IMPACT

At Broadcast Sport awards, Once In A Lifetime picked up the Sports Documentary of the Year <60 minutes and this accolade couldn't be more proudly received.

The Clio Sports 2022 saw us pick up two awards for our work. Our campaign demonstrating how football is so much more than 'Just A Game' for last years Euros tournament with Sports Direct picked up a Gold in Integrated. 'Next Generation', a physical newspaper to bring to life the digital world for EA SPORTS's holiday campaign was awarded a Bronze in Design.

COPA90 launches COPA90 studios with appointment of Dan Lewis as Creative Director & strategic partnership with celebrated documentary film-maker Evan Rosenfeld.

We were delighted to pick up our first award at the Festival of Media Global Awards for our 'Music Keeps Us Fizzing' campaign for Pepsi / Pepsi MAX. The campaign was awarded Gold in the Best Use of Digital - Social Media category.

Following an incredible 2021, we were awarded Consumer Media Business of the Year at the British Media Awards, powered by Campaign Magazine. This is a huge achievement against some significant competition and a testament to the talent and hard work of our team, with plenty more to come in this very exciting year in football.

At the WARC Media Awards, Messi 644 won a Silver in the Partnerships & Sponsorships category, along with being awarded Best Collaboration with an Influencer. Judges commented on the simplicity of flipping the script to celebrate the goalkeepers to cut through the clutter surrounding Messi's record-breaking achievement. Pepsi's Music Keeps Us Fizzing won Bronze in Partnerships & Sponsorships and was also awarded Most Successful Sponsorship. The mix of passion points, between football, music and platform was noted by the judges, along with the product being front and centre of the campaign.

Our documentary, Krept & Konan: We Are England picked up in the Best Original Content category at the Broadcast Awards. The show follows the Rap Game UK hosts around the country in the run-up to the 2020 Euro championships, as they attempt to write an anthem for the England team.

COPA90's World Cup podcast, Football Inside Out, was recognised as the Best Sports Podcast at the British Podcast Awards. The podcast aimed to bring the world of football to life for fans across the planet.

COPA90 has announced that Dan Rookwood has been appointed as consulting editor-in-chief. Rookwood will focus on COPA90’s brand and editorial strategy ahead of the Women’s Euros and the Men’s World Cup, building a new slate of IP as well as elevating COPA90’s Creator Network, a global community of creative football fans who capture expressions of football culture from across six continents.

Our Messi 644 campaign for Budweiser was featured in this round up of the best sports campaigns of the year by The Drum. Selected by The Drum journalists, this award-winning campaign flipped the script on Messi breaking the 46-year-old record of scoring 643 goals for a single club. By focusing instead on the 160 goalkeepers Messi had scored against allowed Budweiser to own the 644 moment by creating a spike in conversation, whilst keeping the product at its heart.

CityAM spoke to Charlotte Thomson ahead of the anniversary of the 100 year ban on women's football. With increasing coverage, tickets selling out in record time and more investment in the game, Thomson looks at why you need to look at the wider context of the ban as well as the opportunity that exists for everyone in the women's game.

Digiday spoke to COPA90 CEO, Tom Thirlwall, about how the time has never been better to double down on the fan culture that has fueled its large following and attracted major investors.“Football has lost its soul,” said Thirlwall. The rapid rise and fall of the European Super League is proof. It’s also proof that embers of that soul can flicker back into life. Otherwise, European soccer’s proposed Super League might still be about. It took a mere 56 hours from the news of the tournament first breaking to its collapse under the weight of pressure from fans. Indeed, it showed the voice of fans still has sway over the sport, even now when those who run it are more likely to refer to them as consumers.

With professional footballer Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir announcing her pregnancy, sponsors PUMA revealed that in collaboration with COPA90 they would be releasing a series of monthly editorial pieces charting her pregnancy and comeback to play at the highest level. Culminating in a feature-length documentary directed by Lawrence Tallis and Hannah Calverley, the campaign promises to offer unprecedented, never-before-seen access into the life of a professional female athlete as she faces the challenge of returning to elite level sport after giving birth. It will document her training schedule and feature interviews with her family and team-mates and guidance from professional experts monitoring her progress and recovery post-pregnancy. In an interview with Forbes, the team behind it reveal more.

