2026 Gold Winner
You’ll Never Walk Alone: How Fanatical and Creators Combined to Sell Football Manager 26 at Record Numbers
The Challenge
When Football Manager 25 was cancelled after a five-month delay, it left Fanatical’s creator partners without a product to promote and damaged trust in the entire Football Manager franchise. Football Manager 2026’s anticipated Q3 release came against a backdrop of worry and high expectations, with Fanatical as one of only three stores where customers could pre-order the game.
The Strategy
Fanatical needed to rebuild confidence in the franchise while driving record sales across pre-order, early access and general release stages. The answer was a larger-scale creator campaign than anything the brand had run before, built on trust, authenticity and a new level of technical execution.
Execution and Innovation
The campaign scaled to over 300 content creators and launched Fanatical’s first-ever PR giftbox to drive authentic creator coverage. New ways of using campaign links strengthened the connection between creator content and commercial outcomes.
Results
The campaign delivered results that exceeded expectations and restored brand trust in the franchise.
Judges’ Verdict
“The campaign successfully drove performance across key release stages by combining well-defined goals with a high level of operational maturity.”
“With a focus on authentic creator messaging and structured campaign management, the team functioned as an integrated extension of the brand.”
Thanks to our 2026 sponsors
Adtraction is a leading partner marketing platform that helps brands across Europe increase their sales at a predictable cost, while enabling partners to monetise their content and traffic. The company works with brands across multiple industries, ranging from e-commerce to financial services. With a user-friendly platform, Adtraction connects brands with a diverse range of marketing partners, from influencers and media houses to apps, tech platforms and comparison sites. The company was established in 2007 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with offices in 12 countries across Europe.
Agenica builds AI marketing employees for brands and media agencies. Unlike generic LLMs, Agenica employees operates on live competitive activity—ads, creative and channel signals, plus a company’s internal KPIs and decision frameworks. It converts that into role-specific recommendations and ready to use briefs: what changed, why it matters, and what to do next.
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Blue Light Card is the UK’s number one discount service for emergency services, NHS, social care workers and armed forces.
With more than three million members across the UK, Blue Light Card works with over 16,500 partners including the likes of Spotify, Toby Carvery, Hotels.com, Cineworld, Sky, EE and Halfords, providing savings, discounts and benefits that often aren’t available to the general public. In 2022 alone, Blue Light Card holders saved over £250 million on everything from holidays and days out to groceries and utilities.
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There for those that are there for all of us.
Partnerize is the only partnership management solution powering growth for marketers seeking high-quality, scalable subsidies to primary channels through end-to-end software & comprehensive service. Partnerize joined forces with Pepperjam and Brandverity to establish the leading global solutions provider for affiliate marketing and partner automation including brand monitoring and compliance. Partnerize serves 1,800 enterprise and mid-market clients worldwide, driving more than $10B in transactions via their relationships with an ecosystem of 750,000+ partners, including 250,000+ influencers. Partnerize services clients across industries including retail/e-commerce, D2C, travel, finance, telecom, subscriptions and gaming.
The #1 CSS partner for peak performance.
Redbrain is a UK-based CSS partner dedicated to helping online retailers unlock incremental sales by getting their products in front of high-intent shoppers. Founded in 2016 and now recognised as Europe’s #1 Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) partner by volume, we combine advanced AI-driven technology with hands-on expertise to drive billions in additional sales on a CPA basis. We work as an extension of our partners teams, enhancing product visibility across Google Shopping, Microsoft Ads and leading price comparison sites. At Redbrain, we’re focused on transparent, measurable growth that complements existing marketing strategies and maximises ROAS.