Drawing our line in the sand.

Delivering the most successful World Championships of all time

We joined World Athletics’ on-site team as the governing body attempted to make the World Athletics Championships 2019 its biggest and best yet online. We were on the ground helping out with every aspect from content creation, to partner activation and YouTube optimisation.

Without a recognised global superstar to build headlines around in the build-up to the Championships, we developed a strategy that saw the creation of content that focussed on education, bringing a new generation of athletes to the fans. Pieces detailing the names to look out for, the key events and content features for current world and championship record holders, let fans know the names they could expect to see.

Graphics were developed to celebrate each world champion and ground-breaking moments such as world records. With a real push towards video despite only a small number of minutes made available each day, we set up short Doha Moments on YouTube as a way of getting the best moments from each day to the fans as quickly as possible.

The ultimate goal was to attract a new generation of fans and bring athletics back into the lives of a younger audience. With that in mind, the decision was made to switch up the tone of voice and be edgier with the content produced, using more memes and popular culture to cut through the noise, and reach fans who may not have had a natural love of athletics.

World Athletics crossed the line with unprecedented online success. With 211 million total impressions and 52 million minutes watched on YouTube over the 10 days of competition. Doha 2019 sprinted past every measurable metric record that had been set in London two years before.