Charlton Athletic are proud to have been shortlisted in the Best Fan Engagement Category at this year’s Football Business Awards.
The club’s Welcome to London campaign reached millions of people around the world and engaged current supporters, lapsed fans and potential new fans, resulting in the club’s highest paid home attendance at a game for more than five years.
Charlton Board member Ed Warrick said: "One of the most important things we wanted to focus on was to build trust and cohesion with our existing supporters, and entice new fans to come to The Valley.
"Our marketing team identified our home fixture against Wrexham as a great opportunity to capture fan passion and utilise the opposition’s Disney-driven profile to highlight the opportunity to see it live at a top-class stadium accessible to central London - while making sure the campaign was Charlton-centred."
The team delivered a three-pronged campaign:
- A creative 'Welcome to London' campaign mimicking Welcome to Wrexham
- A hyper-targeted marketing using FOMO [fear of missing out] tactics
- Wider advertising outside of the club’s traditional south-east London area, with placed media ads in print London-wide
This was supplemented by a first-of-its-kind live, in-stadium watchalong with YouTuber Mark Goldbridge, which resulted in millions of views around the world. The promotion around the announcement of the watchalong in advance of the game resulted in an increase in ticket sales for the matchday.
The results of the whole campaign were game-changing with an attendance of 24,692 - a 70 per cent increase on average and the highest paid Charlton crowd at The Valley since 2019.
Warrick added: "The campaign our team devised and executed allowed us to reconnect with our supporters, and brought plenty of people to The Valley for the first time. Combined with the hard work from our football department bringing an improvement on the pitch, we’ve seen the additional benefits of the campaign, with our home matchday tickets sold up close to 40% on last season.
"Most importantly, it was just wonderful to see a full Valley in full voice, and I’m grateful to every member of staff at the club who worked incredibly hard to make the day a real success."
The Addicks, who have won their last seven home games on the spin, return to The Valley on Saturday to host Huddersfield Town. Click here to purchase your tickets now.
