I was at the stadium at 6.30am, some 30mins ahead of calltime.

A group of fans who'd traveled overnight was at the gate already.

May 13, 2018 the day Gor Mahia played Hull City in a fully sold out Kasarani Stadium.

Wanna know how we planned & executed the project? Be my guest

tbh I'd never seen Kasarani that full for a club football match.
Two weeks before the game I'd have projected 15k maybe 20k fans.

But few minutes to kickoff Rakki Hassan Stadium Manager signalled me saying full capacity. '64,700' my voice bellowed from the stadium sound system

A friendly match.
An exhibition match.
A non competitive match.
A team playing only in the English Championship, not Premier League.

Stadium sold out? But how?

Hull City's visit had been on the cards since January. They would be visiting at the end of the season. Who would they be playing? That was for us, SportPesa Marketing department, to figure out. Options were rather limited to the 2 clubs we sponsored - Gor Mahia & AFC Leopards

Choice between the 2 was rather a no-brainer. Gor Mahia had won 2017 KPL title so on that basis they were winning the toss. Until the bosses, in their executive wisdom, said no. Let's plan a decider friendly derby. A what? The 2 clubs don't play friendlies. How will we sell it?

The Comms team had a headache. How to craft a narrative for the game. We called it #HullCityChallenge. Jeff Karanja is a smart creative.
But when do we stage this game? The KPL calendar was crazy. Gor Mahia CAF fixtures made them lag behind in KPL fixtures. There was no window

Are you guys with me? Ama najiongelesha tu hapa? You better!

Anyway back and forth with KPL gave us May the 1st. Gor Mahia won the #HullCityChallenge by beating AFC Leopards at Afraha. May 1, 2018.

Officially it would be Gor Mahia vs Hull City FC

You're still with me? Thanks. The story is about #HullCityInKenya and I'm recounting to you how we not only got Kasarani filled to the rafters but also how we hogged the digital space and mainstream media pre, during and post event.

A lot of work went into it.

First headache as soon as the Hull trip was confirmed was venue of match.
Kasarani had been closed since God-knows-when for renovations.
Machakos was being overused for KPL fixtures at the time
Bukhungu was a maybe
Bomu stadium, yes we even gave this Mombasa facility a thought

Sports Kenya, custodians of Kasarani Stadium, told us the earliest we could use Kasarani would be August. This was February. We wanted the stadium in May. The 13th of May 2018.

Impossible. Sports Kenya told us.

The company chipped in to help fast track the renovations of the stadium. I remember sitting in meetings with Gregori International guys as they explained grass processing to the point of pitch being playable. Philippe, Riyadh and Caroline. Good people with heavy French accents.

Our Marketing department seemed to be on steroids. Advertising team had secured strategic billboards & Media spots, Creative team had all TVCs & artworks, Digital plan was on standby as Projects team had roadshow plans and was doing all the canvasing to actualize the project

For a project of this magnitude it's not always going to be smooth sailing. There's always firefighting to be done. You're dealing with people who in their own rights think theirs is the only way to execute certain elements. So you'll have to be patient but have a clear workplan.

Where would Hull City be accommodated? Options were:
Kempinski
Safari Park
Radisson Blu
Sankara
KSMS
Windsor
Dusit D2

So many considerations made SANKARA HOTEL the absolute favorite. It was reserved and booked a month to the visit.

One major hiccup was allowances to be paid out to FKF guys who were part of organizing the visit. They claimed SportPesa perdiem structure was too little and demeaning to their stature insisting on a range of 5-13k per day per person or else they walk out.

When I grow up...

By the morning of May 2, 2018 (the day after #HullCityChallenge) we went on full-blown media campaign. Streets were awash with #HullCityInKenya billboards, radio, TV and print all activated. Digital campaign was rolled out. Roadshow truck was out in the estates.

