Harbour Appointed by The Athletic UK as Lead Creative Agency

Harbour, the independent communications collective, has been appointed by The Athletic UK as their new lead creative agency.

The Athletic was launched in the US by Alex Mather & Adam Hansmann in 2016, has amassed over 1m subscribers and has been dubbed ‘the Netflix of sports writing’. It launched in the UK as its second market in 2019 with a focus on Premier League and Championship football.

Kevin Chesters, strategy partner and co-owner at Harbour, said: “There isn’t anything that gets me more worked up than football, so I’ve loved The Athletic from Day one. They can only go from strength to strength with the quality of writing and writers they have and we can’t wait to help take them to the next level.”

Aki Mandhar, UK GM at The Athletic, said: “Harbour is the perfect partner for a brand like The Athletic. They understand our sports’ fan audience and are in lockstep with how our media tech business works. The last few months have been an agile and innovative partnership - resulting in authentic and beautiful creative work.”

The first campaigns for the brand from Harbour will focus on announcements of new writer sign ups, and a new TV campaign in December - in advance of a ramping up of marketing activity across 2021. The expert partners within the Harbour Collective will be involved in execution, starting with Digital Natives and Happy Days.

The win continues a great first year for Harbour who have added The Gym Group, Suicide and Co, Fitbit & Walpole to their list of clients in recent months.