Client: Etihad Airways
City Studios and Etihad present 'Beyond Borders,' a pioneering initiative that made Manchester City the first Premier League club to utilise official skeletal player-tracking data to create immersive, destination-themed virtual highlights. The campaign was designed to spotlight Etihad Airways’ newest global flight destinations, including Hanoi, Krabi, Sumatra and Hong Kong, by reconstructing iconic goals from the 2024/25 season within painstakingly created 3D virtual environments. By partnering with creative technology studio Trickshot, the team transformed real match moments into a first-of-its-kind content series where every player movement, touch, and action was replicated 1:1 using advanced, officially licensed player skeletal data that usually reserved for performance tracking. This innovative use of AR allowed for dynamic, cinematic camera angles impossible in live broadcasts, seamlessly integrating world-famous landmarks into the heart of the football action. The strategy moved beyond traditional sponsorship branding to deliver social-first films that felt unmistakably Manchester City while authentically showcasing each destination. The results were record-breaking, delivering 81 million impressions and 75 million views across social platforms, including an average of 11.5 million views per Instagram Reel - a 7.2x increase over club benchmarks. With over 2.1 million engagements and 1,600 days of watch time across Facebook and Instagram alone, 'Beyond Borders' proved that the power of AR/VR can bridge the gap between data and storytelling, as well as driving partnership value by cementing Etihad’s position as a forward-thinking, globally connected brand.
