If you’d have told my 18-year-old Manchester Hacienda self that in 2026 I would be watching a World Cup final half time performance of New York pop goddess Madonna, delivered from a golf cart, driven by Brazilian football legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, I would have probably asked a raving Andy Burnham to pinch me. Source: … Read More
It’s the World Cup and instantly everyone’s a football fan. To paraphrase the late Mark E Smith of The Fall, “If it’s me and your granny on Bongos, it’s a World Cup event.” Or, as Romy Gai, FIFA’s Chief Business Officer puts it, ‘This tournament is designed to be shaped and shared by fans wherever … Read More
It’s no coincidence that as our attention capability shrinks so too are formats in which to watch stuff. The new Celebrity Traitors is much applauded by audiences, luvvies, pundits but it is an old-fashioned format in the wider sense, offering the audience insufferably boring content (the tasks) with highly addictive, compelling content (the round table). … Read More
This week’s (March 18) UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter final at Real Madrid’s Estadio Alfredo di Stefano was labelled a ‘disgrace’ by Arsenal legend Ian Wright. The state of the muddied pitch, home of Real Madrid’s men’s reserves, prompted outcries on social media and comparisons with the 1975 match between Derby County and Stoke City … Read More
Steven Spielberg said on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs recently that to look at the world through a lens of a child strips out all the cynicism and drawThe big new brand trend is In-housing and it’s growing fast but it’s attracting blunt criticism in ‘anti-woke’ quarters. Recent internalising moves from two global brands with … Read More
Steven Spielberg said on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs recently that to look at the world through a lens of a child strips out all the cynicism and draws massive audiences in deeper than if, say, E.T. was found by a bunch of adult lab geeks, who grew a bond with the wrinkly alien instead. … Read More
The World Cup 2026 seems like a long way off but the biggest-ever edition of the global sporting showpiece will be here sooner than we think. It’s going to be, literally, huge with a record-breaking 104 games, featuring 48 teams, played across 16 host cities in three countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States. If … Read More
A Tesco self-checkout area in Bristol recently was cordoned by emergency yellow barricade tape and defended by vigilant floor staff, acting more like crime-scene marshalls than grocery retail ushers. In the white heat of this regional retail meltdown comes Tesco’s universal plans to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to personalise how people shop. … Read More
When Taylor Swift played Murrayfield last weekend, Scottish football was the furthest thing from the minds of the 73,000-strong crowd who comprised the highest-attended stadium concert in Scottish history. Tonight, Scottish fans will be in fine voice as the Tartan Army open UEFA Euro 2024 in Munich against hosts Germany in what is set to … Read More
Football fandom is a funny old game. When I asked ChatGPT to calculate the most likely desired outcome for English Premier League [EPL] football club Spurs’ chances of beating Manchester City tomorrow night – AI had an intelligence bypass, with a response as bland and asinine as a Microsoft Windows Update, Spurs fans would likely … Read More
Advertising agencies, production companies and rights holders agree on at least one thing – AI is the train you cannot afford to miss – but as with every mindbending new piece of technology there are a few false starts out of the station. It is surely no revelation that the Gen Z tribe use AI … Read More
The final stages of the UEFA Champions League are in train with both English clubs despatched by Real Madrid and Bayern Munich who will meet tomorrow in the first leg of the semi final. Traditional TV coverage will reach at least 96 countries, by 110 commercial broadcasters, with impressive, estimated audiences across Connected TV, Social, … Read More
Unilever has kicked off a multi-brand partnership for UEFA Euro 2024 with a press release announcing that they will attract a cumulative audience of more than 5 billion people across the tournament. At first glance the mega claim seems far-fetched until you break down the elements of the ‘cume’ – the estimated total number of … Read More
When Mediacells consults with a new football club client the first question we ask is, who are you trying to engage with and how big is the audience you are going after? Football clubs know their fans as intimately as local newspapers know their readership. They know their interests, which buttons to press in order … Read More
The Grudge Match has been the punchy storyline for boxing audiences since Muhammad Ali’s famous pre-fight tussle with Ernie Terrell in 1967 when the ‘Octopus’ called Ali by his forsaken name, Cassius Clay. The spat set the scene for Ali outpointing Terrell comprehensively over 15 rounds in what was arguably the most outstanding performance in … Read More
It is International Women’s Day and the Accelerate Progress campaign theme is passionately framed in the arena of sports audiences. Earlier this year, USA Today reported on a study claiming Gen Z audiences don’t care about sports, with only 23% of them describing themselves as passionate sports fans compared to 42% of millennials. These digital … Read More
The creative world is on a precipice if we are to believe entertainment and media commentators on the effect text-to-video AI modelling tool Sora will have on the creative visual world. Gary Lineker-owned All the Rest is Entertainment podcast hosts considered the disastrous macro impact of AI on media and entertainment industries, “Really tough times … Read More
Audiences are returning to live award shows like the BAFTAs and Golden Globes after several slump years – does the mainstream audience enthusiasm for these star-studded, peacocking extravaganzas convert to sport? Latest Sports Fan edition explores new Audience Engineering growth data to find out. We are now deep into the awards season with the Golden … Read More
The latest audience engineering trend is ‘Swift-ization’, the boosting of the Super Bowl audience by sport-adjacent love story between Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and pop superstar Taylor Swift. It was no massive surprise that the Super Bowl 2024 was the most-watched telecast of all time, hitting 123.4 million viewers (Nielsen and Adobe … Read More
Football managers just don’t matter that much, according to Soccernomics co-author Simon Kuper. On the BBC flagship news show, Today, err today (February 7) the Financial Times journalist and economist said, “Most managers add so little value that it is tempting to think they could be replaced by their secretaries or by stuffed teddy bears … Read More