Page last updated on 11th March 2025
The English Football League and EFL in the Community
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Our Challenge: empowering communities to take control of their energy bills.
Many households across Great Britain struggle to manage their energy costs, and for those on lower incomes, or without essential digital skills, it can feel even harder.
By harnessing the power of the football badge and the trusted role clubs play in communities across England and Wales, we’re making it easier for people to understand how smart meters can help, by giving them greater visibility of their energy use and more control over their bills.
Our approach: partnering with the EFL and the EFL in the Community
Smart Energy GB has worked in partnership with the English Football League (EFL) and EFL in the Community since 2021. We engage with the breadth of EFL fans across a range of channels. This includes a strong presence at three major EFL Finals at Wembley, using these high-profile footballing events to share our message with football fans at scale.
In 2024, this helped us reach 17.5 million fans. Alongside in-stadium activations, digital campaigns across EFL channels help to drive further engagement at scale, and encourage those who haven’t yet got a smart meter to get one in their home.
Our work with EFL in the Community has helped deepen our work at the grassroots level as well, through engagement with 72 EFL clubs, reaching communities where 49 million people live within 15 miles of their local team.
Clubs have integrated smart meter messaging into walking football, lunch clubs, veterans’ projects, and food bank initiatives. The community football clubs offer a relaxed and trusted environment for people to seek support and ask questions about smart meters which has been an effective route for us to engage communities across England and Wales.
“Particularly important for us is reaching vulnerable people in settings that they trust... and we know that EFL in the Community does such phenomenal work in trying to drive positive social change that for Smart Energy GB, that was just a brilliant tool for us to reach those people.”
Phillippa Brown, Deputy Director of Specialist Audiences, Smart Energy GB
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Our results: reaching people through their local football club
Football Clubs are the beating heart of communities around the country. Our partnership with the EFL and the EFL in the Community enabled us to use the power of football to reach over 65 million campaign impressions in 2024 alone. This was achieved through digital channels, direct engagement, football clubs' and community football club engagement.
Understanding energy use is an essential tactic for staying on top of bills. We want people to know as much about smart meters as they do their football team! By teaming up with the EFL and the EFL in the Community, we’re making great progress towards that goal.
“Football fans now understand the benefits of smart meters much more and they are confident in using smart meters.”
Debbie Cook, Director of Community, EFL
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