Unscripted redefined BT Sport marketing. Repositioning the brand at the heart of football culture and conversation for the first time. We replaced traditional TV advertising with disruptive data-driven storytelling – with fans and fan culture at the very heart of the idea. The same innovative and insight-driven approach has guided all subsequent BT Sport campaigns. Delivering unparalleled results – against the backdrop of a significant rise in competition and drop in marketing budgets.

In the face of fierce competition, changing consuming habits and the threat of online piracy – it had never been more difficult to sell sport subscriptions.

The 2019/20 football season was about the begin but BT Sport’s marketing budgets had been cut. There was a renewed focus to do more with less and find new ways to reach fans, while still maintaining sales.

With BT Sport’s biggest competitor outspending it by 3:1 and flooding traditional media channels, we needed to shake things up.

Our brief was simple. Match the previous years’ sales with a fraction of the media spend.

We commissioned the biggest brains in sports data and machine learning to write the first AI-inspired script of any football season, anywhere on the planet. Ever.

Using data from Opta, models from Squawka and powered by Google Cloud Platform, we established credibility amongst notoriously data-cynical fans.

And from their numbers, came our story. As we transformed raw data into our 60-page Script of the Season. The fortunes of every club mapped out meticulously, using glorious data visualisation.

And then, the PR machine went into overdrive. Physical copies were released to pundits, players, influencers and journalists. Next, online to the nation. And the conversation erupted. Before we’d spent a penny on advertising. Discussed everywhere, from Twitter to talkSport, Instagram to the Independent.

Finally, the true jeopardy of football was revealed, in our iconic Unscripted campaign. Proving that you can’t script it, but you can watch it, on BT Sport.

Sky had triple our media budget and was flooding traditional channels. We needed a new way to reach fans and meet our objectives.

So, we decided to weave BT Sport into football culture and conversation instead. Replacing big-budget TV ads with disruptive data-driven storytelling.

For that, we’d need an idea that would ignite a global debate like nothing the football community had ever seen. Starting on social media and spreading like wildfire. Using owned and earned media to generate unparalleled awareness and sales.

And then, the breakthrough.

The agony. The ecstasy. Incredible highs. Unbearable lows. From the embers of the most unpredictable Champions League season ever, a truth emerged.

You just can’t write this stuff.

With the imminent introduction of VAR, research confirmed there was no hotter topic in football, than the role of data and technology.

So, while other sports campaigns looked back on previous seasons, we’d look forward.

To establish credibility amongst a notoriously data-cynical audience, we united the biggest brains in data and technology.

30 years of Opta football data was ingested into our models, created by the brilliant analytical minds at Squawka. Then the machine learning began as the models were run using the power of the Google Cloud Platform.

And from numbers, came stories. As we transformed raw data, into our 60-page Script. The fortunes of every club described in incredible detail using glorious data visualisation.

Then, the PR machine went into overdrive as physical copies were released to pundits, players, influencers and journalists.

And the conversation erupted. Before we’d spent a penny on advertising. Discussed everywhere, from Twitter to talkSport, Instagram to the Independent.

Next, we released it to the fans – online, on social and in national rail stations.

Finally, the resolve. Our iconic Unscripted campaign went live in DOOH and press.

Unscripted transformed the way that BT Sport do marketing and set a new standard for sports marketing in the UK. We switched the dial from cumbersome, traditional advertising to data driven, social first content that infiltrated culture and conversation.

• Unprecedented global coverage and engagement:

o 137 million impressions across 44 countries

o 128 pieces of organic coverage

o 2.3 million print circulation

o 5. million online views

o 2.1 million social engagements

o Over 40,000 new social followers of BT Sport in 10 days

• 30% more BT Sport subscriptions than 2018/19, with 26% of the 2018/19 budget

• £1.7 million in earned media more than doubled our paid media budget – putting us on par with Sky’s media spend for their season launch campaign