Lincolnshire Football Association has been successfully shortlisted for the Brand Engagement and the Partnership categories at the County FA Recognition Awards 2024 for its We Are The One Podcast and Veo Goal of the Month initiatives.

The Awards, which will be announced at Wembley Stadium connected by EE on Thursday 7th November 2024, recognise and endorse the best projects, products and services delivered by County FAs over the past season while sharing best practice and learnings from around the country.

Over 225 nominations have been entered from the 50 County FAs operating across England, highlighting exceptional delivery and showcasing how they are innovating to improve grassroots football and increase participation across all levels of the game. 

The twelve categories which will be recognised at the awards are: 

• Brand Engagement
• Coach Development
• Employee Wellbeing & Engagement
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
• Facility Development
• Football Development
• Partnership
• Positive Football Environment
• Referee Development
• Special recognition
• Women & Girls
• Youth Engagement

Lincolnshire FA has made the final shortlist for the Brand Engagement category for the We Are The One podcast - launched to shine a light on the fantastic and inspiring work of volunteers in our footballing communities. 

As part of a new strategy objective, and a new area of focus for Lincolnshire FA, we wanted to engage with our volunteers and find new ways to recognise and reward them for their efforts, while giving them the opportunity to share best practice and insight for others to learn from. We also wanted to build on the Engage Lincolnshire project in 2022/23, and find new ways to communicate with our stakeholders and help them engage with our brand whilst continuing to build a positive reputation so that they see us in the best possible light – and help them understand all the things we do as an organisation. 

As part of our strategy consultation survey, we asked about how volunteers feel, and what they need from us as a County FA to make their efforts more worthwhile. 
Many came back and responded with comments like “We need more support and appreciation”, “show us some love”, and “give us more insight into the role and provide support at the earliest opportunity”. They also highlighted a need for more face-to-face support and recognition, and 50% of the respondents also stated they only sometimes feel supported by Lincolnshire FA, with another 28% stating they didn’t at all.

A need for something that better recognises the efforts of volunteers was seemingly crucial.

With this new foundation of information and understanding about what our volunteers wanted and what our stakeholders wanted, we set about creating the podcast ready for a January launch. We completed some background research on already successful podcasts, as well as ones that other County FA’s were already delivering. We knew what we wanted to deliver and the tone we wanted, and decided that the success of Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO was something that could be replicated in grassroots football in our area – outlined by the desire to hear people’s stories in our survey. 

We have seen immense and immediate success since the launch of the We Are The One podcast, entitled this based on our strategy line ‘One Lincolnshire Community: United And Inspired By The Power Of Football’. 

We’ve now published 9 episodes to date, featuring volunteers from all manner of roles. In total, the podcast has had 1,140 streams, averaging 127 streams per episode. Through promotion on social media using clips and quotes taken from each episode by our volunteer, Katie, we’ve seen a total of 82,549 impressions and 13,215 engagements. On TikTok, a platform we’d highlighted as being key to promotion of the podcast, we’ve so far had 12,300 views and 313 engagements on podcast related clips. 

The podcast has exceeded expectations and targets set prior to its launch, as we hoped for an average of 100 streams per episode. But more importantly, it’s given our amazing and inspiring volunteers the platform to share their stories and have a moment in the spotlight where for half an hour, they could tell everyone why they do what they do and the things they’re proud of. 

Lincolnshire FA have also been shortlisted in the Partnership category for the Veo Goal of the Month initiative, launched in the second half of last season. 

We created the Veo Goal of the Month award with one main objective in mind – to engage with and capture the interests of our least engaged with audience – our players. Generally, and traditionally, our players only ever thought of us as being in place to fine them all for dissent or poor behaviour and didn’t see us in a positive light. 

Unfortunately, the data tells us this. Following our consultation survey ahead of our new strategy refresh, many players who answered the survey told us their football experience was Poor or Neutral. Their relationship with us as a CFA was also evidenced when they described us as “needing to improve”, “low profile”, and “looks after themselves”. 

While much of the responses were positive, we wanted to build on that positivity and look to improve those negative perceptions and relationships with our players. We understand that players love recognition, especially for their goals! So we knew what we created had to lean in on that desire for recognition and reward, and for the thing that players crave most in a game of football. 

We wanted to see as many clips of outstanding goals submitted to us on a monthly basis as possible, and to fill social media feeds with goals from Lincolnshire FA affiliated clubs – whether that be through our own channels or the channels of our member clubs and stakeholders. The support of the newly established Media Volunteer Support Group was key in this by promoting the campaign and submitting applications.  

