Scoring a winner with apprentices
League Football Education (LFE) is a charity that delivers the Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence programme to all English Football League clubs.
ICG has been working with LFE since 2006, a year after the charity was formed.
In that time, we have helped its team produce a wide range of materials including the website, welcome packs, learning resources, player care guides, club performance reports and Touchline magazine.
In a digital-first era the challenge of engaging with young footballers and their families remains the same – to help them take advantage of all the opportunities available and help them look beyond the beautiful game.
We are immensely proud to be LFE’s marketing partner and look forward to many more years of collaboration and success.
The Pentagon
A brand needs to stand the test of time, withstand the rigours of digital communications and be equally recognisable and inspirational. It also has an important role to play in helping communicate essential information.
ICG created LFE’s original pentagon shaped logo back in 2006, inspired by the pentagon and hexagon pattern on a football.
In 2015 we updated the logo and created a new illustrative style to create a sense of movement.
Five years later, we carried out an in-depth audit to identify how apprentices were digesting information and with those results, updated the branding to make it digital first.
We simplified the logo and created responsive and scalable versions, so it could be adapted to any platform. The logo also featured an abbreviation of the charity’s name to LFE.
Today LFE’s logo and branding continues to evolve but at its heart, it remains simple and highly effective.
Tackling accessibility
Being fully in tune with your audiences is an essential component of any marketing activity.
With a far reaching role into the lives of young footballers and their families, it was essential that LFE’s materials were relatable.
From learning materials to information on equality and diversity and player care, accessibility and engagement were key considerations.
Video and animation content is now produced to support visual learners and convey sensitive, complex and important information.
Following research on readability, font sizes have been increased and single column layout has been introduced to make it easier for scrolling on tablets and mobiles.
Improving the online user journey
ICG’s creative and digital team worked together to develop the new website for LFE in 2020.
It was built to make it easier for people to find information they needed with a simplified navigation and menu system.
The website is now a vital ‘go-to’ source for the apprentices and reduces the need for printed materials.
It gives them access to the latest news, league results and match reports and video content such as goal of the month.
New content is uploaded to ensure the site is visited regularly and polls and forums generate two-way interaction.
Supporting campaigns and programmes
LFE runs a number of programmes as part of its commitment to supporting young footballers.
We have created video content for equality, diversity and inclusion campaigns to support LFE’s partnership with Kick It Out, The EFL and The PFA.
We also produce marketing materials for Erasmus, a programme of European trips for players and coaches, as well as LFE’s Community Trust Study Programme.
During lockdown we created materials on life skills, motivation and how to support positive mental health.
“With a national presence amongst professionals and young people, League Football Education demands creative and innovative support year round.
ICG has provided this to us for the best part of fifteen years.”
Manager, League Football Education
