Sports fandom isn’t just about hoping your team will win. It’s a team thing too so sports got weird when Covid hit. Teams had to play in empty stadiums and fans had to watch silent games on TV, completely losing out on one of the best things about live sports: the atmosphere.
When IFK Gothenburg, one of Sweden’s biggest football clubs, wanted to find a way to connect with their fans during this strange time, the club got together with Forsman & Bodenfors and decided to bring the atmosphere to wherever the fans were. When some of the toughest restrictions were still in place in Sweden, they launched Support 24/7, the first-ever radio channel that broadcasts crowd chants every hour of the day, every day of the week, year-round.
Hundreds of recordings from real IFK Gothenburg games were gathered, turned into audio-only files and mixed into a never-ending audio stream of the team’s classic crowd songs and chants. Fans could turn on the radio while watching a silent game on TV, to add some real atmosphere…or whenever they missed the sound of a full Gamla Ullevi stadium. On game days, the live stream adapted to what happened on the pitch, with cheers getting louder if IFK Gothenburg played well and celebrations breaking out if the team scored.
“We couldn’t bring the fans to the stadium, so instead we brought the sound of the stadium to them,” stated Gustav Johansson, creative at Forsman & Bodenfors.
Credits:
Client: IFK Göteborg
Client Lead: Marcus Modéer
Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors
Art Directors: Sophia Lindholm & Karl Risenfors
Copywriter: Gustav Johansson
Client Director: Marie Murphy
Account Executive: Anna Börve
Designer: Christopher Ek
Digital Strategist: Peter Gaudiano
Web Design: Lundgren+Lindqvist AB
Case Study Production: Cutback Studio
Sound & Voiceover: TMP
