Uphold & Burnley FC

Uphold wanted to accelerate mainstream awareness and customer acquisition in priority UK and US markets. Sport was an area of interest as a platform to drive mainstream audience attention and the brand wanted to know how a partnership would deliver scale, relevance and a credible route from brand exposure to customer engagement.

The Premier League offered the global reach that Uphold was looking for, but sourcing the right club was of equal importance.

Playmaker navigated the market ahead of the 2023/24 season, identifying how Burnley FC were returning to the Premier League after a Championship winning season. Importantly, the club had developed a distinctive US connection through high-profile investors and personalities including NFL legend JJ Watt and creators Dude Perfect.

This provided Uphold with an opportunity to enter the Premier League, one of the world’s biggest sports competitions, while retaining a clear route into the US market.

Uphold became Burnley’s Official Sleeve Partner for the 2023/24 season, with branding on the first-team playing shirt and LED perimeter advertising at all home matches during the season, plus extensive wider activation rights.

Importantly, the partnership was designed to go beyond the sleeve. In March 2024, Uphold and Burnley FC in the Community launched a limited edition Burnley FC Uphold card, giving supporters a tangible product connection to the partnership. A £5 donation to Burnley FC in the Community fund for every initial transaction made on the cards served as an additional community initiative to drive fan acquisition and general fan sentiment around the initiatives.

Combined with a series of social media campaigns and match day promotions (both in the UK and US), the activation served to build brand awareness, customer acquisition and community engagement.

The partnership gave Uphold a consistent presence throughout Burnley’s return to the Premier League, putting the brand directly in front of supporters and the wider Premier League audience. By the end of the 38 game season, the partnership had generated huge media value for the brand, generating a 948% return-on-investment.

More importantly, the activation created a path from visibility to engagement.

The limited-edition Burnley FC card transformed the sponsorship from a media assets to a customer-facing proposition, with the club’s supporter base given a specific reason to interact with Uphold and its financial platform - leading to Uphold welcoming over 1,000 new users through Burnley-affiliated campaigns during the 2023/24 season.

Playmaker built a partnership around specific commercial objectives - using Premier League reach to build awareness, Burnley’s US crossover to broaden relevance and a product-led activation to give fans a reason to become customers. 

This resulted in a sponsorship with a clear role at every stage: brand, acquisition and impact. By the end of the season, the partnership had achieved a 4x ROI in regard to media value, with Uphold welcoming thousands of new customers as a direct result of dedicated partnership campaigns.