Ipswich turned blue and white for Town Behind the Team campaign

When the Town game against Southampton on 28th April left the club teetering on the brink of promotion, it was clear to Ipswich Central CEO Lee Walker that the final  match of the season would bring people into the town centre – representing a fantastic opportunity to visibly demonstrate everyone’s support to the players and create a festive, welcoming vibe for all those visitors.  
 

Within an hour of a phone conversation with Marcus Nash at  Ipswich Town Football Club (ITFC), Lee and the Ipswich Central team, in conjunction with the club, had pulled together a campaign designed to show the strength of feeling across Ipswich and make sure the players could see, feel and hear the town behind them.   
 

When Ipswich secured their place in the Premier League two years ago, more than 150,000 people poured into the town centre. Knowing this, Lee wanted to be sure that town was dressed for the party in a sea of blue of white to welcome those were sure to visit the town. 
 

Centre stage was a series of posters featuring local artist Louise Cobbold’s portraits of players which had featured on match programme covers. ITFC provided these to the Ipswich Central team to distribute around the town who also arranged a rush job with a local printer to deliver huge versions of the same posters within a day  so that the Ipswich Central team could arrange for them to go up in the Ancient House, Buttermarket Centre, a cafe and estate agents.  
 

Giant banners declaring ‘Come on You Blues’ were designed and printed overnight ready to be hung proudly facing into the Cornhill – again funded and organised by Lee’s team. 
 

The support of town centre businesses was critical and the Ipswich Central team pulled together, dropping other work to visit scores of offices, shops, bars and cafes delivering posters and encouraging each venue to create a sea of blue and white in their windows.   
 

A social media campaign, spearheaded by Ipswich Central, encouraged businesses and football fans to show their support for the team by creating good luck posts using hashtags #COYB, #TownBehindTheTeam and #ComeOnYouBlues. 
 

Within 24 hours, town centre businesses had risen to the challenge. Buildings were dressed in blue and white with a sea of bunting, portrait posters, banners and sashes.   
 

Normally campaigns of that type can take weeks to pull off but Lee Walker and his Ipswich Central team did it in three days. Lee said: “This is a great example of how a business improvement district can be nimble and able to react to last minute opportunities. 
 

“Together with the businesses in the town centre, our work sent a strong message to players that the town was 100% behind the team but also created a fantastic atmosphere for all the people who congregated in the town both before and after the three-nil match.   
 

“I’d like to say a huge thank you to my team and every single business which pitched in and delivered such an amazing outcome. And, of course, as a lifelong ITFC fan, everything about that weekend underlines that fact that Ipswich Town is not just a football club, it is part of the identity and energy of the place and I’m proud we were able to help everyone celebrate their promotion.”