Everton and Everton in the Community have been shortlisted for seven prizes at the 2021 Football Business Awards including nominations for best coronavirus community response and player unveiling after the signing of James Rodriguez.
Everton supported more than 30,000 people during the pandemic through their Blue Family initiative - launched four days before the first UK lockdown was announced - with a co-ordinated outreach and engagement campaign starting in March 2020.
The club have also been recognised for their reaction to the deal which brought Rodriguez to Goodison Park from Real Madrid last summer.
Everton lit up the tallest building in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, in Royal Blue while also animating billboards in New York City and Miami beach with images of Rodriguez.
The Football Business Awards, now in its ninth year, rewards and recognises the important role clubs and businesses play in enabling the game to be a success on and off the pitch.
The winners of all the awards will be announced at The Brewery in London on 6 July.
Full list of Everton nominations:
- Best Club Marketing Activation AND Best Brand Activation Involving Football - Premier League (‘More Than Eleven’ 2020/21 kit launch)
Everton and hummel celebrated and promoted equality and inclusion for all with the launch of their 2020-21 strips last summer.
The campaign led to best-selling home, away and third kits, while the launch of the latter saw members of the Everton in the Community disability programme become lead models for the release – an activation that earned global coverage.
- Best Digital/Social Media Team
During the coronavirus pandemic, Everton’s Digital and Social Media team played a central role in keeping fans around the world connected, and delivering vital health, wellbeing, educational and feel-good resources for the community.
From bedtime stories read by first-team and Everton Women players, to workouts delivered by club coaches and even an international virtual music festival, Lockdown Sessions 2020, tailored content reached millions of people when they needed it most.
- Best New Player/Contract Signing/Reveal Campaign (James Rodriguez)
In September 2020, Everton signed Colombia international James Rodriguez, the eighth biggest social media sports star on the planet.
Rodriguez’s arrival from Spanish giants Real Madrid presented the Blues with an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate its profile in South and North America and across the globe.
Best Football Community Scheme (Everton in the Community)
Everton in the Community continues to support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people across Merseyside and the Liverpool City Region and tackles a range of prevalent social issues including mental health, homelessness, poverty, employability and disability.
Despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the charity’s 40+ programmes continued to offer life-changing and life-saving support to individuals from primary school age to the most elderly members of the community suffering from social isolation.
- Best Corporate Social Responsibility Scheme (‘The People’s Place’, Everton in the Community)
Everton in the Community’s People’s Place campaign will see the charity build and develop a permanent mental health facility in the shadows of Goodison Park.
Granted planning permission in May 2020, The People’s Place will promote positive mental health and wellbeing and provide essential support relating to suicide awareness and prevention, with work on the building due to begin in the coming months.
- Best COVID-19 Community Response - Premier League (Blue Family)
Following the outbreak of coronavirus - and with the first national lockdown looming - Everton in the Community launched their Blue Family campaign to immediately provide vital aid and assistance to the most vulnerable and at-risk individuals and families.
The speed with which both the club and its official charity mobilised its coronavirus response to best meet the needs of its fans, participants, and the wider public, has been hailed as leading the way in football.
The 2021 Premier League Fan Survey results, revealed in March, showed 91 in every 100 supporters surveyed commended the Club's conduct throughout the pandemic – an approval rating 19 percent higher than the league average.
You can view the full Football Business Awards 2021 shortlist at footballbusinessawards.com/finalists/
