Purpose before reach
Start with what someone needs to understand or do, then assess whether the club environment supports that task.
← Advertise by Sector
Government and public information
Government and public information advertising in grassroots sports clubs.
Reach people in the clubs where they play sport, volunteer and spend time together. Grassroot Media helps public-sector organisations and their agencies plan campaigns across football, rugby, cricket and bowls using digital screens, posters and appropriate club support.
From public health and recruitment to local services and community information, we build the plan around the people you need to reach and what you want them to understand or do.
Suitable non-partisan campaigns can include public health, safety, recruitment, access to services and objective public consultations. Every campaign remains subject to advertising acceptance and venue suitability.
Why use grassroots sports clubs
A regular routine can give useful information a relevant setting.
A clubhouse is part of people's regular routine. Members return for matches, training, social events and volunteering, creating opportunities to encounter a relevant message over more than one visit.
Clubs also give a campaign a setting. Information about connection, participation or looking after other people can have a natural place in an environment built around shared activity. The message still needs clear creative and a useful next step.
Repeated opportunity
Members return through the week and season, while campaign claims should remain proportionate to the delivery and evidence available.
Direct club knowledge
We can check where advertising sits, how the venue is used and whether an additional club role is practical.
Choose the communities that fit the brief
Plan around the audience, geography and purpose of the message.
An individual sport is a useful planning route, not a complete audience description. We check the available clubs and audience information against the objective, then recommend the combination that fits.
Consider club settings for campaigns involving players, coaches, volunteers and supporters, including briefs aimed at younger adults and men where the audience fit is supported.
Consider the mix of adult players, junior families, volunteers and supporters, with activity planned around the season and each club's use.
Consider clubs for information relevant to older adults and their social networks, while recognising that individual venues and their audiences differ.
Committee members and volunteers can be relevant for services, consultations and information connected to community organisations.
National or local planning
Use a wider network or a selected local catchment.
For a council, NHS or service-area brief, we can check participating venue locations against the relevant geography and explain the coverage available. A club address does not mean every visitor lives within that boundary, so both the plan and its claims should reflect that distinction.
Give each format a clear job
Use screens, posters and agreed club support for different steps.
A stronger plan gives each element a practical role rather than adding formats for the sake of it.
Concise and adaptable
Digital Screens
Use a clear message and action. Dates, campaign phases and creative changes can be planned around the booking.
Continuing physical presence
Posters
Keep essential information visible in agreed clubhouse locations across the campaign period.
Separately scoped
Leaflets and agreed club support
Where suitable and separately agreed with participating clubs, information can be made available to take away or reinforced through an appropriate club communication. These elements are not automatically included with screen or poster bookings.
Public information experience
Campaign evidence should show both what happened and what it can support.
These examples cover sustained recruitment activity, practical service information and a short campaign evaluation. They demonstrate different jobs rather than one universal formula.
Recruitment
British Army
Our published case study documents a seven-month campaign that developed from posters into screen activity across football, cricket and rugby, supported by regular copy changes and weekly delivery reporting.
Read the British Army campaignAccess to services
Telecare awareness
Grassroot Media carried government information in bowls clubs about the move from analogue to digital landlines and its implications for telecare alarms.
See the telecare campaign
Campaign evaluation
DCMS Team Up
The published evaluation reports 59% creative recall in a 41-response survey. The small sample provides directional feedback, rather than a population estimate or proof of behaviour change.
Read the Team Up case study and evaluationAgree what success means before launch
Keep delivery, research, reported action and verified outcomes separate.
Depending on the brief and agreed scope, evaluation can include placement records, installation photographs, audience surveys, club feedback and campaign-specific response links and, where appropriate, QR codes.
Surveys can explore recall, understanding and reported action. Campaign links can record visits to a destination. Verified health, recruitment or service-use outcomes need an appropriate evaluation approach and advertiser data. We agree the measures at the start.
Support the clubs carrying the message
Campaign activity can also provide a practical benefit to grassroots sport.
Campaign income helps support participating grassroots clubs, including agreed club payments or revenue share where applicable. That sits alongside the campaign's communication objective without implying that a host club endorses the message.
Our advertising policy
Useful public information, without party or electoral campaigning.
We welcome suitable non-partisan public-information campaigns. We do not accept advertising promoting or opposing political parties, election candidates or referendum outcomes. This helps protect the shared club environment.
Advertising acceptance policy
Political advertising and public information
Effective 15 October 2026. This policy applies to advertising booked through Grassroot Media, rather than setting rules for every club's own communications.
Grassroot Media welcomes non-partisan public-information and public-service advertising from national and local government, NHS organisations and other public bodies, including campaigns placed through their agencies.
We do not accept advertising that promotes or opposes a political party, an election candidate or a referendum outcome. This applies regardless of who funds or places the advertising.
Grassroots sports clubs bring together people with different political views. Our approach allows useful public information to reach these communities while keeping party and electoral campaigning out of the advertising we sell.
We may also decline issue-advocacy or campaigning material that is unsuitable for a shared club environment, could reasonably be understood as electoral or party-political campaigning, or risks implying that a host club endorses a contested position.
Suitable campaigns may include public health, safety, recruitment, access to services and objective public consultations. We assess the message, creative, linked destination, audience, timing and suitability for participating venues. A public-sector advertiser or government funding does not automatically make a campaign acceptable.
Advertising must identify its source clearly and must not imply endorsement by a host club or its members. All campaigns remain subject to Grassroot Media's advertising acceptance process.
Neutral electoral informationObjective information such as how to register to vote is considered under the public-information criteria. Grassroot Media's commercial policy should not be read as a statement that political out-of-home advertising is prohibited by law.
Questions for public-sector planners
Practical answers before you send the brief.
What types of organisations can advertise?
National and local government, NHS organisations and other suitable public bodies or their appointed agencies can submit non-partisan public-information campaigns for consideration.
Can a campaign target a local service area?
Yes. We can assess participating clubs against a council boundary, NHS area or other relevant catchment, while being clear that club visitors may travel from outside it.
What evidence can Grassroot Media provide?
Depending on the campaign, this can include placement records, installation photographs, club feedback, audience research and campaign-specific response measurement.
Does Grassroot Media accept political advertising?
No advertising promoting or opposing political parties, election candidates or referendum outcomes is accepted. Suitable non-partisan public information is considered under the full policy above.
Tell us what the campaign needs to achieve
Plan the setting, formats and evidence around the public-information task.
Send us the audience, locations, timing, intended action and available budget. Involve us before the media plan and creative are finalised so we can assess the club environments, formats and evidence that would be useful.