Creative studio will work with governing bodies and athletes on content outside of the Olympics and Paralympics
UK Sport has partnered with creative agency Weirdo with the aim of improving fan engagement outside of Olympic and Paralympic years.
Weirdo will work on two fan engagement pilots, beginning this summer. The first sees it collaborate with four national governing bodies of urban sports, to create a shared editorial platform that promotes their sporting communities.
Meanwhile, the second is named the Athlete Creator Club and will see Weirdo support six athletes to experiment with creating content that helps them reach new fans and build their profile across social media.
Simon Morton, director of events, sporting system and external affairs at UK Sport, commented: “As an Olympic and Paralympic community we recognise that we cannot stand still. Across sport and society there are ever-changing audience expectations that we need to face into. Through these pilot projects we are hoping to innovate and evaluate how we can grow engagement with our sports and athletes, allowing us to use these learnings to support British Olympic and Paralympic sport in a way that is ready for the future.”
Lewis Evans, system master planning manager, added: “We are excited to be collaborating with Weirdo on these two initiatives. They bring extensive creativity, ambition, and authenticity, and understand the aspiration to embed Olympic and Paralympic sport into modern culture. I cannot wait to get going and see the impact we can have.”
London-based Weirdo also works with the likes of Premier League club Arsenal, social media platforms Snapchat and Reddit, and the BBC. It has a database of over 2,000 grassroots community groups across the UK which it uses to promote its campaigns.
Louis Persent, founder of Weirdo, said: “This is a project that in every respect represents our mission as a company. It is a dream for us to take on this huge challenge with so much scope to be creative, experimental, and ambitious. It is an honour to play a role in shaping the future of Olympic and Paralympic sport in this country, and we’re excited by UK Sport’s vision to build a new kind of fandom for these sports and their incredible athletes.
“Before the creative industries, my career was in track and field as a 400m runner. A torn achilles ended that journey for me, but it’s been an amazing full circle moment to be back in the world of Olympic and Paralympic sport, and I can’t wait to see what we can build together with UK Sport, the sports, and athletes.”
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