Spring saw UK mobile telecoms provider EE leverage its sponsorship of Wembley by offering kids a chance to create a light show for the stadium’s famous arch via a code teaching app.
Focusing on an initiative that teaches seven to 11-year-olds how to code, Wembley stadium sponsor EE is running the educational initiative in harness with teaching tech charity Apps for Good in an effort to encourage more children to learn the principles of coding.
Kids are encouraged to use the app in class at school or at home and the objective is to create a show design which will then generate a video of their personal stadium arch light spectacle which they can share with friends and family.
The app offers a choice of 60 colours, eight patterns (like ‘clap’, ‘weep’, ‘twinkle’ and ‘rainbow’) and length of time and change speed options to use to construct each personalised light show.
The deadline for design submission to the EE website was 27 March and, as a central campaign incentivise, a selection of the submitted designs were picked at random to actually appear on the stadium arch during England’s international friendly game against the Netherlands.
(There will also be other chances later in 2016 for other young coders to have their own light show run live on the arch).
The initiative is based around a central website at https://arch.ee.co.uk/ and it is also promoted with a sot
as well as being amplified across EE’s social media channels with the hashtag #LightTheArch – including Twitter
Watch these little guys use coding to help #LightTheArch @WembleyStadium and give it a go at https://t.co/zW2RazCvz0https://t.co/s2uk0sqJBN
— EE (@EE) March 24, 2016
and Facebook.
‘EE’s partnership with Wembley has just entered its third year and this feels like a fantastic opportunity to give something back,’ explains EE managing director of digital, communications and innovation Max Taylor.
‘Recent research has shown that the UK will be unable to fill up to 250,000 digital jobs between 2015 and 2020, because of the digital skills gap, so tools like ‘Light the Arch’ are more important than ever to help get kids interested in technology and coding.’’
The ‘Light the Arch’ programme is part of EE’s ‘wider commitment to battle digital exclusion and get more young people into technology and coding’, which is spearheaded by a brand pledge to get 100,000 more people using the web app by the end of the year.
Comment
Sponsors and property owners behind events in the stadium have been using the arch lighting with increasing frequency as part of event activations that culminate at Wembley.
These include 2015’s ‘Own The Arch’ campaign by The Football League and sponsor Capital One for the Capital One Cup Final (see case study).
But this is the first child educational cause initiative we’ve seen that uses the arch lighting as a media platform.
Coding is increasingly seen as an essential skill for the new generation and by linking coding education to a passion like football and a place like Wembley looks sure to achieve engagement and enthusiasm from the young demographic.
It was back in 2014 that EE, Wembley National Stadium Ltd and the Football Association announced that the telco had signed up as the inaugural lead partner for Wembley Stadium.
The six-year partnership – which sees Wembley sign a lead brand partner for the first time – did not include specific stadium naming rights, but was based on the objective of making Wembley the most connected stadium in the world.
This it included a multi-million pound investment in its technological infrastructure over the course of the six-year partnership – spanning mobile ticketing solutions, enhanced mobile network access and super-fast Wi-Fi available for all Plus the launch of a free stadium visitor app offering fans a dynamic feed of event content as well as stadium and travel information and is available to download on Apple and Android devices.
EE customers also benefit from exclusive ticketing and marketing initiatives.
The collaboration even spawned a new composite logo uniting the two organisations.
The deal also saw EE become a supplier to the England Men’s Senior Team and The FA Cup.
Links
EE Website:
http://ee.co.uk/
EE Twitter:
EE Facebook:
EE YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/EEUK?nohtml5=False
Wembley Stadium Website:]
http://www.wembleystadium.com/
The Football Association Website:
