Audience Development Strategy

How Arsenal turned cultural connections into fan loyalty in India

Services

Challenge

Arsenal came to us with a big ambition: make meaningful moves in India, a cricket-obsessed nation with a fiercely competitive football fandom bubbling under the surface.

The goal? Strengthen the engagement with existing Gooners and bring fresh fans into the fold. But to cut through the noise, Arsenal needed more than matchday content. They needed cultural relevance. Local language. Real fan stories. A strategy that understood Indian audiences. The Ranveer Singh fan surprise activation became a standout fan experience, blending football and Bollywood culture.

Solution

We developed a long-term engagement strategy anchored in six content pillars: fan stories, cultural moments, influencer collaborations, player-driven content, matchday insights, and localised club communication.

We produced over 1,000 content pieces for Arsenal’s Indian audience, including regional language posts, festival greetings, and topical graphics that connected Arsenal to India’s cultural calendar. We partnered with nine Arsenal supporters’ clubs, sourced UGC, and celebrated authentic fan voices through storytelling campaigns. Our partnership with Arsenal was renewed from 2016 to 2020 which cemented our role as their trusted India partner.

Standout moments

Highlights included the viral Mesut Ozil baby name story from Kerala, which gained over a million global views and landed headlines in the widespread international press.

The Stay Strong Assam post, which expressed solidarity during the floods, trended nationally, and drove one of Arsenal’s highest engagement spikes in India.

To further bridge fandom, we executed celebrity-led activations, with the likes of Bollywood icon Ranveer Singh surprising a newlywed Arsenal-supporting couple at the Emirates, and collaborations with icons like former Indian national cricket team captain Sunil Gavaskar and cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle. The Ranveer Singh fan surprise activation became a standout fan experience, blending football and Bollywood culture.

Personalised video messages, shout-outs from Arsenal legends like Robert Pirès, and fan-first content made sure Indian Gooners didn’t just feel like an audience - they felt like insiders.