Formula E And BBC Global News Inks Content Partnership

Formula E and BBC Global News have launched a commercial partnership to produce a set of pioneering online films to bring the all-electric motorsport to a new, digital audience around the world.

The films will showcase meaningful fan stories from behind the scenes of the 2020/21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

Targeting a unique online audience from around the world, the content will tell the story of a newly emerging global sports fan base. It will shine a light on the role Formula E is playing in the global conversation around electric vehicles, the benefits of achieving a net zero carbon footprint, and the importance of inclusivity and ethical principles to the modern sports fan.

To showcase never-been-told stories from around the world, fans are encouraged to share their most memorable Formula E experiences by uploading them online. These stories will be developed into original short films which will be housed on a dedicated content hub within the BBC StoryWorks website throughout 2021-22.

As part of the project, BBC Global News’ award-winning, proprietary research methods, involving state-of-the-art facial coding technology, will be used to track the audience’s emotional engagement and identify a new community of Formula E fans.

Jamie Reigle, Chief Executive Officer of Formula E, said: “We are delighted to work with BBC Global News on this project. At Formula E, we aim to innovate and push boundaries to shape a better future for generations to come. BBC Global News is the perfect partner for Formula E as they share our philosophy of delivering engaging and topical entertainment while considering its impact on our planet and global community. In working with BBC Global News, we will tell powerful stories through the eyes of a new generation of fans who crave edge-of-seat sporting entertainment, while demanding a strong commitment to make the world a better place.”

Sean O’Hara, Executive Vice President of Advertising for BBC Global News, said: “The fans are at the heart of any sport and Formula E has a highly engaged and unique global following – much like the BBC. This landmark partnership with Formula E represents a new kind of film production for us and we’re excited to shine a spotlight on Formula E’s passionate supporters by uncovering their remarkable tales and using our unrivalled storytelling skills to share them with the world.”

“Tennis Is A Holistic Property & We Want To Tap Into That With ‘This Is Tennis’ Campaign”

The ATP has unveiled its new global marketing campaign, This Is Tennis, marking a significant brand-shift for the Tour. The campaign promotes both players and tournaments with more dynamism, and a tone of voice that allows tennis to cut through with greater cultural relevance, particularly among the next generation of tennis fans.

To find out the strategy behind the campaign, iSPORTCONNECT spoke with Dan Ginger, SVP Marketing and Business Development, ATP Tour.

Why was this new marketing campaign something you felt was necessary?

When we were initially conceiving the concept for the campaign, the first question we asked ourselves was “What is Tennis?” and when you think about tennis, you think about gladiators on court battling out for one and a half hours to 5 hours.

“Tennis, because of its very nature, is a very holistic property and we really wanted to tap into that into the new campaign.”

However, there is so much more to tennis as an entertainment property than just the on court action. It’s a global property which happens in some of the most amazing locations around the world and has these incredible athletes with an abundance of personality who have so much potential to cut through into new audiences. Tennis, because of its very nature, is a very holistic property and we really wanted to tap into that into the new campaign.

Is the aim of the campaign to attract a younger audience?

Tennis has an incredible fan base already but, as for the lot of big sports, we are constantly looking at how we can attract the next generation of fans and players. I think what you will see in the video is the kind of shift in the voice, the choice of music, the choice of VO artist; it is all very intentional to appeal to a younger audience.

With the COVID uncertainties around, why did you think this was the right time for the campaign?

We were working on this campaign before COVID-19 turned into a pandemic and developed it during the COVID period. Also, tennis for most of us was watching highlights at home, playing in the back garden or wherever it maybe, but this will change. What tennis is now will be very different six months from now. With the vaccine in sight, things are looking upwards.

“One of the things we have seen in past 6 to 9 months is that social and digital has become more important than ever before.”

What are the next development goals for the ATP?

One of the things we have seen in past 6 to 9 months is that social and digital has become more important than ever before. This is how we are engaging our fans for the past many months with no live action.

There is going to be a big shift for us to be injecting more time and resources to figure how we can further enhance our social and digital offerings and focus on content development and storytelling.  We will work with not just our channels but also different tournaments and players to enhance their presence and brands and grow their audiences.

FIH Launches Bidding Process For Hosting 2023 FIH Hockey5s World Cup

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has launched the bidding process for hosting the 2023 FIH Hockey5s World Cups (Men and Women). The Hockey5s’ flagship event is a brand-new FIH competition. 16 teams per gender will take part in this inaugural edition.

The FIH Executive Board last year decided to create an FIH Hockey5s World Cup, with a view to further boosting the development of hockey globally through the promotion of its 5-a-side format.

Continental Hockey5s tournaments will be organized and act as qualifiers for the World Cup.

