What was the brief?
Recruit more children into the Lech Poznań Football Academy. Children who join typically stay for several years and pay monthly fees, so each new player is worth a lot more than one sign-up. Here’s how the campaign was built, step by step. (It’s one of several Lech Poznań projects I’ve worked on.)
Step 1: Concept
We began with the core idea. What should we say? What tone should the copy and visuals have? After a few working sessions with the club’s internal marketing team we had the idea, the targets, the distribution plan and the budget.
Step 2: Photoshoot
We photographed academy kids in the new club kits, following key visuals planned in advance. Those pictures became the foundation for every graphic in the campaign.
Step 3: Launch across channels
We combined online and offline, each with a clear job:
- Organic content. The club has strong organic reach, so we posted about the benefits of sport in general and of joining Lech Poznań in particular.
- Social ads. We tested styles from highly polished to authentic and real-life, then doubled down on the best performers. That significantly lowered our cost per click.
- TikTok with players. First-team players made simple football-trick videos and challenged kids to copy them and post their own. It generated lots of user-generated content and engaged the target audience directly — and the best entries got personal replies from the players.
- Expert articles. On news sites we published pieces by a psychologist specialising in youth sport about health benefits and child development.
- Out-of-home. Billboards across the city, the largest LED screen in Poznań, public transport, the stadium on match days and spots near local training grounds. For a short period the campaign was simply everywhere.
- Schools. Posters and flyers distributed via physical-education teachers and school principals.
The offer that made it easy to say yes
We made a point of highlighting that the first two classes are free. For parents that removes the risk of trying the academy before committing, which strengthened the funnel and made the offer very hard to refuse.
What were the results?
The campaign reached over 2 million views in the area — in a city of roughly 700,000 people, that means almost everyone in Poznań saw it. The academy welcomed hundreds of new children.
What I’d repeat on any local campaign
- Mix the personal and the public: TikTok with idols, billboards for the whole city.
- Test creative early and put money behind winners.
- Use trusted voices — a psychologist for parents, players for kids.
- Lower the risk of the first step with a free trial.
Huge thanks to Lech Poznań for their trust and to the team behind it.
Quick answers
How did the Lech Poznań Football Academy campaign perform?
It reached over 2 million views in the area — in a city of about 700,000 — and the academy welcomed hundreds of new children.
Which channels did the campaign use?
Organic social, paid social ads, TikTok challenges with first-team players, expert-written articles, out-of-home advertising and posters and flyers in schools.
Why offer the first two classes free?
It removes risk for parents and gets children through the door; players who stay typically remain in the academy for several years.
