How Sela and Newcastle United FC brought football to life for deaf fans

As a company renowned for delivering spectacular experiences, Sela’s partnership with Newcastle United is based on a philosophy that football isn’t a sport to be watched, but an experience to be felt.

St. James’ Park stadium, NUFC’s home ground, is regularly voted as having one of the best atmospheres in the Premier League where you can experience some of the loudest football fans.

Research conducted by Sela and charity partner RNID mapped the experience for deaf fans revealing that 71% of people surveyed believe new technology can be used to make live sports events more accessible.

Sela and RNID aimed to showcase a new level of accessibility in football for those who are deaf of have hearing loss to ‘feel the noise’. The campaign also set out to amplify Sela’s technological capabilities to forge business growth with European football’s event organisers.

The approach

Unsilence the Crowd aligned with Sela’s brand ambition of delivering ‘Spectacular Experiences’ and its three core pillars:

Be seen:

• Show Sela’s ability to deliver spectacular experiences to global sports institutions
• Show fans across Europe that Sela is not just a ‘logo’ on a shirt but adds value to their experiences.

Be known:

• Convert awareness amongst stakeholders into an understanding of Sela’s work.
• Build credibility amongst audiences for future business growth.

Be loved:

• Create an army of advocates for Sela and convert awareness into a desire to see more.
• Generate positive reputation for Sela amongst target audiences enabling business growth.
• Clear target audiences for the campaign were established: Sports rightsholders

As a new entity in the European sports, Sela set out to enhance its reputation as a value additive partner with Europe’s most competitive leagues. The campaign was designed to build B2B relationships with the biggest institutions in football.

Global football community

Sela’s brand visibility across the global football community was siloed to countries across the Middle East. Sela used the campaign to position itself as a leading club sponsor to fans of other clubs, global sports media outlets and prominent stakeholders.

Community and fans engagement

A tangible legacy for the local community, from disability, sport and wellbeing programmes were able to benefit from.

Demonstrate the technology’s adaptability to relevant stakeholders for sports fans across the world.

From the outset, Sela, RNID and NUFC set out to design a case study that was relevant to all sports, with the objective of setting a new benchmark for accessibility in sports and entertainment to encourage wider adoption of the technology.

Underpinning the creative execution of the experience was research conducted by Sela into how fans experience football differently showing 55% of people enjoy watching live sport events less due to their hearing loss.

Sela and technology provider, CuteCircuit, incorporated haptic technology into replica NUFC match shirts that transforms the noise of the stadium into real-time touch sensations, allowing deaf fans and fans with hearing loss to experience the atmosphere of a live football match in an all-new way. The entire soundscape came to life as a language composed of a series of touch-like sensations across the torso of the person wearing the shirt.

The technology debuted at NUFC’s Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur in front of 50,000 people, with millions more on TV and a match take over that brought the campaign to life.

In advance of the game, Junior Deaf Football Club children were given a surprise invite to be mascots on game day from two Newcastle United players. The children taught the players how to celebrate in sign language, with Dan Burn going on to enact the celebration during the game on live global broadcast. The footage went viral, showcasing the impact of Sela’s campaign beyond just the technology itself.

The media strategy saw key media exclusively briefed in advance to trail the news, which was split up into ‘tentpole’ moments including: the logo donation, the name of the charity partner, the haptic shirt technology and the key protagonists who would be wearing them. Global broadcast media attended match day with live pitchside interviews with key spokespersons airing as part of the live global feed. Media partnerships with technology and sports media furthered the impact and reach of the campaign.

Deaf fan, David Wilson commented: “What a game, what a day, what a shirt. I felt part of the singing, part of the stadium. We felt involved in all the goals and all the singing, so I just want to say thank you.”

Sela also donated its front-of-shirt sponsorship for the match to RNID - a historic occasion marking the first time a hearing loss charity has been promoted on a Premier League front-of-shirt.

Sela collaborated with local Newcastle United FC supporters’ group Wor Flags to fill the stadium with a flag emblazoned with words that captured the essence of the campaign: “It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging.”

Fans in the stadium and viewers at home saw the RNID branding displayed across the pitch-side monitors, raising awareness for the campaign.

Representatives from the world’s largest football institutions travelled to witness the technology first-hand including the Premier League, European Club Association and Serie A. The UK Government, UEFA and FIFA all attended to explore how the technology can be incorporated into wider football.

Unsilence The Crowd been described by the global sports industry and global sports media as a “game changer”, “revolutionary” and an example of “raising the bar”.

With consistent messaging and tone of voice, complimented by the match day activation, the result was a compelling and credible story to tell the media, fans and the industry at large.

The impact of the campaign is already being seen throughout global football. The world’s largest football institutions including the UK Government, UEFA and FIFA accepted invites to travel to Newcastle to witness the technology first-hand.

The legacy is only in its infancy and there are already commitments from several major European football leagues to introduce the technology to benefit their fans and improve inclusivity of the sport including: the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A.

Dan Burn’s celebration in sign language during the game was a major talking point for football fans, where it went viral across all social channels. The campaign achieved RNID’s objectives of growing awareness for the Charity and enabled NUFC to showcase their commitment to delivering fan experiences and increasing accessibility.

More widely, the campaign delivered on Sela’s strategic sponsorship activation pillars – to be seen, be known, be loved - building positive sentiment and capability reputation, whilst driving visibility, understanding, resonance and credibility of the Sela brand within global football.

The results

Sela achieved its goal of increasing market coverage rising to become the lead share of voice vs top 6 EPL club sponsors

60,000 fans participated in the experience during the live launch of the technology

1000+ opportunities for hearing loss community to enjoy the shirts over the next year.

Unsilence The Crowd was covered by a total of 771 media outlets headquartered in 37 countries

Notable features included CNN, Sky News, Al Arabiya, The Sun, The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung, L’Equipe, Daily Mail and Marca.

Dan Burn’s celebration in sign language during the game went viral across all social channels.

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