Reinvent the Game: How PACE is rethinking sports marketing

PACE: A new playmaker in sports marketing

With the founding of PACE, Webrepublic is launching a new company that takes a consistently digital approach to sports marketing. As a spin-off from previous projects with FIFA, PACE combines nine years of experience in global sports projects with offices in Zurich, Lausanne, London, Miami and Cape Town.

The mission: to translate the fast pace of sport into strategic and creative experiences - data-based, cross-media and with a real fan focus. Over 150 activated campaigns, six major international events with more than one billion viewers and billions of digital contacts underline this claim.

Tom Hanan: Sponsoring as a lever for data-driven marketing

For Tom Hananfounder of Webrepublic, PACE is the logical step after years of intensive work with FIFA. Today, sponsorship is more than just a way to generate coverage - it is a vehicle for conversion, community building and data strategies. The comparison between the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar makes this clear: while visibility once mattered, it was recently about First-party data acquisition and direct activation of fans.

PACE stands for an integrated model in which Sponsoring, media, creation and technology not working side by side, but together. This requires flexible teams, digital hunger - and a passion for sport as a world of experience. This is exactly what PACE offers as a platform for talents, customers and brands.

New Leagues: Digital pitches with a global fan base

Maurits Schön COO at OneFootball, sees the "New Leagues" such as the Kings League, Icon League and Baller League as the most radical change in the football business. These formats rely on short match times, digital first publishing strategies via Twitch and YouTube, and influencers as "team heads" who bring entire communities with them.

With spectator numbers exceeding 60 million per match day and a target group that has little to do with traditional Bundesliga stadiums, a new playing field is emerging - faster, more direct, more emotional. Storytelling and fan interaction take center stage, and brands benefit from significantly greater freedom of activation.

Women's football: a pitch with potential

In the panel with Lisa Währer Co-Founder & Managing Director FK Viktoria Berlin and Luis Vincente (Mercury 13), women's football was presented as a "marathon" and not as a trend. The narrative is changing - away from the fight for equality and towards independent clubs with authentic communication and alternative target groups.

Brands that rely on real stories instead of flat logos will find ideal platforms here. The UEFA Women's Euro in Switzerland for which PACE was responsible for the national promotion campaign, became a prime example: families, millennials, hipsters - a different stadium experience that scores with authenticity and sets new standards.

PACE in practice: From Mexico to the Letzigrund

Alexander RiggersManaging Director and Co-Founder of PACE, and Lea Nobs, an expert in digital campaign management, provided deep insights into the operational work of the new spin-off at the event - and made it clear how sports marketing works today.

At FIFA Club World Cup in the USA PACE and FIFA were responsible not only for activating major sponsors as partners, but also for a comprehensive ticketing campaign. To this end, Lea Nobs' team worked for months in Intercontinental coordination between Zurich, Mexico and the USAto successfully promote a new tournament format with global reach locally. All digital tools were used - from Google Search, YouTube and Meta to X and local publisher platforms.

An important learning according to Lea Nobs: Team and player-focused creatives worked best - in other words, formats that focused on key players or specific matches. This visual personalization generated significantly more clicks and ticket sales than generic advertising media. Another decisive factor was the ability to test and optimize on an ongoing basis and to set up new creative assets at short notice - 24/7 operation across time zones, without traditional weekends.

Also with the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 in Switzerland the effectiveness of this data-driven approach was demonstrated. Here, PACE managed the entire national promotion and ticketing campaign. Nobs describes how important it was, the right tone and the right environment for families, millennials and female target groups - for example through clear, reduced information on venues and teams, combined with direct ticket integration.

Alexander Riggers emphasizes the emotional power of the stories told: The success of the Euro has shown how much people identify with female players and their characters - if you offer them a platform. This is precisely where he sees the potential for future formats: Create digital narrative spacesthat have an impact beyond the event - into everyday life, social networks and club football.

Both Riggers and Nobs advocate sports marketing that is not based on short-term KPI fixes, but rather on long-term relationships, continuous learning and genuine fan orientation. Or as Lea Nobs says: "The more precisely we know who our audience is, the more effectively we can communicate. But that also means constantly listening, thinking and rethinking."

Conclusion: Total commitment instead of classic banding

The "Reinventing the Game" event impressively demonstrated that sports marketing is at a turning point. Between TikTok, Twitch and the stands, new ways of thinking are needed - and players who break down old silos. Sponsorship is becoming data-driven, fans are becoming co-creators, women's football is becoming a role model.

PACE is exemplary of a new era: strategically well thought-out, operationally agile, creatively courageous. Today's sponsors not only have to create reach - they have to generate resonance. The rules of the game have changed. And those who know them have the chance to help shape the game.