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Charlton Athletic x Bluewater Newsjacking
Charlton Athletic x Bluewater Newsjacking
- PR
Campaign Snapshot
In March 2025, when Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones jokingly ‘banned’ his players from visiting our client, Bluewater shopping centre, during the team’s promotion push, we spotted a newsjacking opportunity. A throwaway comment became a creative, low-cost brandjacking campaign that built national buzz, generated millions in reach, and paved the way for a first-of-its-kind retail partnership…?
@bluewater_shopping Nathan Jones, don’t worry we’ve got your back! 🤫😉 @Charlton Athletic FC #bluewatershopping #football #charltonathletic #cafc #nathanjones ♬ original sound – Bluewater
Charlton x Bluewater Newsjacking: How We Did It
We leaned into the banter. Within 48 hours, we had story-boarded, filmed, and produced a tongue-in-cheek social video showing Bluewater’s security team on the lookout for any ‘rogue’ Charlton players sneaking into the centre.
The playful content struck the right chord with fans, pundits and players alike, racking up huge organic reach and kickstarting a conversation that went way beyond south-east London and Kent.
The reaction proved there was appetite for more. From viral content to matchday programme features and pitch-side ads, we worked closely with Charlton and Bluewater to evolve the relationship into something bigger.
Almost three months to the day after our newsjacking stunt, Charlton Athletic announced the launch of its first-ever pop-up store at Bluewater, celebrating promotion to the Championship and bringing the club even closer to its fans.
Charlton x Bluewater Newsjacking: The Results
Our newsjacking campaign secured 25 pieces of coverage with a reach of 33.2m, as well as coverage from the likes of Kent Online, The Guardian, BBC’s EFL Podcast and Yahoo Sports. What’s more, there were over 1 million organic views of Bluewater’s response video across all social channels.
Even better, our quick response led to PRMoment hailing Umpf and Bluewater as “retail banter kings”, cementing the activation as a standout success within the industry too.
1m+
organic social views
25
pieces of coverage
33m+
total reach