Manchester City x Etihad x Experience Abu Dhabi: Atlantic Station Fan Zone Activation

For this project, we helped capture the Manchester City Fan Zone at Atlantic Station in Atlanta ahead of City’s Club World Cup match against Al Ain. Our focus was the Etihad and Experience Abu Dhabi footprint inside the event — building a wrap-up piece and stills package that showed how football, travel, hospitality, and destination storytelling all came together in one live fan experience.

This was a big, layered activation. It was not one sponsor moment or one branded booth. It was a full environment designed to move fans through multiple touchpoints across the day. The site deck shows just how much was built into the space: the main stage and screen, football challenges on the central lawn, the passport mechanic, the Etihad check-in desk, branded boarding passes, the Etihad lounge, the “Plan Your Next Adventure” photo experience, the matchday mascot wall, the paper plane challenge, destination quizzes, food moments, live art, Saadiyat Beach photo ops, and a large digital soccer challenge with leaderboard play.

Our job was to make all of that feel connected on camera.

The content brief gave us a clear story spine. The Etihad cabin crew were not just present in the space — they were the hosts of the content. We followed them welcoming fans into the fan zone, taking part in activations, interacting with guests, and helping carry the viewer through the experience. That gave the final wrap-up a real point of view instead of feeling like a generic event recap. It let the piece move with intention and gave the brand a human presence all the way through.

The deliverables were built around a 45–60 second wrap-up video for Etihad’s channels plus 20+ edited photos covering the activations, fan interactions, and talent moments. The brief also called out specific beats we needed to protect: cabin crew participating across the site, fans engaging with the different installations, legends and influencers moving through the space, and the overall sense of Atlanta as Etihad’s newest destination.

What made the day especially strong was the way the activation used football as the entry point into a larger travel and destination story. The fan-zone passport drove movement through the event by rewarding fans for completing eight different activations, with the final grand prize tied to a family holiday to Abu Dhabi. The boarding pass and check-in desk brought airline language into the experience in a playful, physical way. The Etihad lounge added a premium hospitality layer. And the “Plan Your Next Adventure” experience turned destination discovery into something personal, visual, and shareable.

We also had a packed live schedule to work around. The run of show moved between stage games, hosted quizzes, roaming legend moments, football challenges, on-the-spot prize segments, and the exclusive lounge event that closed the night. Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joleon Lescott of Manmoved through both Etihad and Abu Dhabi activations, while FG hosted multiple stage segments across the day. By evening, the event shifted into a more intimate Etihad lounge experience with a legend Q&A and “Tastes of the World” food service. Capturing that range — from open public fan-zone energy to a more elevated closeout event — was a big part of the challenge.

From our side, this was about control inside movement. We needed to cover branded details, signage, activations, reactions, fan participation, hosted moments, legends, crew interactions, and the overall shape of the environment without losing the through-line. The final piece had to feel fast and social-ready, but still premium. It had to show scale without becoming messy. And it had to make a long list of touchpoints feel like one experience instead of a pile of disconnected moments.

That is what we like about this Manchester City & Etihad Airways project.

It shows the kind of event work we do best: brand-rich, people-led, and structured enough to feel cinematic even when the day itself is moving fast. The best moments were the ones where the design of the activation and the behavior of the crowd met naturally, families collecting passport stamps, kids sizing up at the mascot wall, fans stepping into the photo booth, cabin crew welcoming guests into the lounge, legends dropping into games and challenges, and on-stage winners reacting in real time. Those moments are what made the final film breathe.

The end result was a wrap-up that did more than show what was there. It showed how it felt to move through it, a football (Manchester City) centered brand activation that tied together Etihad, Experience Abu Dhabi, and Manchester City in a way that felt active, polished, and built for the audience in front of it.

See how we’ve helped other clients cover their big event. View our Work Samples.

LET'S GET IN TOUCH

1-855 787-4487

Mon – Fri 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM EST

120 Interstate N Pkwy E SE #226
Atlanta, GA 30339
info@ecgprod.com