Case Study
Aston Villa
Celebrating 150 Years
18,000+ digital collectibles claimed on the first match — turning matchday attendance into a season-long fan engagement program.
18,000+ digital collectibles claimed on the first match — turning matchday attendance into a season-long fan engagement program.
To celebrate its 150th anniversary, Aston Villa FC partnered with POAP Studio and Chiliz to launch the club's first digital collectibles. Fans didn't need an app or a wallet — just a matchday program and a mobile browser to start collecting.
Every home match became a checkpoint in a season-long journey. Attend, collect, climb reward tiers — from signed merchandise to training ground visits. The result: a fan engagement layer that turned passive attendance into active, measurable loyalty.
Aston Villa wanted to mark its 150th anniversary with something fans could carry beyond matchday. The activation needed to deepen engagement without friction — no new apps, no tech literacy barriers, just a natural extension of the matchday ritual supporters already love.
A unique digital collectible claimable at every home match via the matchday program — no app download required, just a scan and a tap.
Collection-based reward tiers unlocked VIP experiences: training ground visits, match tickets, and signed merchandise — the more matches attended, the better the rewards.
Each collectible preserved a matchday moment from the 150th anniversary season, building a digital record of every supporter's personal journey with the club.
Aston Villa proved that fans don't need convincing to collect — they need a frictionless mechanic and rewards that match their passion. 18,000 claims on day one said the rest.
18,000+ collectibles claimed on the very first match against Liverpool — one of the largest single-event fan engagement activations in football.
Zero-friction adoption proved that matchday digital collectibles work at mass scale when they extend existing rituals rather than replacing them.
The club gained a direct, re-engageable channel to its most loyal supporters — a fan relationship layer that persists beyond the final whistle.
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