Client case study · Government and diplomacy
How the British Consulate in Atlanta earned 247 news stories during the World Cup
The Consulate set four goals for the 2026 World Cup: grow trade and investment, inspire travel to Britain, raise the UK’s profile in the Southeast, and give its departing Consul General a strong send-off. All four were met, with 247 earned news placements and no ad buy.
“We most certainly received a positive return on our investment with Spotlight Communications Group, and we would recommend their services to other colleagues seeking to amplify their brand.”British Consulate-General Atlanta
Request a consultationAtlanta News First (Channel 46, Atlanta) · interview our team booked
Associated Press · carried in 62 outlets
Tracked with Critical Mention from June 17 to Aug. 18, 2026: an estimated 620.7 million in audience reach and $3.56 million in advertising equivalency. Every placement was earned, with no ad buy.
On air · CBS Atlanta · July 14, 2026
Georgia’s economic leaders made the case for British investment on CBS Atlanta
Read the CBS Atlanta storyThe goal
Four goals, one tournament
The British Consulate-General Atlanta represents the UK government across six states in the Southeast: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. It hired Spotlight Communications Group to turn the attention of the 2026 FIFA World Cup into earned news coverage for the UK, with four objectives:
- Trade and investment: Position the UK as a partner for Georgia business across the Southeast.
- Tourism: Turn a summer of football in Georgia into interest in visiting Britain, where the game began.
- The UK’s standing in the region: Atlanta has more than 70 consulates. The UK needed to stand out as an active, accessible partner.
- The Consul General’s legacy: Rachel Galloway was leaving after four years. Coverage of her work would secure what she built and give her successor a head start with local press.
The strategy
Atlanta was the stage. UK-Georgia trade was the story.
Atlanta was a host city, but England’s group matches were in Dallas, Boston and New York/New Jersey, and Scotland’s were in Boston and Miami. A UK team would only play here by reaching a knockout round, and nobody would know that until late in the tournament.
So we didn’t pitch Atlanta as a UK football venue. We pitched it as a UK business and culture hub, one that exists all year: UK firms with Atlanta offices, British investment in Georgia, and a Consul General with four years of work to show for it. The World Cup supplied the attention, and the relationship supplied the story.
The work
How we did it
Built a story that didn’t need a match:
Every angle we pitched would have been news without a UK team setting foot in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Gave every newsroom its own angle:
Trade data went to business press. The Consul General’s farewell went to broadcast. Watch parties went to TV and neighborhood outlets. The “home of football” travel story went to feature desks.
Pitched reporters directly:
We offered producers a credentialed spokesperson, useful data and a visual reason to send a camera. The newsroom decides whether to run it, and that decision is what makes the coverage credible.
Built a bench of three officials and ran their interview schedule:
Consul General Rachel Galloway covered the relationship and her legacy. Tom Woodley, Senior Capital Investment Officer for Sport, covered the business of sport. Alexander Robson, Trade and Investment Officer, covered trade. More voices meant more interviews and more audiences.
Prepared for a match that didn’t exist yet:
We built a ready-to-send story package in case a UK team reached a knockout match in Atlanta. When England made the semifinal, we were ready.
Let the coverage compound:
Each interview created a public record, and each public record made the next reporter’s job easier.
The results
What we set out to do, and what happened
Trade and investment
Global Atlanta, the region’s outlet dedicated to Atlanta’s global economy, featured UK businesses growing here: Manchester-based Destination Sport’s North American headquarters, Checkout.com and Ekko, plus upcoming UK trade missions. CBS Atlanta put the Metro Atlanta Chamber and Invest Atlanta on camera making the case for British investment, a story picked up as far away as South Africa.
Tourism and the fan economy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution built a feature around England fans and the Manchester Arms, a UK-owned pub in College Park. Decaturish covered Decatur WatchFest, where the Consulate’s Tom Woodley joined England fans on the square.
The UK’s standing in the region
Trade Officer Alexander Robson got seven minutes of solo airtime on 11Alive (NBC) on the eve of the semifinal. And when the most politically charged match of the tournament came to Atlanta, the UK had a voice in the national coverage.
The Consul General’s legacy
Rachel Galloway gave a one-on-one farewell interview on 11Alive (NBC) on July 21, covering four years of work from Memphis to Asheville and the $1.2 trillion UK-US trading relationship. Two days earlier, FOX 5’s political panel show The Georgia Gang named her a “winner” of the week.
The moment that proved it
A UK voice inside coverage the UK didn’t control
It was a politically charged England–Argentina semifinal, with decades of sporting rivalry behind it. Most of the campaign’s coverage carried that framing, and the UK had no say in how the story was told.
It did have a voice in it. In the weeks before, our team had placed UK spokespeople in every available local interview. When the Associated Press assembled its semifinal coverage, it quoted the Consul General from an Atlanta News First (Channel 46, Atlanta) interview we booked. Her line stayed in the AP’s story through at least six rewrites, from the preview to the final whistle.
“We find a way to work together.” The AP carried it into 62 outlets, including The Washington Post (read here) and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Her voice appeared in more than 150 stories about the match.
- Associated Press
- The Washington Post
- San Francisco Chronicle
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- 11Alive (NBC)
- CBS Atlanta
- FOX 5 Atlanta
- Atlanta News First (Channel 46)
- Global Atlanta
- Decaturish
Coverage also reached Canada, Mexico, India and South Africa, including 20 Spanish-language placements.
For consulates, government agencies and nonprofits
Your story doesn’t start with the big event
You don’t need a perfect news hook. We build the story around what your organization already does every week: the partnerships, the people you serve, the results you can point to.
Preparation is protection. When the news turns tense, the spokesperson already on the record gets quoted. Leadership changes are part of public service, and a bench of spokespeople who already know the reporters keeps your voice steady through a transition, before those relationships cool.
We’ve done this for nonprofits too. For the Center for Puppetry Arts, our brand-reintroduction campaign reached 862.2 million people and earned $3.74 million in media value with zero paid placement, including coverage in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WABE, FOX 5 Atlanta and ArtsATL.
In their words
British Consulate-General Atlanta“Crystal and her team were an invaluable support to our Consulate during our whirlwind summer of World Cup 2026 activity. Her firm helped us exceed our comms goals by: preparing a robust media plan well in advance of our start date; providing us with a detailed and organized interview schedule; and maintaining a rigorous outreach rhythm and prompt communication while she seamlessly managed the media’s growing appetite for our voices during the English team’s historic run through the tournament.
Her strong connections with media and her proactive engagement with reporters provided us with access to our target media outlets, and broader outlets we had not previously considered. We most certainly received a positive return on our investment with Spotlight Communications Group, and we would recommend their services to other colleagues seeking to amplify their brand.”
Waiting for your big moment? Start building before it arrives.
Tell us what your organization does every day. We’ll show you the story in it.