In 2008, the NFL’s New Orleans Saints adopted Wembley as their home turf, welcoming their San Diego Charger opponents to play a regular season fixture in the UK. Synergy was charged by the NFL with publicising their now annual UK-based regular season fixture.

Synergy developed a two-pronged PR strategy to maximize press coverage around the event, targeting both lifestyle and sports media with creative news generation in the build up to the big day. During a six-month campaign, Synergy created a crescendo of noise within the UK – hitting both the front and back pages of the national press – with the primary aim of positioning NFL American football as a credible, relevant sport with a growing UK fan-base.

Media trips to the pre-season training camps in the USA were coordinated, as well as setting up pre-season media days with the two teams’ star players, Reggie Bush and LaDainian Tomlinson, during a visit to London. London Mayor Boris Johnson was presented with his very own personalised Saints game jersey and the glamorous Saintsations cheerleaders toured the city to ensure that the momentum of game week increased as the big day drew closer. To attract and engage a whole new audience to the game, a brand new website was also launched – www.CoachStilo.com – where new fans of American football could learn all about the sport through fun, interactive game play.

The 2008 Wembley fixture was followed by additional activity around the 2009 Super Bowl in February – where Synergy maximized awareness of the big game (live on BBC1 for the first time) through a variety of channels: from Super Bash party promotions in London press, key sports business interviews with NFL UK Managing Director Alistair Kirkwood to executing a two-day, ten-city tour of the UK with cheerleaders from both Super Bowl teams.

Synergy continued its work for the NFL to generate publicity around the 2009 game, which saw the New England Patriots take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on 25th October 2009 (see separate case study).