How Sela and RNID ‘Unsilenced The Crowd’ at Newcastle FC with accessible tech

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 event and technological capabilities to forge business growth and new relationships with European football’s event organizers.

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 among stakeholders into an understanding of Sela’s work.

Build credibility among 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 among target audiences enabling business growth.

Clear target audiences were established with objectives:

Community and fans engagement

Ensuring fans who are deaf and have hearing loss have an enhanced experience at a live sports event, making them feel that full stadium experience is more accessible.

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.

Sports rightsholders

As a new entity in the European sports, Sela set out to enhance its reputation as a value additive partner Europe’s most competitive leagues.

A large part of the campaign was designed to build B2B relationships with the biggest institutions in football, including Uefa, Fifa and European football clubs.

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.

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.

The research showed 55% of people enjoy watching live sport events less due to their hearing loss. Sela sought to introduce new technologies for fans who are deaf or have hearing loss to enhance their experience of the atmosphere at St. James’ Park.

Sela and technology provider, CuteCircuit, incorporated haptic technology into replica NUFC match shirts that transform 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 like never before. 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 Sela SoundShirt features 28 micro-actuators embedded in the fabric. These actuators receive wirelessly the sound of the stadium which is transformed into data that is captured on the stage while the live game is action in real-time. In this way, the atmosphere can be felt creating a fully immersive feeling for a deaf spectator.

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

11 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.

Key media were 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.

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

Sela also donated its 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 supporters’ group Wor Flags to fill the stadium with a flag emblazoned with words that perfectly captured the essence of the campaign: “It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging.”

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

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

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

The impact is already being seen throughout global football and continues to grow. 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. With every attendee giving rousing endorsement of the initiative, Sela are now working to ensure mass adoption of the technology across world sport with newly established relationships.

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 in England, Spain, Italy and France.

The numbers:

- 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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