With women's soccer now seemingly flourishing with new sponsorship and television deals and record attendances for matches often played in the same stadiums as the men's game, it may seem counter-productive to hark back to a century ago when attitudes to women in general were different. Forbes spoke to COPA90's Head of Women's Football, Charlotte Thomson, at this historic moment, exploring why understanding of the trials and tribulations that women's football endured to get to this point is essential.

Sunday is a new short film which discusses the role that local football teams have in supporting men’s mental health. Shot across a number of locations in North-West England, the film captures the important role that Sunday League football can play in men’s lives, and how the absence of the game during the UK lockdown may have contributed to mental health issues.

Petrit Berisha, COPA90's head of cryptomedia, spoke to SportCal about his plans in the new role, why crypto sponsorships and NFTs have become so common in soccer, and what the future holds for this space. According to CEO Tom Thirlwall, the next iteration of fan engagement and media will be impacted massively by blockchain technology. With that in mind, COPA90 is readying itself for “the next great shift”, predicting that the future of fan engagement will look very different in five years.

Over the past few years, Cryptocurrencies, and more specifically NFTs, have encroached on our lives across several facets. Art, gaming and music have already been, and will continue to be, disrupted by blockchain technology. The sporting world is no different. This is a new paradigm for media, which the sporting content world will need to evolve with. This nascent technology plays a role in fan engagement as football fans discover new ways to engage with their passion in a digital way. When COPA90 was created in 2012, we took the view that the future of football media was about to change forever. Almost 10 years on and we are readying ourselves for the next great shift. COPA90 believes that the future of fan engagement will look very different in five years and that cryptomedia will have a big role to play within this. COPA90 has appointed Petrit Berisha to help bridge this gap for both fans and brands.

COPA90 and TikTok have partnered with a diverse range of talent and influencers across Europe to produce a programme of original shows and social led formats around the postponed UEFA Euros 2020. Shows which will underline the collective creativity of fans, and remind the world just how joyous football really is. To kick off the entertainment, ‘Get to Know’ has been launched, with fans from each of the 24 participating nations sharing their own predictions. The partnership will also include the launch of 'The Flare Button', TikTok first ever live, vertical, football studio format, providing the must-watch alternative to the traditional half-time broadcast show featuring ex-footballers, musicians, comedians and many more guests. For those short of time, COPA90 are rebooting their fan-first format 'Fans Daily', with 24 creators, one from each competing country, bringing together all the greatest fan moments from across the continent, delivered in just 60 seconds.

Our CEO, Tom Thirlwall, joined Trevor Philips, Azeem Rafiq, Dr Martha Newson, Leanne Sanderson and a viewers panel on Sky News The Great Debate. Discussing racism in sport, the panel explored what sports fans can do to stand up to racism, the role of social media companies, making sport inclusive at all levels and whether racism is a reflection of society as a whole.

COPA90 was included in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100, a ranking of the UK's fastest growing companies based on sales growth, with mention of our ability to showcase football culture both on and off the pitch from around the world through the eyes of our 1,500 film makers.

Messi 644, our campaign for Budweiser, picked up 4 Silvers and 1 Bronze across the Clio Sports, in Social Media, Innovation, Branded Entertainment and Content, Best Integrated Campaign and Partnerships, Sponsorships and Collaboration categories.

We picked up three awards for Budweiser's Messi 644 in Travel, Leisure and Sport, Best Viral Campaign and Best Influencer campaign categories. Our Euros campaign, 'House of Football' for TikTok was highly commended in the Best Use of TikTok category.

At these globally renowned and much coveted awards, Budweiser picked up a Silver in the Entertainment Lions for Sport for Messi 644 in the Influencer and Co-Creation category. We were also shortlisted in another five categories for the same campaign.

COPA90 ranked 8th in the Fast Company Most Innovative Company Sports companies with the judges commenting: “Launched in 2012 as a YouTube channel, COPA90 has evolved to become a global football media company for the 21st century, redefining what sports media can be through its fan-focused football coverage.”

The Marketing Week awards focus on work that combines creativity and innovation to deliver real effectiveness and set industry best practice. Messi 644, for Budweiser, was announced as the winner in the Sport, Gaming & Entertainment category.

We scooped up 3 awards for Budweisers' Messi 644 campaign in FMCG, Travel, Leisure and Sport and Best Integrated Campaign categories.