Background

The International Cup is the UK’s largest youth football tournament attracting over 200 teams to Manchester to battle it out in 6 age groups.
The tournament takes place in two locations, Owens Park and the vast football grounds at Wythenshawe just off the M60.

Brief

Smart City Dressing was given the task of transforming both sites into a branded experience worthy of the size of the cup.
As well as branding the sites we were tasked with creating a portable backdrop and entrance arch as well as providing and managing an activity zone in which to try out Umbro products.

Solution

We have worked with Umbro over a couple of years and have always advocated a co-ordinated approach to the branding with one distinctive brand. The temptation has always been to use old banners and the latest designs together to cover as much area. This approach offers a confusing picture and greatly reduces the effect of a well organised festival, letting down both the organiser and sponsor. A single clear consistent brand is vital and this year we achieved it with the launching of the 'World Tournament brand'.

We concentrated on the two main show football pitches. Rather than producing long rolls of horizontal branding we opted for a unique barrier cover. The barrier cover dressed both sides of a crowd barrier, allowing for a flexible and effective branding of the pitches.

To support this we used thirty 5 metre high flag systems positioned around the main pavilion and higher ground between the pitches.

To add height and dynamism we also used 2 inflatable ‘tall guys’, 12 metre high tubes dressed as football players.
The backdrop and arch were constructed from the same unit employing two triangular ‘toblerone’ towers with a banner stretched in between. This proved to be both portable and adaptable as well as resistant to the windy conditions common on large open areas.

Finally we added branded banners to the front of the pavilion and produced a range of smaller banners including corner flags to be distributed around the pitches.

Conclusion

The new brand created a far smarter and more effective statement, elevating the status of the tournament. With a limited budget we built a basic kit that can be added to over the years. The barrier covers proved a huge success and the flag system was both easy to install, affordable and effective.

Finally to control the brand we will produce a ‘Kit of Parts’.