Laduma scoops top award at Fanalyse Summit

Laduma picked up the award for 2017’s Best Commercial Activation at the Fanalyse European Summit in Liverpool on Thursday night.

The cutting-edge VR & AR content company beat off competition from BT Sport, AEG/The O2, Southampton/Under Armour and Mitre to win the award for a stunning 360 video campaign featuring Everton and England midfielder Ross Barkley. Laduma had created the content for Sure and Everton FC.

The award-winning film focused on how Barkley prepares for and protects himself from the pressure of taking a free kick at a crucial moment in a big game.

Laduma’s production team spent a day with the rising star at Everton’s Finch Farm training ground before working their movie magic to bring the film to life.  

Speaking at the Fanalyse Summit, which was attended by the likes of Pepsi, Chelsea, Liverpool, Uefa, Southampton FC and Ajax, Laduma CEO Ben Smith admitted he was delighted to receive the award on behalf of the team.

He said: “We wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before when this project came our way. And to have the work of everyone in our team recognised shows we achieved what we set out to do.

“The likes of Southampton and AEG are formidable rivals but thanks to Sure for trusting us, Everton and Ross Barkley for making it so easy and of course everyone at Fanalyse for the recognition. We’re thrilled.”

The Fanalyse awards have been created to recognise market leaders and creative pioneers in the sports marketing industry, with previous winners including the likes of the NBA, the Seattle Sounders, Everton and Fifa.

Hundreds of sport’s top decision makers had attended the summit at Anfield earlier in the day with keynote speeches being delivered by leading minds from the BBC, AS Roma, Southampton and The Football League.

Smith also delivered a state of the industry address to close the summit and told delegates that clubs and sponsors needed to work more closely together to create content that stood out.

“Content that makes fans feel closer to their sporting idols has particular power,” said Smith.

“The younger generations want content they can share, that grabs their attention. Having grown up on social media, they want real, unadulterated interaction with athletes without barriers and PR spin. 

“The challenge for brands is being able to give people genuine experiential content, that they simply cannot ignore and that the brands feel maximise their association with the clubs they sponsor.

“And it is in that space, where Laduma thrives. We are all about helping brands create content the audience will never, ever forget.”

Fanalyse CMO Barrie McAuliffe said, “Despite the high calibre shortlist, Laduma were voted our commercial winner based on their ability to think up and creatively activate an otherwise standard partnership, using technological innovation to draw the audience in. The Laduma team continue to push forward with exciting, immersive content, and it was no surprise to see this great example with Sure and Everton. We can’t wait to see what’s next.”

For more details about Laduma, which has created ground breaking AR, VR and MR content for leading sports brands across the world, go to www.laduma.co.uk

Laduma is the game-changing Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality content company that solves real brand challenges by creating incredible 360, 3D and 2D experiences. With offices in the UK, US and South Africa we produce truly ground-breaking solutions to help iconic global brands tell their stories like never before.