cricket was not that damaging for us. It is hugely damaging for cricket.”

Like Mystic Meg, he really was right. 

In 2009, Sky’s broadcast of the final day of the deciding Ashes Test only pulled in 467,000 and Ben Stokes’ heroics at Headingley in the 2019 series could only muster 2.7 million. 

Cricket has suffered the consequences of not being on free-to-air TV. This is not to do a disservice to Sky, their coverage is truly exceptional and the money they have ploughed into the game has gone to many worthwhile causes.

But cricket has been behind a paywall for too long. It has become an elitist game: of the England team which took the field for the final Ashes Test last week, six of the 11 attended private school. And most startlingly we are nearly ten years from a Black player who was born in the UK playing Test cricket for England. 

An Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket report was published in June. The report found that structural and institutional racism, sexism and class-based discrimination continue to exist across the game.

While cricket needs the money from Sky, it also needs to be watched by the masses to regain its place as the nation’s summer sport. We need to see at least one Test a summer on free-to-air TV and preferably some international one-day cricket as well. 

In the long run getting more people interested in cricket will be a lot more beneficial than a bigger TV rights fee.

By Alex Brinton, Content Manager iSportConnect

The View From The US: Messi has arrived, but where are his jerseys?

In this week’s View From The US article, Sportico’s Eben Novy-Williams, looks into one of the untold stories of Lionel Messi’s arrival in Miami and why it isn’t plain sailing.

Lionel Messi’s fans didn’t have to wait long for his first signature moment with Inter Miami CF. But they will have to wait if they want to buy his jersey.

Listings for pink or black Messi No. 10 jerseys from the official MLS shop currently feature a pre-order warning that says Adidas will be delivering the product in “mid October.” The disclaimer covers the $195 authentic jersey, the $125 adult replicas and the $105 youth replicas.

It’s a surprising commercial misfire at a very high-profile moment. The Argentine soccer star has been talking loosely with Inter Miami for years, and he turned heads across the globe when he announced in early June that he would be coming to Florida. That was a full six weeks before he made his debut for the team on July 21.The business ramifications could also directly impact the striker. Messi has a lifetime deal with Adidas and is expected to sign a side agreement that will let him share in some of the commercial upside of his jersey sales. If people choose not to order a jersey because it won’t arrive until the end of Inter Miami’s season, that’s bad for fans, Adidas, MLS, Inter Miami, Fanatics and Messi himself.

The warnings on the official MLS and Inter Miami stores, which are run by league partner Fanatics, imply that the delay is on the Adidas side—it says the jerseys will ship “within one business day” of Adidas delivering them to a Fanatics fulfillment center in a few months. Representatives for Adidas, MLS and Fanatics declined to comment on the specifics of the delay.

“The demand for Messi’s Miami jersey has been truly unprecedented,” an Adidas spokesman said in a statement. “We’re working as quickly as possible to ensure that every fan who wants a jersey can get one.” 

Member Insights: What does the Commonwealth Games’ future look like?

In this week’s Member Insight piece David Alexander, MD of Calacus PR, looks into the recent announcement surrounding the Commonwealth Games and question’s the events future.

Since the Commonwealth Games began in 1930, they have only ever been cancelled because of World War Two. 

A shock and unexpected announcement in mid-July could well see the event cancelled for the first time since – but the situation underlines the challenges that the Commonwealth Games faces for its very existence.

Founded by a Canadian sportswriter who wanted to celebrate the British Empire, the Games’ colonial roots have become a point of contention with a growing number of people. 

The competition, which was even previously called the British Empire Games, is struggling to attract younger audiences who consider it dated and unethical. 

The CGF have acknowledged the controversy surrounding the competition, stating: “There is no easy way of saying the Commonwealth has a challenging history linked to colonial roots. Work has already started to alter the focus from the hegemony of the British Empire to one of global peace.” 

The Guardian journalist Tumaini Carayol said in condemnation: “The lasting damage that slavery and colonialism have inflicted on Commonwealth countries has never been fully addressed.

“What initially stood as an event for Britain and its colonies is now a helpful tool for Britain to divert attention from its ills of the past, presenting itself as a more compassionate nation compared with other former imperial powers.”

It does not help that the diversity and respect on which international sports competition is based flounders when same-sex relations are illegal in 35 of the 56 member states, with homosexuality carrying a sentence of life imprisonment in seven.

No wonder that before last year’s event in Birmingham, British diver Tom Daley slammed the homophobia rampant in many Commonwealth countries. 

When Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews announced that the hosts had pulled out due to an increase in costs from Au$2bn to Au$6bn, he did so without full engagement with the Commonwealth Games Federation,  Commonwealth Games Australia and the federal government.

