Whitestone International – a specialist in brand, marketing, communications and design in sport – has teamed up with The FA and UMBRO to launch The FA UMBRO Fives, the country’s biggest small-sided football competition.
The FA and UMBRO, its Small Sided Football Partner, chose to work with Whitestone International because of its reputation for building powerful sports brands, outstanding design and its expertise in creating major sports identities, through experience of working with other global and national governing bodies and world-leading brands like FIFA, the ICC, the ECB, the ATP, Ricoh, adidas and Reebok.
The FA UMBRO Fives is for all adults who love playing five-a-side football (for girls/women over the age of 15 and men over 16). Some 5,200 teams are expected to enter. After nine regional finals, players from 48 teams will gather at the newly opened Wembley Stadium in June and be among the first footballers in the world to walk out and play at the iconic sporting venue.
Five-a-side and other small-sided football events have become a major part of today’s leisure industry, played by people from all backgrounds and of all ages at a rapidly growing number of facilities. The FA UMBRO Fives reflects this mass appeal and will help The FA to engage with thousands of footballers who are not playing in formal leagues.
Whitestone’s work on the project, through its partnership with The FA, involved generating a brand strategy for the competition, whereby the brand positioning, identity, guidelines, marketing and communication materials were all created and implemented.
“Creating and designing a strong brand identity to communicate the excitement and potential of this new competition to a varied audience was key to this, whilst also considering the brand had to fit, and be successfully incorporated into The FA and UMBRO’s marketing portfolios,” commented Stefan Kraft, Creative Director for Whitestone.
Tom Harold, Marketing and Brand Manager at The FA, said: “We are delighted to be working with Whitestone on The FA UMBRO Fives, which will see men and women of all ages enjoying the chance to compete locally but with the added incentive of reaching the finals at Wembley Stadium – in the summer of its opening. Whitestone’s design expertise has been invaluable in communicating this great story.”
James Handford, Account Director for Whitestone, said “The key challenge was that we had to be aware of the objectives of the two main partners; one being a major national governing body and the
other being a global sports brand, and marrying these together, whilst also coming up with a dynamic and exciting brand that would excite and engage with grass roots footballers.”
The resultant FA UMBRO Fives story is headlined: “Five Players, One Goal: Wembley”, and is to be championed in extensive marketing by both The FA and UMBRO. The visual imagery of the brand design, featuring England Captain John Terry and already recognizable elements of the new Wembley, namely the arch, will become well-known to all football fans over the coming months and years.
Whitestone Director Chris Lightfoot said: “Sports brands are facing increasing competition from numerous sectors. Central to building successful sports brands such as The FA UMBRO Fives involves engaging audiences through the ‘emotive’ connections fans have with a sport and creating impact through integrated brand, marketing and communications strategies.”
Whitestone is a sport-loving company with a track record of delivering the strongest commercial programmes for clients, including brand and IP development, sponsorship engagement and design, all created to excite both sports fans and sponsors.
Teams can register for The FA UMBRO Fives at www.TheFA.com/umbrofives
• For more information on this release, call Whitestone on 020 7837 4104, see also www.whitestone.ac or email media@whitestone.ac