FIH CEO Thierry Weil said: “The FIH Hockey5s World Cup will enable a number of National Associations, smaller ones in particular, to participate in a World Cup – or the qualifiers of a World Cup – while they’re currently struggling to do so with the 11-a-side format. This is good for the overall growth of our sport. Furthermore, we strongly believe in the power of Hockey5s to welcome new players and fans in the hockey community.”

As most will remember, Hockey5s enjoyed a resounding success at the last Youth Olympic Games in 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Furthermore, FIH also opened today the bidding process to host the 2023 FIH Hockey Junior World Cups, which will involve 16 Men and 16 Women teams.

Both bidding processes are open to all National Associations, with 5 March 2021 as a deadline to submit their bidding documents for the 2023 FIH Hockey5s World Cups and 31 March 2021 for the 2023 FIH Junior World Cups.

The ATP Unveils ‘This Is Tennis’ Campaign To Target Next Generation Of Fans

The ATP has unveiled its new global marketing campaign, This Is Tennis, marking a significant brand-shift for the Tour.

The campaign promotes both players and tournaments with more dynamism, and a tone of voice that allows tennis to cut through with greater cultural relevance, particularly among the next generation of tennis fans.

With the versatility to support the global scale and narrative of the tennis season, the campaign highlights stand-out moments in a way that builds emotional connection and provides unique insights into the sport. The film which launches the campaign is a high octane and edgy edit that reflects the true energy, pace and drama of the ATP Tour – whilst also highlighting its iconic global destinations – and gives glimpses into the personalities of this star-driven sport.


Dan Ginger, SVP Marketing and Business Development for the ATP, explains: “Our intention is to showcase tennis as more than a sport. Yes, we have some of the world’s top athletes competing on Tour day-in, day-out, but it encompasses so much more than that – resilience, dedication, passion, spirit. Tennis is a non-stop lifestyle and a unique entertainment property.

“Pulling back the covers and bringing fans the fullest experience of our world has required us to get creative in our storytelling. Thankfully the foundations are already there. We have an incredible pool of young and super-talented athletes, with personality in abundance, and tournaments in some of the most iconic cities around the world, which together have the entertainment potential to truly transcend the sport.”

ATP worked with award-winning London-based agency MATTA on the project, whose greatest challenge was the all-encompassing nature of the campaign requirements. Matt Hunt, Executive Brand & Strategy Director notes: “once we had landed the line ‘This is Tennis’, with its simple and under-stated confidence, when paired with outstanding photography, athletic yet charged with emotion, it all came together. The result is a presentation of the game that is both epic and alluring and which is carried through powerfully into the campaign launch film, communicating the colour, variety and appeal of the complete life on tour of this unique sport.”

The campaign launches digitally and will be used to frame the ATP’s social media content throughout its duration. Additionally, the campaign will be made available and uniquely tailored to tournaments throughout the season, providing a consistent and clean look and feel across traditional forms of advertising and driving ticket sales at ATP tournaments, which attract close to 5 million fans onsite in a typical season.

ELEVEN Belgium Secures 5 Year LaLiga Rights Extension

ELEVEN SPORTS Belgium will continue to offer LaLiga LIVE and EXCLUSIVELY to fans for the next five seasons.

Belgian football fans will be able to enjoy the best action from Spain’s top tier across ELEVEN’s linear and digital platforms, until 2025-2026. A minimum of five games will be broadcast LIVE each matchday, with expert commentary provided in both Dutch and French for every game.

Subscribers will be able to follow the progress of Belgian stars Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, Yannick Carrasco and Adnan Januzaj and enjoy every El Clasico with ELEVEN. In addition to comprehensive LIVE coverage, ELEVEN will provide fans with exclusive LaLiga interviews, documentaries, analysis and giveaways. To celebrate the new rights deal, a winning fan will be selected by ELEVEN to enjoy a VIP trip to Spain for a LaLiga match next season.

Guillaume Collard, Managing Director, ELEVEN SPORTS Belgium and Luxembourg & Head of Acquisitions for ELEVEN, said: “Our market research has shown us that Belgian football fans really love Spanish football and it has been a cornerstone of our offering in Belgium since we launched in 2015.

The presence of Belgian stars like Hazard, Courtois and Januzaj has given LaLiga an extra dimension for us Belgians and the league is only getting more popular with fans. We’re delighted to be working with LaLiga again for the next five seasons, and I’m looking forward to continuing to build on our already strong partnership in the years ahead.”

ELEVEN’s LaLiga extension further strengthens its premium rights portfolio in Belgium. ELEVEN’s Home of Belgian Football offering gives fans comprehensive access to the Belgian domestic leagues, while subscribers also have access to Bundesliga, Serie A, NFL, NBA, UFC and more.

