When Ballymena United came to us looking for a communications partner to help strengthen their media presence and boost footfall to matches, we didn’t need extra time to warm up. A historic Irish League club, a passionate fanbase, and a genuine appetite to build something special? We were ready to lace up. 

Here at Clearbox our team have a passion for sport; we know athletes, clubs and even governing bodies often have such strong connections with their communities that the story-telling can be incredibly powerful and impactful. It’s just a matter of finding the right people to tell those stories!

The brief… 

Position Ballymena United as Northern Ireland’s family football club through human-led PR storytelling, while also delivering a digital marketing and CRM project with one very tangible goal: get more fans through the turnstiles at the Showgrounds. Two goals, one campaign – garner media interest with authentic stories, and drive attendance numbers up using smarter data and targeted digital communications.

Kicking things off

We launched the partnership with an announcement campaign, landing coverage in Business First, Love Ballymena and the Belfast Newsletter, reaching over 305,000 people and setting the tone for what was to come. From there, it was all about the stories – and BUFC had two brilliant ones ready to tell.

First up was the ‘Sky Blue Ribbon’ campaign, led by lifelong fan Paul Ross, whose family honoured their late daughter Lydia with a record-breaking charity fundraiser for Northern Ireland’s Air Ambulance Service. It’s the kind of story that reminds you football clubs are about people first, and it landed across Northern Ireland World, the Coleraine Chronicle, Love Ballymena, and the Belfast Telegraph both online and in print – racking up a story reach of over 3.75 million.

Then came Emma Russell, BUFC’s Director of Operations, and the first woman to join their board, whose lifelong connection to the club and trailblazing role in the boardroom made her a natural spokesperson to represent everything good about this new era for the football club. Her story resonated well beyond Ballymena, with coverage in the Irish Independent (print and online – even as Gaeilge!) and the Belfast Telegraph, taking the story reach to a staggering 21.69 million, bringing the club to new audiences and potential new supporters through the power of the media.

Between the two campaigns, we secured 12 published articles – nine online, three in print, spanning the country – for a combined PR reach of 29.8 million.

Silverware and shortlists

The Sky Blue Ribbon campaign didn’t just make headlines, it made history – taking home the Club Community Initiative of the Year at the prestigious NIFL Football Awards. Emma picked up recognition of her own too, named one of Belfast Telegraph’s ‘30 Under 30’ and shortlisted in the ‘Female Contribution to Professional Football’ in Northern Ireland category at the NIFL Awards. Two award wins and counting.

The data behind the drama

Great stories get people talking, but we also needed to turn that dialogue into people coming through the gate. That meant rolling up our sleeves on a digital comms and CRM project, built around three home matches during the 2025/2026 season. We started by building a proper, GDPR-clean CRM from scratch – pulling together data from ticket sales, surveys, competition entries and shop purchases to create a rich dataset of 2,700+ unique customer records. 

From there, we launched a strategic email campaign (13,420 emails sent, with a 15.32% open rate and a brilliant 26.99% link click rate) alongside a paid social campaign push targeting BUFC supporters and lookalike football audiences, reaching over 65,000 people and for the analysts amongst us that drove 2,413 link clicks at just 36p a click.

Whilst that’s a nice story, football is all about results. The results spoke for themselves attendance at the three targeted matches rose 4.3%, 18.2% and – hold onto your scarves – 47.8% for the last of the three targeted matches, landing an all-time match attendance record in the process. 

The final whistle

What made this campaign work? Real people telling real stories, hard data backing up every decision, and consistent, high-quality assets that kept the club looking sharp in every headline. 

Sport is so unique that you don’t necessarily have to convince people to show their colours, you just have to reach people that already believe in you with a personal touch to remind them you’re there, and that there is something powerful about belonging and being part of a greater cause. 

Football fans are in it for the long haul. So are we.

Want a campaign that gets fans on their feet and cameras in your direction? Give us a shout – no penalties required.