Laureus, the global movement celebrating sport as a force for good, has extended Seven League to lead its digital strategy for the remainder of 2018 and into 2019, to include next year's Laureus World Sports Awards.
Seven League, Europe's leading digital sports consultancy and agency, was first engaged by Laureus in November 2017, to set out a digital roadmap through to the 2018 awards in Monaco.
The awards were a huge success - noteworthy for Roger Federer becoming the greatest Laureus athlete of all-time, as he won his fifth and sixth Laureus awards, as well as Serena Williams taking Sportswoman of the Year and Mercedes-AMG Petronas picking up Team of the Year.
Laureus' digital channels were prepared for the Awards including the historic Federer moment, with all metrics up on 2017.
With almost one year to prepare for the 2019 Awards, we now have the opportunity to develop a deeper and more ambitious digital plan, which will increase both awareness of, and engagement with, Laureus and its mission.
This will include the further development of Laureus' social channels, the integration with some of the most famous names in global sport via the Laureus Academy and Ambassadors Programme, and a refresh of the Laureus ecosystem of websites.
Seven League has previously overseen website relaunches for some of the biggest teams, leagues and governing bodies in sport including The Open, FC Barcelona, Juventus, the Premier League, The FA, and Newcastle United.
As well as its iconic annual Awards ceremony, Laureus has year-round content. This includes the Laureus Sporting Moment vote, relaunched to take place every month and won in April by this emotional Doddie Weir moment, and Sport for Good programmes, which offer up stories which it is vital for the world to hear.
With 2018 as a FIFA World Cup year, the ability for Laureus' channels to be a hub for world-class digital content is illustrated by the presence of 12 individual World Cup winners among its Academy Members and Ambassadors.
Jonathan Hill, CEO of Laureus, said: "Digital will be at the heart of everything we do now, as we use the power of our own channels, and those of our Academy Members, Ambassadors and other partners, to take the Laureus brand to the world.
"We have an incredible foundation from which to build, and with Seven League as our lead agency, we will be rigorous, bold and innovative in making the mission and work of Laureus known to the widest global audience."
Lewis Wiltshire, Consulting Partner at Seven League, said: "We are proud of the work we have done so far, to transform Laureus' digital content, and approach to content planning.
"It was gratifying to see this reflected in the performance of Laureus' digital channels during the February 2018 Awards ceremony in Monaco. However, there is much still to do, including the refresh of the website and the ways in which Academy Members and Ambassadors showcase the Laureus mission on their own social channels.
"Doing this in a World Cup year provides a huge opportunity which everyone at Seven League is excited to take on."