ELEVEN Portugal also announced a three-year extension to its LaLiga deal in August 2020.

MP1 Introduces MotoGP ESport Indonesian Series

Dorna Sports has signed a multi-year agreement with MP1 to give the Indonesian company exclusive rights to the new competition, which is set to begin in 2021.

The series is designed as the perfect platform into the WINDTRE Rising Stars Series, giving the most successful gamer an opportunity to compete in the MotoGP™ eSport Global Series next year.

MP1, an Indonesian company operating in the events and sports management industry, recently announced a partnership with Gresini Racing across MotoGP™, Moto2™, Moto3™ and MotoE™ from 2021, and the next step is now virtual as the company partners with Dorna Sports in the ever-growing eSport landscape. Indonesia is one of MotoGP™’s biggest markets with one of its most passionate fanbases, creating the perfect environment for the world’s first domestic MotoGP™ eSport series.

The MotoGP™ eSport Championship began in 2017 and has proven an incredibly successful and critically-acclaimed project, becoming a vital part of Dorna Sports’ portfolio alongside on-track competitions. Since inception in 2017, the competition has grown to encompass an incredible 23 online challenges, two Pro Drafts and seven on-site live events, and by 2020 has more than 60 million video views.

One of the most exciting additions for 2020 has been Dorna’s all-new eSport talent promotion initiative called WINDTRE Rising Stars Series, which is aimed at finding and fostering fresh eSport talent around the world. The collaboration between Dorna and MP1 in the new MotoGP™ eSport Indonesian Series aims to create the perfect stepping-stone into the WINDTRE Rising Stars Series, providing the opportunity for the most successful gamer to compete in the MotoGP™ eSport Global Series and take their competition to the next level.

Marissa Komala, Managing Director Commercial & Creative, MP1: “The face of sport and way many people participate has been changing for some time now, and the situation this year has really accelerated the development of eSports.

“As part of our strategy to develop motorsport in Indonesia and, in particular, to target young talent, we have entered into a long-term partnership with Dorna to exclusively host the MotoGP eSport Indonesian Series.

“The series will see MP1 hosting a full calendar of events across the whole of Indonesia showcasing the talents of the best Indonesian gamers and ultimately using the domestic series as a platform to move into global competition.

“We are very conscious of the magnitude of the fans’ enthusiasm for MotoGP here in Indonesia. This has been a driving factor in our announcement of our partnership between Indonesian Racing and Gresini Racing starting in MotoGP next year.

“We will provide an exciting and fulfilling experience for both MotoGP and eSports fans here in Indonesia through our new partnership with Dorna. We have no doubt that this is something all MotoGP fans have been waiting for and we are very exciting to be part of it.

“It’s an absolute honour for everyone at MP1 to be holding the MotoGP eSport Indonesian Series in Indonesia, in partnership with Dorna.”

Pau Serracanta, Managing Director, Dorna Sports: “For four years now, Dorna has made a strong commitment to eSports and since then the MotoGP eSport programme has never stopped growing. First with the Global Series, then with the WINDTRE Rising Stars Series, and so the next natural step is to organise a MotoGP eSport national series in a country where MotoGP will race in the near future and where the MotoGP fan community is one of the biggest in the world.

“This agreement and MP1’s investment in our sport guarantees the success of the first ever MotoGP eSport national competition, the MotoGP eSport Indonesian Series.”

NBA G League Joins Forces With Overtime To Attract Young Audience

The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) G League has joined forces with digital sports media company Overtime to create daily video content for its dedicated draft prospects team, Ignite.

Videos will include game, event and behind-the-scenes features, which will be made available to fans worldwide via G League and Overtime digital and social media platforms.

Overtime’s brief is to create content appealing to younger basketball fans, with the company gaining extensive access to the Ignite team to tell stories through highlights and short-form content, including an episodic docuseries.

“We’re excited to partner with Overtime to provide basketball and NBA G League fans with a tremendous vehicle to follow our players and teams,” said NBA G League chief operating officer Portia Archer. “Through its unique storytelling, Overtime will reach the next generation of sports fans and help our league continue to grow.”

Zack Weiner, Overtime’s president and co-founder, added: “This is the perfect partnership since at our core, we tell the stories of the athletes our under-35 audience cares about most.

“We have been sharing the journeys of players, including many on the Ignite team, for years now as they rise the ranks. Through this partnership, we will continue telling these stories as we engage our audience and provide the G League with exposure to this hard-to-reach demo.”

IOC Issues Provisional Measures Against NOC Of Belarus

In view of the allegations and elements received by the IOC and the responses provided by the NOC of Belarus, the IOC said that “the current NOC leadership has not appropriately protected the Belarusian athletes from political discrimination within the NOC, their member sports federations or the sports movement”.

