Behavioral analytics to boost social inclusion through sport
Challenge
UNHCR lacks an understanding of what excites sports fans about our communications content, and therefore how best to engage this audience and inspire their support for those forced to flee through future communications.
Solution
Design a behavioral analytics project that unpacks the motivations and drivers of the sporting public in engaging positively with content focused on displacement and refugees, to inform more targeted sports-related communications products and engagement.
Impact
Communities of sports fans and players could be powerful advocates for the cause of forced displacement. This project will identify how to turn this potential into action.
Project impact
Other information
Football reaches over 3 billion fans worldwide, but UNHCR had no evidence base on whether and how this audience could become advocates for refugees. Funded by the Data Innovation Fund and delivered with IPSOS, the Beyond Full Time project applied behavioural science across the UK, Germany and Spain, combining a 1,521-fan survey, 12 focus groups and an A/B digital ad test of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassadors during Euros 2024. The research showed that empathy for refugees already exists, but fans are not seeing UNHCR's content and feel unsure how to act, requiring a shift from "refugees as a burden" to "refugees as contributors to community growth." The project delivered the DEEP framework – Disrupt, Engage, Enact, Promote – giving UNHCR a reusable model to design grassroots-led, club-supported advocacy campaigns, now informing strategies in the UK, Mexico, and Poland.