Whatever his motives for making the decision without consultation, it has put Andrews in a challenging position which will put his authority under increased scrutiny and doubts will inevitably rise about any future promises he makes.

There will be a Senate investigation, focusing on his financial estimates and the reasons behind the decision, which saw him respond in an aggressive and defensive manner when faced with media in late July.

Asked whether he would apologise to athletes and businesses who had already invested in expectation of the Games, Andrews insisted the event was “all cost and no benefit.

“I’m not going to apologise for not taking money out of schools and hospitals.”

Little surprise, then, that opposing Liberal Senator for Victoria Sarah Henderson said  in reply that: “No Victorian should have any faith in any promise made by either Daniel Andrews or Anthony Albanese,” Senator Henderson said.

“This state has become an economic basket case. (Daniel Andrews) needs to be honest with the people of Victoria over what it has cost to cancel the Games.”

When Victoria was first names as 2026 hosts, its government website said that: “Victoria 2026 will showcase what makes the people of our state tick: our unity, our diversity, our sense of community, our welcoming attitude and our love of sport.” 

Understandably, the CGF were not impressed by the cancellation and issued a statement: “This is hugely disappointing for the Commonwealth Sport Movement, for athletes around the Commonwealth and the organising committee who are well advanced in their planning and preparation.

“We are disappointed that we were only given eight hours’ notice and that no consideration was given to discussing the situation to jointly find solutions prior to this decision being reached by the government.

“Up until this point, the government had advised that sufficient funding was available to deliver the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games. The reasons given are financial. The numbers quoted to us today of AU$6bn are 50 per cent more than those advised to the organising committee board at its meeting in June.”

There have been reports that Andrews’ government ignored warnings about holding the event across regional areas instead of in Melbourne alone, which was always going to have an impact on budgets.

CGF President Dame Louise Martin wrote of Andrews’ team: “Since awarding Victoria the Games, the government has made decisions to include more sports and an additional regional hub, and changed plans for venues, all of which have added considerable expense, often against the advice of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA).”

The discrepancy and uncertainty over financial figures raises questions about what else has gone wrong for the situation to get to this point.

Craig Phillips, Chief Executive of Commonwealth Games Australia doubted the A$6bn estimation. 

He said: “The stated costs overrun, in our opinion, a gross exaggeration and not reflective of the operation costs presented to the Victorian 2026 Organising Committee as recently as June this year.

“The announcement made by the Victorian Government today is beyond disappointing. It’s a comprehensive let down for the athletes, the excited host communities, First Nations Australians who were at the heart of the Games, and the millions of fans that would have embraced a sixth home Games in Australia.” 

Whether the situation damages Australia’s chances of hosting future major sporting events remains to be seen.

Shadow federal Sports Minister, Anne Ruston, believes that Victoria’s decision could affect Australia’s hosting credibility. She said: “Australia’s reputation has been damaged today and you should be very worried about the damage this does to Australia’s international reputation. Today is a very sad day for Australian sport.” 

Others suggest that the reputational damage will affect its trading capabilities. 

Tim Harcourt, an economist with the University of Technology Sydney, said: “The Commonwealth Games are pretty significant for trade. They’re not being leveraged for how important they could be.”

He argued that at a time in which Australia is seeking to strengthen its trade in the Indo-Pacific region, no longer welcoming those nations to compete in Australia is economically “short-sighted.”

The Commonwealth Games is the only high profile, international competition in which disabled athletes compete alongside able-bodied athletes rather than in a separate event.

Australian gold-medal-winning Paralympian swimmer, Rowan Crothers, tweeted that the Games are “a great opportunity to raise awareness for disabled sport. Seeing the Games cancelled will suck for the state of inclusion. 

“For some athletes, a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games means more than a gold medal at the Paralympics… recognition and equality can mean more than achievement.”

But the ramifications for the future of the Games themselves are worrying.

Steve Georgakis, a sports studies lecturer at the University of Sydney, observed: “This could spell the end of the Commonwealth Games.”

Whether that proves to be the case or not, perhaps the competition’s uncomfortable origins and dwindling audiences will ensure that fate is inescapable. 

Has sport maximised the effectiveness of web3?

In this article Virtua’s Commercial Director, Rory Stewart-Richardson, looks into some of the partnerships between sports and Web3 brands and asks if they have maximised their effectiveness.