Veo joined as a Silver Partner of Lincolnshire FA in January this year, and as part of that partnership, we agreed to list them as naming rights to the competition to promote them and the discounts they had on offer. Afterall, many submissions would be filmed on Veo cameras!

We wanted to create a campaign that spoke to our playing audience and really captured their imagination, as well as giving them the much deserved and unprecedented recognition that we as a County FA hadn’t given them before. Analysing what content and campaigns were well engaged with at an elite level, the Premier League’s and other top-level clubs Goal of the Month content was well received and saw hundreds of thousands of votes on a monthly basis. 

We understand through conversation and engagement with young people that they like to be made to feel like a professional player and for their club to be as professional as possible once they start playing competitively. Whether this be with kit, media coverage, etc. 

We also saw that often well engaged with grassroots football related content on social media came from unbelievable goals, especially on video-based platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels. Combining this understanding with the fact that 49.7% of our total CRM audience was under the age of 35, we wanted to bring an aspect of professionality to them while giving them the chance to win an award for fantastic goals they’d scored during the month.

The campaign has seen incredible success, both for the County FA and for Veo. Having launched in February, we now have 4 winners who have all won the monthly prize.
Across social media, the videos of goals submitted along with promotion of the initiative gained 129,259 impressions and 53,344 engagements. The articles on the website had 830 views, with the YouTube videos of shortlists and winners gaining 2,191 views. On TikTok, videos hit 7,530 views with 352 engagements – capturing the 13-18 year old age range. What really impressed us however, was the number of submissions and votes. 

We had 90 goals sent in over the course of 4 months from teams across the County, both Youth and Open Age and across the Male, Female, and Disability pathways. Across the 4 monthly public ballots, where we shortlisted 5 or 6 submissions in each monthly award, we had a total of 2,772 votes. What’s more, we gained 162 marketing opt-ins during the voting periods – all of which we could promote directly the discount and offers that Veo offer, as well as other partners of LFA.

The initiative has also seen huge success for Veo, gaining 52 enquiries of purchasing new Veo 3 cameras which has resulted in 4 being purchased by clubs in Lincolnshire. At over £1,000 per camera, Veo have seen an instant return on investment within 4 months of launching the 2-year partnership. 

Zack Leader, Media, Marketing & Events Officer at Lincolnshire FA, said: "It's incredibly humbling and a privilege for us to be recognised and shortlisted for two County FA Recognition Awards. It's a huge testament to the positive and proactive work we're trying to do here at Lincolnshire FA, and I firmly believe it shows we're leading the way in many areas. All of the projects and areas of work submitted were capable of receiving further recognition, and the fact we were able to submit 10 projects reflects the hard work our entire organisation is doing to ensure grassroots football in Lincolnshire is the place to be. 

I think the fact we've seen shortlisted projects in the Brand Engagement and Partnership categories reflects the hard work we're putting in to recognising and rewarding our audience, and attempting to build positive relationships and engagement that last with our stakeholders - as well as finding new ways to support people in our local game, irrespective of role or involvement. I'd like to place on record my immense gratitude to Chris Funnell (Head of Operations), Andrew Whitham (Marketing & Communications Board Director), and our newly established Media Volunteers Support Group for their involvement and support with these areas of work."

Nick Hanson, CEO of Lincolnshire FA, said: "We are very proud to be recognised in two categories at the upcoming County FA Recognition Awards. To be shortlisted in two categories - as well as submitting many more projects - is testament to the hard work, innovation and dedication of the work undertaken by all at Lincolnshire FA.

The categories we have been shortlisted in show our commitment to recognising and rewarding our stakeholders, and being innovative in putting Lincolnshire football on the map for years to come. It also demonstrates our continued commitment to serving the grassroots football community to the best of our abilities. We look forward to attending the awards event and wish the best of luck to all of the other County FAs nominated.”

The FA’s Head of Operations for Grassroots Football, Tim Foster added: “I’d like to congratulate Lincolnshire FA in making the final shortlist for the Brand Engagement and Partnership awards respectively. We’ve had some outstanding submissions this year, once again highlighting the crucial role County FAs play in their local communities, ensuring accessible opportunities across all football formats and creating a fun and safe environment for all.

We look forward to celebrating the achievements of our County FAs at Wembley Stadium in November and thanking everyone involved for their efforts across the season.” 

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