Manchester City Kit Launch Campaign

Manchester City Kit Launch Campaign 

Launching a Manchester City kit in the middle of Manchester comes with a different kind of pressure. The audience already cares. They already have an opinion. They will spot anything that feels too polished, too forced or too far away from the club’s real connection with the city. 

Working with Manchester City FC, Puma and Laced Creative, we helped bring the new kit launch into the streets of Manchester through an outdoor campaign that started with curiosity and built towards a city centre reveal. 

The Brief 

The campaign needed to build anticipation around the new Manchester City kit ahead of its official reveal on 20 May. 

Rather than treating the launch as a standard media placement, the brief called for something that felt rooted in Manchester and close to the supporters. The campaign had to spark conversation before the kit was even shown, then give fans a reason to engage with the reveal in person and online. 

The Approach 

The campaign started with a phone number. 

Across Manchester city centre, outdoor sites appeared with a number for fans to call. There was no over explanation and no heavy reveal. Just enough to make people curious. 

When supporters called, they heard recorded messages from Manchester City players including Jeremy Doku, Rico Lewis and Mateo Kovačić. The idea gave fans a direct, personal route into the launch and quickly became something they could share, discuss and pass on. 

The first phase generated more than 7,000 calls in the first 24 hours and 36,000 calls in three days. 

From there, the campaign moved into a second phase using large post it note style creative to seed the reveal date, before the final stage brought the kit into the city through a glass box installation on Tib Street. 

What We Delivered 

We supported the campaign across 19 Manchester city centre sites, using outdoor media to guide supporters through each stage of the launch. 

The activity included: 

• Phase one phone number posters across Manchester 

• Recorded player messages from Jeremy Doku, Rico Lewis and Mateo Kovačić 

• Phase two post it note style creative revealing the key date 

• Phase three glass box installation on Tib Street 

• A signed shirt mechanic featuring the first team squad and Pep Guardiola 

• Manchester Evening News front and back page takeover 

• Support from local talent and City fan Tays 

• Campaign visibility across fan accounts, publisher pages and Manchester City channels 

The Tib Street installation gave fans a physical place to interact with the campaign. Inside the glass box was a shirt signed by the first team squad and Pep Guardiola, with supporters encouraged to share a photo for the chance to win it. 

It turned the kit reveal into something people could find, photograph and talk about, rather than just scroll past. 

Results and Impact 

The phone line became the early proof that the campaign had caught attention. More than 36,000 calls were made in three days, with 7,000 of those coming in the first 24 hours. 

The campaign also travelled heavily across social, with Manchester City channels, fan accounts and behind the scenes content helping the launch reach millions of views. Behind the scenes content alone reached around 1.9m views, while coverage from pages including The Manc helped take the work beyond the paid media space. 

For a kit launch, the work did more than announce a shirt. It built anticipation, gave supporters a role in the reveal and placed the campaign in the city it was made for. 

And a few days later, when Manchester City needed the city turning blue again for the trophy parade, we may have had a little more to do. But that is one for another page.