Momentum for the game was building. Ticketing had to be discussed.
Our position was free entrance.
FKF said no. Charge at least 200/-
We said no.
Sports Kenya supported the federation.
We gave in. Middle ground at 100/-? A percentage goes to FKF, another to Sports Kenya.
Sawa tu

Hull City touched down at JKIA a few minutes past 10pm on Friday 11th May to an elaborate welcome party complete with Jaro Soja leading motorcade from airport to Sankara Hotel. He inked an instant camaraderie with Hull boys. It's very easy to like Jaro without getting too close

Gor Mahia checked into Dusit D2 on the morning of the eve of the game. TM Jolawi was starstruck. Amazed is an understatement. His players loved the treat, he reported.

Oh back to Hull City's arrival. By the time we had everyone checked in to the hotel it was well past midnight. Andy Stead still had time for a beer. Hahaaa happy soul, that one is. He's now a big man in London at Millwall FC. And we still maintain good contact. Good man!

On the Saturday we had to distribute all accreditation tags. A good number had gone out during the week.
There were muted murmurs that a big guest would be coming for the game. Baba? No, that's a no-brainer. His younger brother. Handshake was only two months old and blossoming.

A quick meeting between our core team and Hull City's Marketing team on the eve of matchday. Just to go through checklist and tick every important box. Evidently nervous, @JoeClutterbrook asked what our projection of the attendance would be. At least 30k fans. We were certain

Our branding team led by the indefatigable Muthoni spent the better part of Saturday well into the night sprucing up the stadium and mounting stickers all over.
We did sound test on the mics. 11pm with all boxes ticked we left. See you at 7am on D-DAY.

By 8am there was a snake-like long queue already at ticketing points. Tesh and I had a good feeling we'd surpass our 30k projection. Maybe 38k. We were getting more confident. The security team was going through final briefs. Time to talk about Lady Maureen? Next tweet

In our entertainment plan we roped in Jalas, Kris Darling and a certain Lady Maureen who people in the office were scratching their heads to approve. They didn't quite know who that was and if she would be value for money. Well, as events of the day would prove, Lady Maureen is

I'm not sure @JoeClutterbrook slept that night. He was on the other end of my phone at 7am, 8 and again at 9am. Are we going to have many people at the stadium? His nervous voice kept asking. I told him it's not Hull City vs Wazito. It is Gor Mahia.

When he called again at 11am and I told him half of the stadium was already filled for a 4pm kick-off he was shocked. He must have shifted from anxiety to fear. I also don't know the difference. I'm just throwing in words.

Teams were to leave hotels in intervals of 10mins from 1pm; Gor Mahia first then Hull City. For some strange reasons Hull left earlier than scheduled. Threw us off the balance a bit with security and TV people. But our security was being managed by an ex Army man, so? Tranquilo!

Supersport crew just missed a small inch of Hull's stadium arrival. But nobody noticed. Martin Chege, the floor director, is a nice man. Can shout at you then share a beer and laughter later.

Jalas, Kris Darling and Lady Maureen did some good work in stirring up the crowd before kickoff. Lady Maureen is a performer. We'll debate about her dance crew later but weren't the fans happy? That lady is electric on stage! Then Baba arrived. Stadium went wild

My few seconds of fame was as stadium announcer. It was an honor. To be announcing names of players of the club that I love in front of a fully charged crowd in a sold out Kasarani Stadium, and they're responding to every name I announce? I can't ask for more!

As the game rolled on I got a hold of Tesh, the project lead, and we high-fived each other as we glanced around the stadium
"Whatever anyone tells you, be proud of every contribution you made to filling each seat in this stadium" she said.

I think Hull City also played a big role in making their visit memorable. Beyond the game, they were genuine mingling with the crowds. They didn't have the fear we often see with visitors. Their manager Nigel Adkins was specifically very pleased to have made the trip

Hull left some warmness here. They created lasting friendships. It is for this reason that when Gor Mahia went to the UK in November same year they asked to go to Hull City as well.

Special people that worked their asses off this project:
Tesh - Project Lead. Perfect midfielder that links play in a project.
FKF's Michael Ouma - A very organized man no wonder he chairs IMOC

END.