Objective

A talented signing is not automatically the right representative of a governing body. A player's social media is now part of their professional record: what someone has posted, and how they behave online, is material to selection, discipline, safeguarding and reputation.

The purpose was specific: identify what could stop a talented signing being the right representative of the organisation, before the decision, not after it becomes a story.

The analytical problem is turning years of scattered public activity into something a decision-maker can actually read: a pattern, not a pile of posts.

Creative response

Research, analysis and report design,. Research, public affairs and account management sat alongside on the same client.

• A structured research sweep. Run with social-media data software rather than by manual scrolling
• Historic red flags. Identified across the available history, not just recent posts
• Career milestones assessed. How the candidate behaved publicly at the moments that mattered
• Lifestyle factors. Social and family life, associates, religious and political views
• Interaction patterns. With fans, and with other public figures
• Behavioural profiling. Characterising how the individual conducts themselves online, not only what they posted
• A comprehensive written report delivered on each candidate, as media due diligence and background reporting

Discretion is part of the deliverable

No individual case, player, finding or decision appears in the finished report, and none should ever be added to this page.

The whole value of the work is that it happens quietly and early. A due diligence exercise that leaks is worse than one that was never run, and the subject matter makes confidentiality a feature of the deliverable rather than a constraint on describing it.

• A structured research sweep. Run with social-media data software rather than by manual scrolling
• Historic red flags. Identified across the available history, not just recent posts
• Career milestones assessed. How the candidate behaved publicly at the moments that mattered
• Lifestyle factors. Social and family life, associates, religious and political views
• Interaction patterns. With fans, and with other public figures
• Behavioural profiling. Characterising how the individual conducts themselves online, not only what they posted
• A comprehensive written report delivered on each candidate, as media due diligence and background reporting

Discretion is part of the deliverable

Results

WRITTEN REPORT, the deliverable, produced per candidate

ONGOING; continuing work

This was continuing work, the agency providing the insight on an ongoing basis rather than delivering a single piece.

“Has helped it vet candidates that did not match the organisation's values.” That is the entire outcome statement, and it is quoted rather than expanded.

The work