DCMS Team Up case study
Behaviour change messaging inside trusted sports communities.
How a single-weekend Department for Culture, Media and Sport campaign used indoor football and rugby clubhouse screens to reach boys and young men around loneliness, connection and support.
The campaign
A national message placed where belonging is already part of the culture.
The Team Up campaign ran from 29 January to 2 February 2026 across portrait digital screens inside grassroots football and rugby club bars and social spaces.
The creative focused on loneliness and social isolation among boys and young men. Grassroot Media supported the activity in kind, combining ten-second animated screen delivery with a short audience survey supplied by DCMS.
Why the setting mattered
Clubhouses are not passive media locations.
They are volunteer-led community spaces where people spend time, return repeatedly, talk with teammates and build relationships. That gives behaviour-change messaging a socially embedded context that transient environments cannot always provide.
High dwell
Members spend meaningful time before and after matches, training and social activity.
Repeat connection
Players, coaches, volunteers and supporters return to the same trusted environment each week.
Relevant social context
Sport, teamwork, identity and belonging were already part of the conversation around the campaign.
Delivery and measurement
Screen activity supported by light-touch club research.
The campaign used portrait 9:16 digital screens in indoor clubhouse bars and social spaces, with ten-second animated creative. A small number of additional clubs were included through partner network Blue Billboard Ltd using the same indoor format.
The post-campaign survey explored screen recall, creative recall, reported action, support-seeking behaviour, demographics and respondents’ roles within their clubs.
FormatPortrait digital screens, 1080 × 1920
CreativeTen-second animated content
EnvironmentIndoor bars, lounges and social areas
Survey41 short-window responses
Results
Strong recall and a meaningful reported response.
The single-weekend duration makes the results notable, while the small sample means they should remain clearly qualified.
Recalled seeing a screen
The majority remembered the digital-screen environment itself, reinforcing the visibility of screens within clubhouse social spaces.
Recalled Team Up
Creative recall was strong for an activity that ran over one weekend rather than several weeks.
Reported taking action
Reported actions included conversations, online searches, visiting campaign resources and broader engagement with the issue.
Clubs as campaign partners
The network contributed more than screen space.
Many clubs shared campaign content, distributed the survey, encouraged participation, supplied photography and discussed the subject internally.
That cooperative role matters. Grassroots clubs have trusted relationships, established communication channels and a willingness to support relevant campaigns that benefit their members and communities.
Media plus participation.Delivery, amplification and learning can work together.
For future public-information activity, screens can be combined with posters, club social channels, newsletters, matchdays, signposting and deeper qualitative feedback.
Strategic learning
Trusted environments can help a message become part of a conversation.
Context improves relevance
Sport, teamwork and belonging gave the campaign a natural reason to appear in the room.
Social settings encourage discussion
Clubhouse viewing happens around peers, teammates and trusted contacts rather than in isolation.
Clubs can support measurement
Light-touch surveys and feedback can be distributed quickly through existing club relationships.
Longer planning unlocks more
Future campaigns could add posters, coordinated club communications, matchday activity and a larger evidence base.
Public information and behaviour change
Use club environments as part of the campaign infrastructure, not just the media plan.
Grassroot Media can combine indoor screens, posters, direct club relationships, light-touch research and appropriate club-led amplification across football, rugby, cricket and bowls.