Borrowing the passion and emotional connection of sport is a strategy that is often seen deployed in consumer marketing, where sports sponsorship continues to thrive.

Yet it is rarer in the business-to-business (B2B) market, where local and grassroots sports remain underutilised. Employment Hero, the global AI-powered employment platform, is bucking this trend. 

The brand is putting sport at the centre of its latest UK marketing push, launching a regional B2B brand campaign in Leeds and Bristol through partnerships with Leeds United, Leeds Rhinos, Bristol City and Bristol Bears.

The business is backing the partnerships with a wider regional media and events programme designed to increase visibility and relevance among SMEs in the region.

The strategy is designed to capitalise on the power of sport to build stronger local presence in priority regional markets, rather than relying solely on audience targeting in digital media. In essence, the brand is putting its faith in building an emotional, rather than transactional connection. 

The UK campaign is part of a broader international brand strategy, with Employment Hero investing in local sports teams in different countries to strengthen relevance in key growth regions. This includes a recent partnership in Employment Hero’s Australian home market with National Rugby League club Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.

Leeds is one of the UK’s most significant commercial centres outside London, with a fast-growing base of employers across sectors including professional services, retail, hospitality and technology. Bristol, meanwhile, has established itself as one of the country’s most dynamic business hubs, with a strong mix of scale-ups, established employers and values-led businesses.

The company’s own research found that in Yorkshire and the Humber, 64% of business leaders would recommend the region as the best place to start a business, while 77% said they could meet their hiring needs with local talent and 80% said they had prioritised a local supplier over a cheaper national or international alternative. In the South West, 84% of business leaders said they had chosen local suppliers over cheaper alternatives, while 61% would recommend the region as a place to start a business, and 68% said they could hire locally.

Maisie Goss, UK Vice President of Marketing at Employment Hero, said: “Too much B2B marketing still focuses only on who you target and not enough on where and how your brand shows up. We see sport as a powerful environment because it brings together attention, emotion and community in a way few other channels can.”

She continued: “For us, Leeds and Bristol are not just media markets. They are two of the UK’s most confident regional business communities, with strong local identity and real employer momentum. We’ve invested in these partnerships because we want Employment Hero to feel more relevant, more visible and more connected in the places where we see growth opportunities.”

The strategy underlines the continued popularity of ‘glocal’ marketing strategies, where brands bring to life a global strategy through locally relevant partners.

As Goss explained: “In each market, we want to build the brand in ways that make sense locally. In the UK, sport gives us a credible and distinctive way to do that.”

To support the campaign, Employment Hero has launched an integrated activation programme across both cities, spanning stadium and matchday visibility, out-of-home placements, bus advertising, Shell forecourt media and tailored events for local employers.

All creative has been developed and delivered by Employment Hero’s in-house creative agency, Hero Collective. It marks the company’s first large-scale out of home campaign in the UK executed entirely in-house.

Employment Hero will also use the club partnerships as a platform for more practical engagement, including sessions and behind-the-scenes events focused on payroll, compliance, hiring and employment law challenges affecting growing businesses.

Employment Hero is a tech product which simplifies the employment process. The platform combines HR, payroll, recruitment, and employee engagement tools and an app. The brand serves over 350,000 businesses and manages over 2.5 million employees worldwide.