For brands and employers
A generation you cannot buy your way into
Eighteen to twenty four year olds are the hardest audience in the country to reach with paid media. They block ads, skip pre-roll and distrust brands that turn up only when they are selling something. What they do trust is the thing their own university, their own society and their own mates are part of.
Beyond the Pitch puts your name inside that, carried through university channels and student networks across a month of fixtures rather than bought as a single impression. And it reaches them in the exact years they are choosing graduate employers.
- Repeated presence across eight London student communities, not one match day
- Graduate recruitment visibility in front of final-year students at the point of decision
- Measurable social value and community impact for ESG and social value reporting
- Employee engagement: your people can volunteer, speak, mentor or attend
- Content and imagery you can use across your own channels afterwards
For football clubs and foundations
Reach and delivery you do not have to fund
Club foundations are measured on community reach, participation and wellbeing outcomes, and most are geographically bounded by their own catchment. Beyond the Pitch extends a club's men's mental health work into a student population it does not currently touch, without the foundation taking on delivery, staffing or cost.
The universities deliver the football. The club brings the credibility, and whatever level of involvement suits it, from an ambassador appearance to a full partnership.
- A new demographic reached, at no delivery cost to the foundation
- Participation, reach and wellbeing outcomes that count toward community reporting
- A men's mental health platform that aligns with existing club programmes
- Visibility with a London student audience, including for clubs outside London
- An asset the club can offer its own commercial partners
For charities and mental health organisations
The audience you are always trying to reach
Every men's mental health organisation in the country has the same problem: the men who most need the message are the least likely to come looking for it. Campaigns work hardest on the people already paying attention.
This is a room full of young men who turned up for football. You get to be in it, with a captive audience, a live signposting opportunity and a route into eight universities at once. No media spend, no cold outreach.
- Direct access to a hard-to-reach demographic already in the room
- A live signposting and referral opportunity at fixtures and on Grand Final night
- Delivery of workshops, talks or training to a student audience at scale
- Named association with a campaign built around your cause
- Reach across multiple institutions through a single partnership
For universities
Engagement your wellbeing team cannot get
Universities invest heavily in student wellbeing provision, and male students remain consistently the hardest group to engage with it. A football competition your students actually want to win does what a wellbeing week cannot.
It also builds visible cross-institutional partnership, gives your students a genuine reason to turn out for the university, and produces a story worth telling.
- Male student engagement with wellbeing messaging, through a route they opt into
- Evidence for wellbeing, engagement and student experience commitments
- Cross-institutional collaboration with other London universities
- Student union, society and sport participation built in
- A genuine campus moment, and a final at a professional stadium
The founding year matters
Beyond the Pitch is built to return every season. The organisations involved in year one are the ones who turned it from an idea into something reaching thousands of young men, and they will be recognised as founding partners for as long as it runs. That is not a position that exists again.
Supporter
Introductions, in-kind support or a contribution to a single element of the competition. Named across campaign communications.
Community
Involvement in shaping the wellbeing programme: a speaker, a workshop, or guidance on safe signposting. For charities, clubs and community organisations.
Founding
Founding Partner
Branding across fixtures, campaign communications, digital content and the Grand Final, with activation rights and a hand in shaping the competition.
Stadium Partner
For a professional club hosting or supporting the Grand Final, as a community and foundation partnership rather than a commercial venue hire.