The EB decided to:

  1. Exclude the currently elected members of the Executive Board of the NOC of Belarus from all IOC events and activities, including the Olympic Games. This includes in particular Mr Alexander Lukashenko, in his capacity as NOC President and legal representative of the NOC; Mr Viktor Lukashenko, in his capacity as NOC First Vice-President and the person responsible for the NOC’s operations and activities on a daily basis; and Mr Dmitry Baskov, in his capacity as an NOC Executive Board member and in view of the specific allegations raised against him. This provision is not applicable to Mrs Tatiana Drozdovskaya, as she is an ex-officio athletes’ representative on the Executive Board.
  2. Suspend all financial payments to the NOC of Belarus, with the exception of payments related to the preparations of the Belarusian athletes for, and their participation in, the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. All Olympic scholarships for Belarusian athletes will now be paid directly to the athletes, and no longer through the NOC.
  3. Request the relevant International Federations to make sure that all eligible Belarusian athletes can take part in qualification events for the upcoming Olympic Games without any political discrimination.
  4. Suspend any discussions with the NOC of Belarus regarding the hosting of future IOC events.
  5. Request all constituents of the Olympic Movement to respect these measures in the interest of protecting Belarusian athletes’ rights and the reputation of the Olympic Movement.

The IOC EB will to continue to monitor the situation and reserves the right to consider any further action or to remove any of these provisional measures depending on the evolution of the situation.

How Digital Storytelling And Gaming Create Extra Value For LaLiga

As leagues around the world work ever more closely with broadcast partners to help promote their players, clubs and matches, the value of social media is growing. At LaLiga, there is an understanding of the need to engage with fans around the world and to try to introduce them to all clubs in the competition. To meet this challenge, storytelling and gaming have both proven to be successful strategies. 

Alfredo Bermejo, the director of digital strategy at LaLiga, discussed this topic during an appearance at the recent Social Football Summit 2020 conference. “We need to know what the fans like, which platforms they engage with and what kind of content they like,” he said. “Social media provides the possibility to go global and to have a scaled approach to the fans.” 

The power of a relevant story


Data from social media engagement provides evidence that sometimes a story about an international player at a more modest club will have a bigger impact in a certain market that a post about one of the superstars at the likes of Real Madrid or FC Barcelona. 

“I think a common goal for all of us is to go beyond the big names and the big clubs and to try to tell stories and make other clubs and players become known by the audience,” Bermejo explained. “We try to identify which stories are relevant within markets. Sometimes players from smaller teams have a bigger reach than the big stars because they belong to a certain territory where they are number one.”

Read the full story here – https://newsletter.laliga.es/global-futbol/how-digital-storytelling-and-gaming-create-extra-value-for-laliga

FIVB Appoints Fifty Digital As Digital Media Agency

The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) have appointed Fifty Digital, a digital and social media agency in sponsorship and sport, as digital and social agency of record.

With an action-packed event calendar ranging from the Tokyo Olympics and FIVB Volleyball World Championships 2022in Poland, Netherlands and Russia, to the Volleyball Nations League and Beach Volleyball, Fifty Digital will focus on bringing the world of volleyball to life across social media and digital.

Working alongside Ogilvy Netherland’s brand communications, Fifty Digital will lead all digital and social media activity, showcasing the sport of volleyball in a new light, connecting new and existing fans around the world and humanising the players through creative storytelling.

Fifty Digital will operate across hygiene, hub and partner content, amplifying and activating content in the run up to events, whilst driving continual growth and engagement for the second most popular sport in the world.

The new digital, social media and design partnership is already underway with a detailed audience segmentation process and 2021 campaign planning across digital and creative storytelling.

Fernando Lima, FIVB Secretary General, said: “The FIVB is pleased to have Fifty Digital as our digital and social media agency to promote our sport in the build up to the prestigious FIVB Volleyball World Championships 2022, which is set to be one of the most incredible events of 2022. Volleyball is enjoyed and played by millions across the globe. And this is showcased by our strong following on social media, with more than 8 million followers across the platforms. This partnership presents a unique opportunity to further engage with millions of fans digitally through powerful content production across the channels.”

James Campbell, Co-Founder of Fifty Digital, said: “We’re incredibly proud to be partnering with the FIVB and helping them build a new platform for the incredible events over the next few years. Using industry-leading creative, social media and digital expertise, we’ll be focusing on how the FIVB produce, share and generate content both on and off event periods.”

Nick Jackman, Co-Founder of Fifty Digital, said: “After such a competitive pitch process against the biggest names in the industry, the team cannot wait to put all their hard work and passion for volleyball into action. We believe there is a huge opportunity to raise the profile of volleyball to an even higher level, and we are really looking forward to partnering with the FIVB to achieve this.”