Clubs maximise revenue from new categories but do they always maximise the partnership / product to give a return to the Brand. In recent times, we have seen a huge amount of investment from Web3 companies into the world of sport, for once clubs were in a very strong position to inflate their property prices due to the number of Web3 companies that were looking to maximise the visibility large sports organisations could provide to gain market share, but most of these seemingly were purely transactional and not activated, and if they were activated they alienated the potential buyer (the fan) by failing on the activation. 

There have been a large number of failed activations from Liverpool’s NFT flop through to failed due diligence in such a new space with the likes of FTX, who sent shudders through not only the Crypto / Web3 world, but also through the world of sports sponsorship. 

Was it right for clubs to partner with Web3 brands?

New categories are always a gamble particularly, when the category is so far from mass adoption, but it also can be a great opportunity – well funded organisations provide great revenues, but in my eyes, it also showed up that Rights Holders are a long way away from being able to tell the brand story, educating and engaging their fan base, and instead purely chasing the revenue streams. So far the press have picked up the disaster case studies, and have ignore the positive case studies which are starting to come through in the market. 

Mclaren X Tezos – They’ve launched what is, to date, the most successful free sports NFT project! Over 2 million downloads 🏆🏁, building a community based on utility and engagement

CR7 x Binance – The first sell out drop drove $1.8 million Revenue, delivered 7 billion media impressions, selling 8,634 NFT, with further secondary market sales of $1,009,603 – a mutually beneficial partnership allowing the fans to get closer to Ronaldo, with virtual meet and greet opportunities with Ronaldo, signed merchandise, plus much more allowed a strong utility strategy to ensure future sell out drops.

So in short, done right, the power of web 3 is the next innovation when it comes to fan engagement, creating engaged communities to benefit from the benefits of Web 3 technology. Do I think Rights Holders have maximised the capabilities to date – no, but I do think with continued education, less focus on the big upfront sponsorship fees, the power of web 3 technology will prove a fantastic engagement tool and revenue generator over time. 

Six Nations puts stop to online hate using Arwen AI

Six Nations Rugby takes a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination, and in a bid to tackle hate speech and harmful content within its online community, is using advanced AI technology to filter, block, delete, and if needed, report cases. 

Arwen AI was founded in 2020 in the wake of online abuse directed at TV and sports personalities. It works by using Artificial Intelligence to detect and remove spam, hateful comments, or unwanted and harmful content. Through a combination of algorithms, developed by Arwen, and those available on the open market, the system continually scans for content, in 29 languages, to immediately detect harmful content.

Six Nations Rugby will be using the Arwen AI technology with immediate effect, and throughout the Summer Nations Series, with all six unions given access to the tool as well, so that rugby can come together to collectively tackle online hate. 

Each user of the technology can set bespoke filters to ensure the algorithms operate with the greatest level of accuracy. Any content that matches the criteria and contradicts the Six Nations Rugby community guidelines, is captured, and flagged, allowing immediate action to be taken, and protect the online community.

In a recent study conducted by the Professional Football Association, 40% of Premier League players were reported to have been the subject of racist abuse via social media, with Marcus Rashford appearing as the second most abused person on the planet. For fans, a similar study identified that just 2% of hateful content had the potential to alienate nearly 40% of an audience.

This highlights the urgent need to protect all members of the sports community from harmful online content, this includes its players, teams, and fans.

Sarah Beattie, Chief Marketing Officer of Six Nations Rugby, commented: “Rugby is for everyone, and we have a responsibility to make the sport as inclusive and accessible as possible. Tackling online abuse and forms of harmful content is an important step to ensure this. 

“By using the AI technology developed by Arwen, and offering this to our six unions, the aim is to collectively protect our existing online community, and welcome new members to join, with the confidence that rugby is taking action to make the game open to all and operates with a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination.”

Matthew McGrory, CEO of Arwen AI, added: “Arwen AI is committed to protecting athletes, celebrities, brands, and everyday users of social media from rising levels of online toxicity and abuse.

“We’re therefore incredibly proud to partner with Six Nations Rugby as part of their drive to tackle hate speech and harmful content within its online community. 

“We’re looking forward to working together to create a positive online environment in which teams, players and fans can engage with each other during such an exciting time for the sport.”

Meet the Member: “You get great attention from elite level sport, but the grassroots is where you can make a real difference”

This week we caught up with Emily Heath, Global Brand Director for Sure to speak about their involvement in sport and how sports partnerships have evolved in the last few years.

So Emily to kick us off, take us through your journey in sport?

I am a bit of a sports junkie to be honest, sport plays a massive part of my life and as a family we love getting active. I can’t remember not taking part in sport whether in school or recreationally. When I was growing up, I dreamed of being an Olympic Skier. But then I stupidly broke my leg when I was seven. I ended up marrying an ex-Olympian so I married into sport as well. Now I spend my weekends with my kids doing activities like climbing, running and cycling. We can’t wait for them to get to the age where they can play team sports.

