How Utilita turned sponsorship into a growth engine
When Utilita entered the UK energy market in the early 2000s, it was a challenger brand in every sense of the word. Born around a kitchen table, Utilita began with little brand recognition and no inherited customer base, just an ambitious mission to disrupt a fiercely competitive industry.
By 2015, the company needed a step-change in visibility. Instead of investing in advertising, Utilita chose sponsorship. The company initially tested the water with a local partnership, Eastleigh FC, a non-league club near its Hampshire headquarters, before rapidly expanding into a national programme spanning clubs across the pyramid, plus, major music festivals, cultural venues, and grassroots campaigns.
“We wanted to raise our profile, but we also wanted to learn,” says James Heyes, Head of Group Partnerships. “That first partnership was about trust. With the local community, with our staff, and with ourselves. Could sponsorship really work for us?”
It could. And it did.
That small test marked the beginning of a journey that would eventually see Utilita become one of the UK’s most dynamic and conscientious sponsors. The company’s influence has extended far beyond football, but in reaching into music, cultural venues, grassroots sport, and more recently, renewable energy.
Unlike many brands that approach sponsorship as a rigid, one-size-fits-all playbook, Utilita built its strategy in real time. It evolved as the business matured. At each stage, the company used sponsorship to deliver against a different set of objectives and never stopped adjusting the model.
This agility became especially evident amid the challenges of the energy crisis and broader cost-of-living crisis, when Utilita pivoted its sponsorship strategy to prioritise energy efficiency advice for households. This shift wasn’t driven by market trends, but by a genuine commitment to doing what was right.
Testing, learning, evolving
In the early years, the priority was awareness. Football offered a cost-effective way to get the brand in front of the right audience. “We looked at rugby league,” Heyes recalls, “but football mapped better to our customer base in the Midlands, North East, and Scotland.”
Local partnerships quickly gave way to national ones. Utilita sponsored the Scottish League Cup, signed deals with clubs across the football pyramid, and found ways to layer in commercial value. That included supplying energy to stadiums like Ibrox and Villa Park.
Those early years taught the team some valuable lessons. Sponsorship could be more than a media buy. Done right, it could support B2B objectives, drive community engagement, and position the brand as a trusted partner. Not just a service provider.
One deliberate choice was to sponsor multiple smaller teams instead of one headline-grabbing Premier League club. “Why spend all your budget on one club,” says Heyes, “when you can stretch it across seven or eight locations, reach more people, and be more locally relevant? A Premier League club might send you a deck full of global TV stats, but unless our focus includes customers in Thailand, that’s not value to us.”
By spreading sponsorship across Championship, League One, League Two and non-league clubs, Utilita also gained greater access to communities and more flexibility in activation. “Further down the pyramid, clubs tend to be more open to new ideas and more accommodating to brand objectives,” he adds. “It allowed us to do more than just put our name on a shirt.”
Responding to the business
As the business evolved, so too did the role of sponsorship. When the focus shifted toward purpose and community, Utilita launched Football Rebooted, a campaign to rehome one million pairs of used boots, keeping them out of landfill. The initiative addressed two real problems: rising costs for families and environmental waste.
“It wasn’t about selling energy,” Heyes says. “It was about showing who we are and that we’re trying to do the right thing and support people where it matters.”
Later, as Utilita placed additional focus on providing renewable energy solutions, sponsorship helped bring those new capabilities to life. Solar installations at The Utilita Bowl and Pompey in the Community's new community hub weren’t just infrastructure projects. They were proof points. The company used these projects to educate fans, engage local businesses, and showcase what it could offer.
Each phase of the business came with a new set of needs. Sponsorship flexed accordingly.
A culture that made it possible
Underpinning all of this was a culture of openness and trust. “We’ve always had direct access to the board and to our CEO, Bill Bullen,” Heyes says. “That’s rare. It meant we could test things, learn fast, and pivot when something didn’t work.”
That freedom to experiment has been critical. It allowed Utilita to start small, take risks, and grow its sponsorship strategy in lockstep with the company itself.
A model for modern marketers
Utilita didn’t become a leading energy brand because of sponsorship. But sponsorship played a vital role in helping it get there. It built visibility, trust, differentiation, and later, commercial opportunity.
The lesson for other marketers isn’t about football, music or solar panels. It’s about staying responsive. Start small. Learn fast. Adapt often. Let your sponsorship strategy evolve with your business and use it to show the world who you really are.
Because when sponsorship is treated as a living, breathing part of your business, not just a badge on a shirt, it becomes something far more powerful: a catalyst for growth.
Are You Sporting Solar?
If you're involved with a sports club or organisation, Utilita is currently inviting clubs to take part in its Are You Sporting Solar? initiative—an effort to understand how sport can play a bigger role in the UK’s renewable energy journey. The survey is open until 31 July, and responses will help shape the company’s next phase of support for clubs exploring solar.
Find out more and take part here.
Read more about how other energy companies like Ovo are using sponsorship to engage communities.
