There are a lot of things to be cynical about in 2025. Some people might say that football is one of them. It’s easy to forget that for all their superstar status the players are human beings, just like the billions of fans who follow them. For the in-house creative team at the Premier League, this insight is one they hold dear. They know that the most powerful way to grow the league across the world is for fans to see the players as people. And to relate to them on a deeper, more emotional level.

This was the strategic context I stepped into when I was invited to work with The Premier League. They’d set themselves the not inconsiderable challenge of creating a series of films that would make a genuine splash in our super-saturated online world. They wanted to find a way of showing fans a side of the game that they’d never seen before. And they wanted to do so authentically and with empathy.

Happily my job wasn’t to find the solution to this daunting creative task. Instead I was to be the catalyst that would help them arrive at it themselves. And our mission was to do so in just two days.

In advance of our workshop, I helped team lead Mark Utting draft a brief. It had to be simple, single-minded and ambitious. Everyone received a copy before the session, to allow for a little incubation time.

Day one began with an ice-breaker. I like to ask people to share a photo of themselves as a kid. It’s a great way for teams to see another side of each other and hear some personal stories. But it also allows me to talk about the innate creativity we all have as children and my ambition to reconnect people with the playful, curious and inventive side of themselves that they may have neglected.

After the photos had given everyone in the room an opportunity to speak, I shared some of my favourite stories about the creative process; each designed to convey a different truth about how we have ideas. These anecdotes were threaded through with a couple of team exercises, including a trip to The Office of Lost and Found Oddities (if you’re curious DM me).

Post-lunch the task was insight gathering. In small groups attendees spoke to fans from around the world and asked them about their lifestyle, culture and what the Premier League means to them. It’s really easy as an in-house creative team to come to regard your audience as demographic data or psychographic profiles, rather than living, breathing human beings.

To see how fired up people were at the end of the first day was a really good sign. I’d like to think this was down to their hunger to put into play some of my idea generating techniques, but honestly, it was probably more down to the conversations they’d had with fans.

Day two began by exploring what makes great creative work great. I’d asked people to bring along content they’ve seen and admired and together we worked on a series of qualities to aim for in the ideation phase of the workshop. Once these were in place, I dropped a few more creativity hacks before the hard work began.

In small teams people generated idea after idea. I’d made it clear that when it comes to creativity, quantity leads to quality. I moved around the various conversations, chucking in the occasional sage observation to help maintain momentum. Or being a spanner in the works. Depends on your point of view.

With a plethora of ideas to choose from we referred back to our evaluative criteria from the morning to sort the wheat from the chaff, switching gears from quantity to quality. Then each team presented their favourite concepts back to the group. And everyone was given a few votes to award to their favourite ideas.

Of the twenty or so concepts on the table, there was one clear favourite. It was quickly given the title ‘Fan Mail’. Like all the best ideas it was simple, original and surprising …

What if we film a player going to meet a fan who’s sent them a letter?

And at this point my work was done. The Premier League Production team had a great idea. We’d had a lot of laughs amid all the hard work. We went for a pint. And I caught the train home to Wales.

Now it was always possible of course that they’d execute this idea in a lacklustre way and fail to do justice to the concept. But that’s not how the PLP team roll. I know I’m biased, but they are a beautifully diverse bunch of talented creatives and, when it came to execution, they smashed it.

As soon as I saw the look on 11 year old Finlay’s face when he met Jack Grealish, I knew what a wonderful job they’d done. I couldn’t help but shed a few tears. The best kind of tears. And I wasn’t the only one. The film has had 59m views - yep, that’s not a typo - across social media and won best original content at The Broadcast Sports Awards. Plus, it established a format which would go on to be hugely popular with fans across the world.

This happened back in 2022. Since then my workshops with the Premier League have become a regular fixture - and one of my annual highlights. They’ve also led to a bunch more equally awesome campaigns.

So thank you to Mark and your wonderful team for having me back each year. And thanks to Finlay and Jack, and Ochiroo and Wayne, and all the other fans and footballers who contributed to fan mail. You made a middle-aged Leeds United fan cry. And given the heartbreak we’ve got used to over the past few decades that’s no mean feat.

With the PLP team on our most recent creative adventure (AKA workshop).

Drop me a line here if you’d like to chat about me hosting a similar workshop for your team.

Jack Grealish Made Me Cry - How to Unleash the Full Potential of Your In House Creative Team