Chelsea Salute Pandemic Resilience In ‘Proud Of London’ Joe Cole Fronted Film & Local SME Support

10 March saw Chelsea FC mark the anniversary of the club’s foundation through an integrated campaign, led by a short film narrated by club legend Joe Cole (a born-and-bred Chelsea supporter from London), which celebrated the resilience and creativity of Londoners through the Covid-19 pandemic.

The club, which was founded on 10 March 1905, used its digital and social platforms to celebrate seven real stories of Londoners who have opened businesses, adapted their output to support key workers, helped their communities and inspired communities through art.

The seven real Londoner stories featured in the film are:

Love Triangle Pizza
Starting their business during the pandemic, Love Triangle donate one meal to Wandsworth food bank for every pizza sold.

William Sevigny Stevens
Fifteen-year-old William was given a community award for his unwavering support for the most vulnerable in his neighbourhood throughout the Covid-19 outbreak.

Ize
Ize is a football coach who has endeavoured to keep kids active during the lockdown by offering free weekly online skills classes.

Simon Garner
Simon brought his neighbourhood together and kept their spirits up with his weekly doorstep aerobics sessions.

No Signal Radio
Born during the lockdown, No Signal Radio have combatted isolation and brought black communities together.

Emergency Designer Network
This group of female designers galvanised voluntary garment production to produce scrubs for the NHS. This is their funding page. 

Wood Street Walls X Holy Moly
London based collective Wood Street Walls collaborated with Holy Moly to create a stunning tribute to the heroes of the NHS.

Launched on Chelsea’s 116th anniversary, the short film rolled out across the club’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels paired with the #ProudOfLondon​ hashtag and promoting the official Chelsea FC mobile app.

You Londoners. You Legends. #ProudOfLondon ft. Joe Cole. pic.twitter.com/4qd6nZLy7I

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 10, 2021

A further strand of the initiative saw the club call on small businesses with London postcodes to apply for free advertising space on match days (including a branded Instagram Story) as part of a new initiative to help local companies back on their feet after the pandemic.

The club claims that exposure to its global digital community of hundreds of millions of people will offer local SME’s valuable advertising space usually only available to larger sponsorship partner companies.

Applications open on Friday 12 March and close on Friday 26 March and businesses with fewer than 50 employees and that have a website are invited to apply, with the successful applicants chosen by Chelsea based on the efforts they have taken during the pandemic to launch, sustain or grow.

Joe Cole said: ‘Being a Londoner myself, it’s been great to be able to work with my old club to celebrate those that have done something special over the last 12 months. Londoners never cease to amaze me and listening to some of the stories featured in the film has been really inspirational.’

According to the club, this is a way for it to show how ‘Proud of London’ The Pride of London (Chelsea’s nickname) is.

“Proud of London is our way of showing how incredibly inspired we’ve been of the city we call our home,” said Chelsea director of marketing Gary Twelvetree. “London is full of creative minds that push boundaries, support each other, and adapt to what has been an unprecedented challenge through the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. We hope that we can continue to support this great city, just like it has supported us.”

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