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Agency created to help global soccer sponsors, rights holders and agencies connect with new breed of fan
Perform Media, a division of Perform Group, and one of the leading digital sports media brands worldwide, has today announced the launch of a new digital soccer agency – Goal Studios.
Born out of Goal.com, the world’s largest soccer media brand, Goal Studios is a fully resourced agency that benefits from Perform’s global scale, infrastructure and sports content expertise.
The launch has been driven by the emergence of a new breed of soccer fan who want a different type of content and an accompanying demand from global soccer sponsors, rights holders and their agencies to develop insight-powered activations that communicate with this new breed of fan.
Stefano D’Anna,Managing Director of Goal Studios, commented: “As a media owner, we’ve had the benefit of seeing the success or failure of a great many soccer activations. Some are brilliant and nothing we could offer would improve them. But unfortunately too many fall short for the simple reason that they’re based on anecdotal or non-existent understanding of how fans actually engage with content. That’s where we can help.”
UEFA is partnering with Goal Studios to develop the promotional campaigns for UEFA EURO 2016 and UEFA Europa League.
“We very much see ourselves as complementary to existing agency set-ups. We are digital soccer experts. We’ve been engaging fans through digital media for over 10 years so we understand how quickly fan behavior changes. We have to constantly evolve our own approach to keep up and now we’re offering that insight to brands, agencies and rights-holders.”
Goal Studios is powered by Perform’s portfolio of sports media brands, including Goal.com and ePlayer that provide the agency with unique access to millions of fans.
Hugh Sleight, Director of Soccer Strategy, and former FourFourTwo Editor and Brand Director added: “Fan insight underpins our proposition. We’re incredibly fortunate as an agency to have access to over 125m fans all over the world and to be able to track in real-time the changing nature of their engagement with the game. Our starting point for any project is separating fact from fiction: what do fans really want? The answer often isn’t what brands think and that puts us in an unrivalled position to help them connect more effectively with fans.”
Bolstering Goal Studios’ credentials,Damian Smyth joins as Global Head of Planning and Activation from TBWA/G1 where he was Global Brand Leader responsible for Nissan’s sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League. The agency also incorporates specialists from Opta, the world’s leading sports data provider, and Perform Group’s global video production teams.
About Perform Media
Perform Media connects brands with sports fans across a global network of digital destinations.
Our global and local media properties are designed to engage a mass audience of sports fans, wherever they are and on whatever platforms they choose. Our strategy is to continue to launch and grow major digital media assets, which deliver our content to fans via market-leading consumer products, creating a global audience for advertisers.
About Perform Group:
Perform is a leading digital sports content and media group.
Our mission is to connect the world of sports by supplying some of the quickest, most detailed and most engaging content, managing a network of wholly-owned global media brands and delivering premium sports content directly to fans.
Our B2B brands do this by contributing to one of the world’s most comprehensive sports content collections and distribution operations, servicing global customers in the broadcast, digital media and bookmaking industries.
By investing in and developing our own media brands, we create destinations in which global advertisers and brands can engage with a huge worldwide audience of sports fans across all types of digital platform.
Most recently, Perform is preparing for the launch of its multi-sports OTT service, due for launch in 2016.