To celebrate Channel 4’s coverage of The Adobe Women’s FA Cup, its award-winning in-house creative agency, 4Creative is launching Pure Football, a mixed-media campaign captures the noise and energy of a matchday.
At the campaign’s centre is a high-energy mixed-media film from Magna Studios, directed by Ivo Beckett and James Topley aka DEADHORSES. The footage was captured across real Adobe Women’s FA Cup matchdays and is an unfiltered mash-up of the competition. To reflect the many ways women’s football is seen, shared, and experienced, the directors shot on an eclectic mix of cameras. This included vintage broadcast film cameras, hand-cranked Bolex cameras, disposables, iPhones, and Meta glasses that allowed them to capture moments from the pitch itself.
From fanzines and flyposting to disposable-camera matchday photography, the campaign has drawn inspiration from the diverse DIY culture that has long surrounded football. Flyposter OOH executions combine stills captured across various stages of the tournament. A limited-edition digital zine, the small circulation prints long associated with football fandom, will also be created for the final.
Miketta Lane, director of 4Creative, said: “Authenticity was the starting point of this idea and carried through the entire process. We wanted to show women’s football for what it really is: players, passion, goals, and fans. Shooting from within the crowd lets you feel the energy that makes the game so captivating.”
David Wigglesworth, executive creative director at 4Creative, added: “The Adobe Women’s FA Cup is football in its purest state. We didn’t want to polish that. We wanted to bottle it because this is the version football fans crave. The noise, the grit, the feeling that anything could happen. The Women’s FA Cup still has that energy, and Pure Football is our attempt to capture it.”
Channel 4’s Adobe Women’s FA cup coverage will once again be fronted by former Man City Mackem midfield maestro Jill Scott and Leeds-supporting comic Maisie Adam. Channel 4 holds terrestrial rights to the Women’s FA Cup for the next three seasons and broadcasts one match per round from the third round onwards, co-exclusively with TNT Sports. Coverage will be produced by North East indie FilmNova.
Nic Moran, head of marketing at Channel 4 said: “The Adobe Women’s FA Cup deserves a campaign that captures the real energy around it. We wanted something raw, visceral and rooted in the passion of the fans who make the competition so special. The result is a creative approach that feels authentic and relatable, while bringing the unmistakable attitude and creative spirit of Channel 4 to the tournament.”
