POWERING FOOTBALL TOGETHER
UTILITA
THE STORY
Utilita are one of the biggest energy providers in the UK. A key part of their existence though is supporting grassroots and professional sports across the country. While they are the official energy partner of elite Premier League football clubs they’ve been instrumental in helping thousands of boys and girls get into football at all levels and been huge supporters of the growth of women’s football in the UK as well. Our relationship with Utilita goes back to 2018 and they’ve trusted us with some of their biggest sport campaigns in that time - like a partnerships with VISA and Iceland.
THE BRIEF
Utilita have commissioned us to produce a series of case study videos, all of which function in a different way and point towards different types of activity for them in football. For their partnership with VISA, the need was to produce a series of three films that captured local girls in Southampton who had to write a piece on ‘Why I Play…’ to be in with a chance of a special training day with Southampton FC and England Lionesses Legend Karen Carney. There was then a need to create a final film of the experience day they had at the Southampton Academy that celebrated the pathways the girls had to football.
For Utilita’s partnership with Iceland, the requirement was to produce a video that explored how a Christmas Dinner could be cooked at a low cost and in an energy efficient manner and still takes great…with the players of Hibernian FC the taste testers on that occasion.
In line with their activity in grassroots football, Utilita wanted to recognise two ‘Grassroots Heroes’ at Newton Aycliffe FC. They wanted to create a film that explained and explored the difference that two volunteers made every day to their local club and surprise them with something they both really needed.
THE SOLUTION
In order to deliver the series of content for Utilita and VISA, we sent a full crew to Southampton three times to film at two different schools and then again at the Southampton Academy for their final day. There, they experienced a training day with professional coaches, met Karen Carney and most of them also received their first pair of football boots. In order to make all of the videos, we had to film a lot of content at the schools and then edit it together to give a sense of the competition but also what an opportunity like this would mean to the girls involved. On the experience day, we arrived at the Academy early to film the schools’ arrivals and then followed them throughout the day right up to the presentation of the prize for the best piece of writing about ‘Why I Play…’. We also conducted master interviews with Karen Carney and contributors from VISA. The final videos and accompanying social media content was constructed around the voice of the girl who Karen Carney decided had written the best piece, the master interviews and footage of the experience day.
For Utilita’s partnership with Iceland, we headed to Edinburgh to spend the day with Hibernian FC. We began by filming all of the content with the club’s head chef who we identified as our guide for the video content. We used him as the voice and on-screen presence who would explain everything from buying the food and its value through to how to cook it in an airfryer principally. With footage in the kitchen twinned with master interviews with the players and then of course filming them eating the food…and telling a good old cracker joke, this film came together as a fun, festive treat.
In order to hit the brief outlined for the Grassroots Fund partnership film, we had to employ a different approach. The whole presentation was to be a surprise for the volunteers. We had one camera crew travel down with Paul from Grassroots Football and one crew at the stadium where the volunteers were working. Both crews worked independently to film the coverage they needed of the volunteers and worked together for it all to finish with a surprise presentation of two new bikes in recognition of their service to the football club.