With a strategic decision to focus on YouTube content and use influencers to develop the message, we set out to build a new way to engage the influencer community.

We knew that brands using influencers was not a new thing, but rather than simply paying them for standalone product demos or reviews (product placement) in a way that has become commonplace, our ambition was to collaborate with influencers, to create story-led content, hosted on their YouTube channels rather than EE’s own channels.

The result of this collaboration was the Wembley Cup, an 8-episode YouTube series presented by Spencer Owen, culminating in a live match, played at Wembley Stadium and streamed live on YouTube. EE’s existing partnership with Wembley Stadium was instrumental in building a persuasive narrative and making this an epic project, as was the addition of a new partnership with EA, publisher of the popular video game series FIFA.

The premise of the series was the formation of two teams of influencers to face off on Wembley stadium in front of a crowd of fans. YouTube influencers Spencer Owen and Joe Weller were appointed team captains of Spencer FC and Weller Wanderers, and given the task of building their squads in preparation for the grand final. Over 8 episodes, the two teams battled it out in football related challenges to add EA FIFA 2017 legends such as Robbie Fowler, Robert Pires, Patrick Kluivert or Jamie Carragher to their ranks. To engage the YouTuber’s communities, we allowed the fan communities to decide what Youtube influencer got to join the losing team through a public vote. The completed teams played on Wembley in front of an audience of 20,000 fans and the game was live streamed on YouTube and later made available on Spencer FC’s channel for viewing.

The web series gathered more than 50 million views and the final raked in 3.8 mil views with 1.5 million views live on the night, rivaling many premier league matches. The live final saw 20,000 people in attendance at Wembley.

Audiences on Youtube were incredibly engaged, with over half a million likes and more than 350,000 comments on the content.

Finally, The Wembley Cup made it into the YouTube ads leaderboard and, in an incredible reversal of positions in brand tracking stats, for the first time in 6 years, EE was no. 1 in preference against O2 among young, 4G hungry Brits.