In terms of work, I never really wanted to work in sport and because of that I did a fashion degree. After my degree, I did the natural thing and ended up working in Pharmaceuticals, and from there transitioned over to Unilever and eventually Rexona, which is probably Unilever’s sportiest brand. 

You have been at Unilever for 18 years, how has your role evolved over that time?

I came into the business during the recession so I was really grateful for any work really. I was a project manager and it was a great way to just get a foot in the door really. I then moved to Brand Marketing at Dove. I started out in the innovation side of the business and  moved over to work on engagement which is more about communicating the brand to people. So a lot of social media, PR and digital work. Then seven years ago I moved to Rexona to do something similar.

I have really enjoyed working on trying to make the brand as culturally relevant as possible through certain partnerships and PR around that.

Why is it important for Unilever to be involved in sport?

I think it is such a massive part of culture, very few things bring people together like sport does. It is also something that you can get involved in at any level from kicking a ball around in the park all the way through to attending a Premier League match. It also doesn’t discriminate; you can be any race, gender, sexuality, from any background and you can still play. 

It also plays a massive role in the mental well being of a lot of people, so for Unilever to be able to do what we can to help in that area is really important.

What are some of the key things you are trying to achieve through your partnerships with elite clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea?

We started the partnerships back in 2016 as a route to engaging more men. We originally had three teams with Everton, Southampton and Chelsea because we wanted to ensure we had a good geographical footprint across the country. That really helped build our brand in and around football so people were familiar with us. After one year of that we moved to just partnering with Chelsea and Manchester City. A lot of the drive behind that was because we wanted clubs that have a global footprint because the partnerships were a big part of the global business, not just our UK business.

So it started out as a way to engage men, but it has become a lot more than that. It is now a great way to engage our core consumer base; both men and women, and it gives us a chance to engage with consumers for nine to ten months a year. It also gives us the chance to innovate with those partners and get involved in the grassroots game with them as well. We have been able to partner with Manchester City in their community programme and also Chelsea’s amputee programme along with their women’s side as well. 

We really enjoy these partnerships and work well with the clubs. We’ve been with them now for a long time. So therefore that association, our brand association, with those clubs is getting stronger and stronger. It’s really important that they are long term partnerships, not just flipping and flopping between clubs, because that helps to build strength to be associated with sport (football), and the clubs themselves.

You are not just working at the top end of sport, you have invested heavily into grassroots sport as well. Why is this important for Unilever?

You get great attention from the elite level sport, but the grassroots level is where you can make a real difference. Through our work with vulnerable communities, we have been able to make sure as many people as possible have access to football and sport. We have a social purpose programme called the Breaking Limits Programme which we launched in 2021; it is currently in the UK and seven other markets. We are working with 43 NGOs globally to help build inclusion, confidence, resilience, and a welcoming environment for young people from very vulnerable communities to come and feel like they belong in either football or other sports. 

It’s become something that’s really important to us as a brand and we will continue to build on year on year because it brings us into a new, younger audience, but it also ensures that we are actually part of the solution on the ground to ensure that everyone has access to movement.

With the sponsorship space evolving, how are the conversations about partnerships you are having with clubs changing?

Yes, we have seen a big shift in this especially where sponsorship was 10-15 years ago where it was basically a badging exercise. We’ve seen a shift in the sponsorships over the last couple of years. Partnerships are being built less on that kind of pay per post or appearance models, and more on brands working with partners on values to create a deeper, more impactful relationship. It’s one of our deciding factors when identifying partners; how we can work together to create more impact and change on issues that we both care about. So whether that’s around gender inclusion, whether that’s about giving more opportunity to vulnerable children within those vulnerable communities, or whether it’s about how we can create the most engaging content for our core consumer.

I would say our partnerships with Chelsea and Man City have evolved since day one to now. At the beginning it was about LEDs, but a little bit of money can’t buy experiences for our consumers. Now, they’re highly engaged with our social impact programme. We’re bringing their players more into our core content, but also into coaching sessions with our social impact programme as well. 

This is why Unilever has embarked on a new multi-year partnership with FIFA, because we see the likes of football being a huge opportunity to drive a lot of positive change on the ground as well as driving mass awareness to the likes of the World Cup or the Women’s World Cup.

Lastly, what is your dream sports property to work on?

My dream would actually be the Olympics because I’ve been an Olympic junkie since I was a kid. I always think of the Olympics as the ultimate sporting event so to be able to work on that would be incredible.