Reigniting the Unity Cup for a New Generation
The Unity Cup
Bringing African and Caribbean football back to the culture; after 20 years off the pitch.
The Challenge
The Unity Cup was once a powerful cultural moment for African and Caribbean communities in the UK but after a 20-year hiatus, it had little digital presence, no recent footage, and no engaged audience to retarget. With Jamaica, Trinidad, Ghana, and Nigeria facing off, the stakes were culturally high.
Although Nigeria and Ghana are known as football first sporting nations, Jamaica and Trinidad, didn’t have the same footballing footprint, coupled with the fact that the Trinidadian population in the UK is just over 28,000. We needed to not just reach, but also convince a large chunk of their population to attend in order to hit their match targets.
To complicate things further: the final was scheduled on the same day as the Champions League Final.
The ask? Turn this legacy event into a viral moment and fill the stands in less than 60 days.
Our Strategy
We leaned into community power alongside paid media. With no existing audience base, our first move was to build one; fast. We focused on:
- List building early so we could bypass overreliance on Meta ads for conversion
- Cultural partnerships with platforms like City Splash and BlackEats to reach Black British and Caribbean audiences at scale
- Targeted social amplification through meme pages embedded in each community
- Podcast sponsorship with Filthy Fellas to bring the Ghana vs. Nigeria rivalry to a broader British audience
- A high-energy charity game hosted with City Splash, bringing together YouTube football teams and social media creators to expand our reach
This wasn’t just marketing. It was matchmaking — reconnecting communities with a tournament they didn’t know they missed.
The Impact
- 18,000+ waitlist in 7 days
- 32,000+ tickets sold
- 3.2M+ organic reach over two months
- Viral fan videos totaling 9M+ view
- Partnership with City Splash led to attendance from Jamaican superstars Popcaan and Queen Spice, amplifying to their audiences in the hundreds of thousands Global audience
- Media features in ITV, Copa90, New York Times, Versus, The Guardian, and more
“Translate Culture were a dream to work with. They were innovative, agile, and laser-focused on results. They delivered big impact in a short space of time.” — Jamal Graham, Venue Optimisation Manager, Brentford FC
What started as a dormant tournament became one of the most talked-about cultural events of the year — because we rooted the story in community, rivalry, and joy.
Scaling Profitably To 7 Figures
Myla's Moss
Mylas Moss is a leading seller of fresh, organic seamoss and herbs offering natural health solutions to wellness-conscious consumers. We partnered with Mylas Moss to develop a profitable growth strategy through paid marketing, utilising Google Ads and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) to target their core audience and expand their reach.
Building Brand Beyond Amazon
Soul Cap
SOUL CAP is a sportswear brand dedicated to making swimming inclusive by providing swim caps designed for people of all hair types. They approached us with a goal to build on their existing success on Amazon and drive growth for their direct-to-consumer (DTC) store. A key challenge was the lack of profitability in their Meta ads, and it was crucial to acquire new customers in a cost-effective manner.
Authentic Storytelling & Partnership
PLANTMADE
A partnership was formed between our company and Plantmade, a natural wellness brand, to help them expand their presence. The hair growth market is tough due to customer skepticism about regrowing hair after hair loss. Recognizing the need for a holistic approach beyond paid ads, Plantmade and our team collaborated. We used data and cultural insights to create a real-time communication strategy that built trust and boosted revenue. This strategy centered around authentic storytelling and involved various teams within Plantmade, including founder, partnership, retention, social, and creative teams.
Growth strategy
Oja
Oja is an e-grocer for African & Caribbean communities. We partnered with Oja to develop a growth strategy powered by direct marketing and authentic partnerships with hard to reach communities. We improved marketing efficiency by 400%, meaning we are getting four times more for every pound spent on paid marketing.
Business transformation
TRIM-IT
In 2021 mobile barbershop start-up TRIM-IT faced two challenges, re-introducing the brand after 8 months lockdown and having switched a B2B model, they needed to re-educate the barber community into becoming partners. We leveraged Digital PR campaign via popular cultural news pages, Brand partnership with Harry’s and celebrity barber Slider Cuts alongside a well refined paid and organic social campaign. We helped get 30 barbers on the road nationwide, 6 months ahead of schedule - taking TRIM-IT to 7 fig+ revenue.
Performance marketing
AVA ESTELL
Ava Estell came to us in July 2021 after delivering £1.2m in 9 month through social media and ads. Following the release of iOS 14 update they started to face some challenges around scaling. Using our in-house “Measure - Learn - Scale” approach, we were able to deliver a further £7 million in revenue in 9 months. 8 figures in 24 months, puts Ava Estell up there with some of the fastest growing DTC brands in the UK.
