Innovation that became the norm (Part 1 - Just Do It)

Just Do It!

It’s possibly one of the most successful and recognisable advertising campaigns in history, and certainly within sporting circles. 

What is possibly less known is that it was ‘inspired’ by US death-row inmate, Gary Gilmore, who said ‘Let’s do it’ before he was executed in 1977 and tweaked by Dan Wieden at Nike’s marketing agency to become a byword for making something happen. 

It was also quite an innovative step. It was an advert that resonated with the elite superstars like Michael Jordan right through to Joe or Josephine Public taking a step outside of their comfort zone; and not necessarily in sport but in any walk of life. 

Of course, it’s now a norm. Every day someone tells someone else, or even themselves in the mirror, to ‘just do it’. They might not even know the cultural reference or its macabre backstory, but the phrase is so mainstream it’s a part of the global conscience and a powerful reminder to take action rather than procrastinating if you want to achieve your goals. 

Interestingly, given its origins, the phrase is all about execution. 

In the last ten years, I’ve had thousands of conversations about fan experience and match days. Yet one thing that was said to me in particular really stands out. 

It was courtesy of Yvonne Ferguson – legend of the fan experience world for her work at  Middlesbrough – and it not only stuck with me but is one I’ve repeated time and again. 

‘It’s not about having a large budget or a lavish stadium. If you want to do it, you will.’

Or maybe put another way ‘you’ll just do it.’

That separates the great from the good when it comes to the fan experience. But for every innovation that sees the light of [match] day, there are many more examples where it’s not the right time and clubs talk themselves out of doing something. 

Usually, it’s fear of being the first. All organisations wait, at times, for others to take the plunge but nowhere is this more evident than at football clubs. But even the very best ideas were an innovation at some stage. 

Here’s a few fan-experience innovations that have since become the norm. 

Replica Kit

The most obvious. I freely admit to being a bit of a nerd when it comes to kits. From Italy’s 1982 Le Coq Sportif shirt - with number 20 on the back - via Chicago Sting, Feyenoord, Atletico Madrid, Odense, Sporting Lisbon, Genoa, Colombia (home and away) – as well as countless iterations of Walsall and England shirts, I’ve had them all. 

But replica kits were not really a thing until the mid-1970s. It was then that Leeds United’s manager, Don Revie, gave sportswear firm Admiral permission to do something with their kit after a training ground approach. ‘Just do it’ Revie might have said. ‘But don’t touch the home kit.’

The all-white home kit was left alone. But the first replica kit – in yellow with white and blue trim -  to be manufactured for the purpose of selling to fans, adults not just children, would be followed by many more as Admiral won the England contract and supplied to several clubs. 

And just try to imagine a football world without replica kits today. 

Mascots 

The word mascot derives from the French word for ‘lucky charm’ and they’ve been around for a long time. For instance, Yale University have had Handsome Dan – a bulldog – representing its baseball and American football teams since the 1890s, although presumably not the same dog. Animals played a huge part in the mascot movement, and there have been plenty of short-term mascots – like World Cup Willy in 1966, an early example of someone in an animal costume – for specific tournaments that have retained the theme. 

But the mascot costume as part of the match day experience at clubs is much more recent, really coming to life in the 1990s when football began to welcome a wider and more diverse audience after Italia 90 had re-energised it and the Premier League was born soon after. 

There are too many examples to include here, but some are too legendary not to. Demonstrating the timeline, Arsenal’s Gunnersaurus made his debut in 1994, and Jerry Quy inhabited the suit for 26 seasons although it’s now worn by a number of people. And no mascot section can avoid talking about Partick Thistle’s Kingsley, whose spiky demeanour shows the angst of the football fan and possibly gives kids nightmares, but was still once placed third in a list of the world’s top sports mascots.

Family Stands 

This is a more recent change but no less impactful. While some clubs had dabbled in the previous hundred years with initiatives that were designed to attract a family audience, the problems with hooliganism inside and outside stadiums in the last third of the twentieth century meant that football wasn’t exactly a desirable sport for parents and children to go to.

By far the biggest strides have been made since 2007, thanks mainly to the EFL and Fan Experience Company. One of the most successful was Cardiff City who increased junior ticket sales from hundreds to thousands with the introduction of a dedicated stand and now it’s unusual for a football stadium not to have one. While they can range in size, they allow the club to manage the family demographic in a specific part of the ground making it not only easier but more effective. Middlesbrough’s Generation Red zone is amongst the best and has been for a while, but so many more clubs have joined them in the last dozen years and a recent visit to EFL Family Club of the Season 2024/25, Stoke City, showed just how far things have come. 

Here To Help Staff

This isn’t stewards, but a separate group of people who are there to specifically make the experience better. This can range from one or two volunteers placed at key locations where fans arrive, through to the sixty-plus Playmakers that Manchester City have at every game and who are proactively looking to enhance the experience Disney-style, and probably the closest approach in the UK to US sports. 

The key is the proactivity – they aren’t waiting for people to approach – as they either spot fans who need help, or simply create memorable moments. It’s not about quantity, as clubs can use any number of people depending on their size and budget, but quality as the people deliver above and beyond what a steward is expected to do. Of course, it also means that the stewards are able to focus on the safety elements knowing that the fans have another person there for their enjoyment. 

Fan Zones 

I often quote a stat about the rapid growth of the fan zone but long story short, they’ve grown in numbers massively since the pandemic. Like the earlier innovations, it’s now quite hard to imagine a football ground that doesn’t have a fan zone they’ve become so ubiquitous.

One of the first I saw was the Carlsberg fan zone at Bronby IF…probably the best fan zone in the world. Many visiting fans at that time wanted to know why their club didn’t have something like it and that was perhaps understandable, but in 2018, it felt very innovative (outside of the US anyway, although ‘tailgating’ has long been part of their sports culture). It was the perfect mix of comfortable seating, shelter, stage (for live music and ex-player interviews), refreshments, large screens and, above all, it was suitable for everyone. 

Whilst they were uncommon in 2018, they aren’t now. Nearly all clubs have seen the light – not to mention the financial rewards – but there are fan zones and there are fan zones. Ipswich Town were an early adopter and continue to shine, and while there are too many to list, I have to mention Lincoln City because they’ve got a fan zone that’s used before, during and after the game and were one of the first to do so but it’s something that all clubs need to think about.

Feedback 

This innovation shows how things change. While feedback surveys – and listening to fans in general – was rare until a few years ago, there are now many examples of it both directly after a game and more seasonally (for example in the summer to help the club prepare for the new season).  Newcastle United, only this week, cited fan feedback as behind their attempt to fix issues related to third-party resellers as it was ‘one of the biggest concerns for Newcastle fans’.

 There are probably some surveys that date back a few years – after all, feedback has been a staple of the customer service world for decades – but I am always surprised by the reluctance of clubs to seek the opinion of fans even though there are plenty of times where they didn’t and lived to regret it. But this season, I’ve already seen lots of it, whether the club goes down the online survey route or by creating opportunities at the stadium itself, as Norwich City do, for example.

Seeking fan feedback is only going to grow. Like many of the above innovations, how long before everyone just does it? 

Next week: Nike have just relaunched the Just Do It ad with a new version – Why Do It? and I’ll look at that in the second part of this article (due 23 September)