AFC Richmond is a fake soccer team from the American TV show Ted Lasso. But the show’s marketing pretends they’re real. So, to grow the show’s global audience, this fake team got some real global football partners. It became the first fake team ever to have a real Nike sponsorship & campaign, and a fake team that multiple real English Premier League teams pretended to play against via social media interactions.

These partnerships extended from the show itself to social media and the real world. Allowing new and existing fans to watch, interact with, and even "wear" the show.

Ted Lasso was one of the biggest TV comedy shows in America, winning multiple Emmy Awards in its first and second seasons. For the third season, we wanted to expand the show's global audience and footprint as a globally recognized "football team."

Ted Lasso was one of the biggest TV comedy shows in America, winning multiple Emmy Awards in its first and second seasons. For the third season, we wanted to expand the show's global audience and footprint as a globally recognized "football team."

By behaving like a real team, instead of a TV show, AFC Richmond was able to partner with footballs biggest brands. Using Ted Lasso and AFC Richmond's in-world Twitter accounts, we partnered with: Nike, the English Premier League, Bundesliga, and the Eredivisie.

Ted Lasso and AFC Richmond got a real Nike kit sponsorship that extended from the show to real life through a social/OOH/retail campaign. AFC Richmond also had real back and forth social interactions with football clubs across multiple English and European leagues based around weekly games that happened in the show.

Ted Lasso is a fictional television show coach that manages a fictional football team, AFC Richmond. Starting in season 1, our strategy has been to treat AFC Richmond as a real team in social media--never breaking character and never mentioning the show itself. For season 3, our goal was to reach a more global audience. So this fake team got some real global football and sports brands as partners. All playing along, in-world, with the show's characters and team.

Global scale.

The Nike sponsorship existed in the show, as real kit sponsor logos during games. And extended to the real world through an online AFC Richmond x Nike commercial that announced the sponsorship, OOH ads, retail, and social media.

Football team partners kept everything in-world, treating AFC Richmond as a real team that they had matches against and had back and forth interactions with through multiple social accounts.

By behaving like a real team instead of a tv show, AFC Richmond was able to partner with footballs biggest brands in an authentic way that was beneficial to all brands involved--reaching millions of new fans.

+500 ARTICLES WRITTEN GLOBALLY

+2B EARNED IMPRESSIONS GLOBALLY

GLOBAL VIEWERSHIP +68%

Season 3 over Season 2