MAKING WAVES GLOBALLY

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THE CHALLENGE

In 2021, Abu Dhabi welcomed 900 athletes from 183 countries for the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), staged alongside a wider aquatics festival featuring open water swimming, diving and high diving.

With the largest prize purse in FINA history and a global broadcast audience, the ambition extended far beyond delivering a successful sporting event. The campaign needed to position Abu Dhabi as a world-class host for international sport, engage athletes and federations globally, drive local awareness and attendance, and create a meaningful community legacy that would last long after the final World Champion was crowned.

Bringing this to life required multiple agencies, production partners and stakeholders to operate as one integrated team, with a central marcomms lead connecting FINA’s international requirements with the ambitions and priorities of the Local Organising Committee.

OUR APPROACH

As lead marcomms agency, F31 acted as the Championships’ central marketing communications arm - reporting directly to the LOC, FINA and delivery agency - bringing every workstream together under one overarching strategy. We connected FINA’s international requirements with the Local Organising Committee’s ambitions, translating them into a locally relevant campaign with global reach.
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Our remit spanned strategy, brand, PR, content, athlete communications and community engagement, including appointing and directing specialist agencies and production partners, aligning stakeholders and managing approvals across FINA, the Local Organising Committee and event partners.

The result: a fully integrated international campaign uniting multiple agencies and stakeholders behind one Championships brand, and engaging audiences through elite sport, community programmes and sustainability initiatives.

BRANDING

F31 led the development of the Championships’ brand and campaign from the outset. We appointed and directed a specialist creative agency to develop the logo, brand guidelines and key visual, managing the development and approval process across FINA, the Local Organising Committee and event partners. From there, we delivered the implementation of the identity across the complete campaign and event ecosystem.

This included digital and social content, broadcast materials, venue branding, fan communications, community campaigns and stakeholder collateral. Throughout the campaign, F31 acted as brand guardian, ensuring the identity was applied consistently and effectively across every agency, partner, platform and physical touchpoint.

F31 oversaw the Championships’ PR programme, managing the appointed PR agency and ensuring all earned media activity remained aligned with the wider marcomms strategy. We oversaw messaging, story development, announcements, media engagement and event-time communications, connecting international sporting narratives with Abu Dhabi’s destination, community and hosting stories.
 
We also led the delivery of two major press conferences, welcoming an international media audience and coordinating speakers, messaging and media operations.

DANA THE MASCOT

F31 managed the specialist design agency responsible for creating Dana, the official Championships mascot, before leading her launch and integration into the wider campaign.

Dana became a central engagement platform across the event’s community and sustainability programmes, appearing through school visits, public activations, digital content and on-ground experiences. This helped make the Championships more accessible to younger audiences and gave its legacy initiatives a recognisable public face.

TVC

F31 appointed the specialist agency responsible for producing the Championships’ TVC and managed the project on behalf of the LOC. We oversaw the strategic and creative alignment of the production, coordinated stakeholder feedback and approvals, and led the subsequent campaign rollout. We then repurposed the hero film into a wider suite of campaign assets for broadcast, paid media, digital, social and event communications, extending its reach extending its reach and value across the full campaign.

CONTENT PRODUCTION

Alongside the TVC, F31 delivered the Championships’ ongoing content production programme, creating platform-specific content that built anticipation, showcased the athletes and brought the wider Abu Dhabi experience to life.

During the event, our live on-site production team captured and turned around content in real time, allowing the campaign to respond to the action, stories and defining moments of the Championships as they happened.