Early August sees Southampton Football Club team up with The Big Issue to try and help improve the lives of vulnerable adults through a new CSR partnership.
The two organisations – one sporting and one media – have linked up to create a special Southampton FC edition of The Big Issue which will be exclusively sold by vendors across the city and the surrounding area (including Portswood, Lordshill, Bitterne, Ringwood, Lymington, Eastleigh, Romsey, Winchester, Salisbury and Isle of Wight).
This new south coast soccer special edition will go on sale on the streets from Monday, 7 August.
The tie-up was promoted by both the club, the foundation and the media organisation with through PR, event, digital and social strands involving several of the Saints star players alongside local vendors.
This includes amplification across YouTube,
Twitter,
#SaintsFC is proud to launch a unique partnership with The Big Issue. Find out more: https://t.co/TG37XmXYXv
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) August 4, 2017
Special edition @BigIssue now on sale across Southampton & Hampshire, & at St Mary’s on Saturday. Just £2.50, with £1.25 going to the vendor pic.twitter.com/JpWwyrni9L — Saints Foundation (@SFC_Foundation) August 7, 2017
: Big Issue vendors Lee and Mark meet @SouthamptonFC star @jackstephens_18 at Staplewood Campus.
Read more https://t.co/cqlGrQBap3 pic.twitter.com/YuZbZvZseo
— The Big Issue (@BigIssue) August 8, 2017
and Facebook. The issue will also be distributed as the official matchday programme for the team’s opening game of the new Premier League season against Swansea City on Saturday 12 August.
Here’s the cover of SAINTS for our #PL opener against #Swans, as #SaintsFC have teamed up with the @BigIssue! pic.twitter.com/Hoq0JL85Ah — Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) August 6, 2017
The Big Issue special edition will available to buy from Monday 7th August, from Big Issue vendors across the Southampton and Hampshire area for £2.50.
A further strand of this admirable local area cause campaign, will see Big Issue vendors offered the opportunity to sign-up for two-month employability programme run by the ‘Saints Foundation’.
This scheme aims to equip them with job-ready and job-relevant skills and also to facilitate work placements throughout the club’s various departments.
After finishing the course, the vendor attendees will be able to apply for long-term appointments at Southampton Football Club.
Greg Baker, head of Saints Foundation and community partnerships at Southampton Football Club, said: “Southampton is a club built around tradition and family, and this partnership is an exciting way to begin the new season and help drive further positive change amongst our community. We’re delighted to help provide adults in and around the area with opportunities and skills they need to take the first step towards a fruitful career – whether that be with Southampton Football Club or elsewhere – and we hope to see fans and residents alike get involved with the campaign to support local vendors.”
While Big Issue vendor, Lee Barnes, added: “When I first started to sell the magazine, I’d hide behind the magazine, but The Big Issue brought myself out a bit more, developed me a bit more, given me a bit of confidence and made me see that there may be a future beyond this.”
The Big Issue managing director Russell Blackman believes that: ”The joining forces of Saints Foundation and The Big Issue reflects our shared values and commitment to a more equal society, supporting those whose lives have been blighted by poverty and a lack of opportunity. Saints Foundation do invaluable work supporting adults across the community, tackling social exclusion and raising aspirations.
“The Big Issue looks forward to developing a partnership that will look to harness the passion of the club and its fan base to inspire, support and further our mission to dismantle poverty through the creation of opportunity.”
Comment:
This campaign is an imaginative and yet compelling and committed way to bring to life the related missions of the Saints Foundation and the Big Issue: which are ‘Turning Potential into Excellence’ and ‘Hand-Up, Not Hand-Out’ respectively.
It is also yet another innovative and admirable partnership initiative that reinforces our feeling here at Activative that Southampton FC may well be the most inventive and imaginative marketing partner in the Premier League.
If you aren’t as convinced as us, we simply ask you to review some of the club’s other recent initiatives.
Check out some of the recent stand out Saints work such as its recent ‘Are We Doing This Right’ social media stunt mocking and yet still leveraging the crazy closed season new player promotional trend,
Are we doing this right? #saintsfc pic.twitter.com/TaByabGqci
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) July 13, 2017
or Under Armour’s recent animated ‘Made For Heroes’ mini-series promoting new Southampton shirt launch (see case study),
and, of course, its work with primary partner Virgin Media on the revolutionary and much admired £20sPlenty away fan ticket initiative at St Marys (see case study).
We rest our case!
Links:
Southampton FC
http://www.southamptonfc.com
http://www.twitter.com/southamptonfc
http://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc
http://www.instagram.com/southamptonfc
https://www.youtube.com/user/theofficialsaints
Big Issue:
