What would draw enough attention to introduce, explain and establish Play Unified in one go? What if we let the Coach of our National Soccer team call up unannounced 8 totally unknown names at the official selection, the names of athletes with a mental disability. We addressed the national press when they were all ears, at the official selection for the national soccer team. They are always looking for a scoop on new players being selected for the national team. But they weren’t expecting this. 8 unknown names belonging to 8 athletes with a mental disability (special football players). 8 Athletes who would play a unified game with our national football heroes. There’s no message more empowering than calling up special football players in the same breath as the best football players of the country.

September 30th: the official press conference for the selection of the national soccer team. National coach Martinez reads the names of the players to the gathered Belgian press. When the selection is over, he surprises everyone by adding unannounced 8 unknown players to the team. During the following 3 days, the spotlight is on Play Unified. #playunified becomes a hot topic. 3th of October, the Unified game between our national football players and special athletes takes place under massive media and public attention. From the official press conference, the spotlight was on #playunified, and we kept it there. During, before and after the game we got coverage in national newspapers, the big television journals and radio stations. #playunified was a hot topic on social media, and everyone could witness the joy of Playing Unified.

We asked our national football heroes to donate their spotlight. With no media budget and little owned reach, we managed to get the spotlight on Play Unified, leading to a peek in site traffic, huge press coverage (radio, tv, print, online) and social media attention, leading to a total reach of more than 30 million and almost 2 million euro in earned media. But most importantly, we finally got the attention of national sports Federations (football, bowling, tennis, badminton). After the campaign their number raised from one to ten participating sports Federations. We increased the number of sportclubs with 36% and the number of sporters with 24% in six months. Thanks to these partnerships, we changed the course of #playunified in Belgium. Now, thousands of athletes will discover the joy of Playing Unified, achieving our most important victory: creating social inclusion through sports by playing on one team.