The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
Sela's haptic Sound Shirt let deaf Newcastle fans feel the crowd's roar
Sela and Newcastle United gave deaf fans a shirt that turns stadium noise into vibrations - a world-first since adopted by top leagues.
Sela · Newcastle United
The solution
In the UK, 12 million adults live with hearing loss, and for them the electric atmosphere of live football is largely inaccessible; traditional accessibility solutions leave many feeling excluded. Sela, the live-events company that sponsors Newcastle United, set out with the club, RNID and CuteCircuit to change that.
The Sela Sound Shirt, a world-first in sports, uses haptic technology to translate stadium sounds into real-time vibrations: embedded actuators turn the roar of the crowd and the energy of the game into something deaf and hard-of-hearing fans can feel. Research had shown that 71% of deaf fans believed technology could improve their matchday experience.
Unsilence the Crowd reached 5.08 billion people and lifted Sela's social traffic by over 520%. The shirt is committed for all future Newcastle home games, La Liga and Serie A have adopted it, and talks with other global rights-holders are ongoing.
Why it worked
- The innovation is the message, so the brand is remembered for what it gave fans, not for a logo.
- It fixes a measurable exclusion - 71% of deaf fans wanted better matchday technology - so the story spreads by itself.
- It operates every matchday as a product, not a one-off ad, compounding the sponsor's value.
- Because Sela's business is live experiences, the shirt demonstrates exactly what it sells.
What can be applied
A sponsor can buy more attention with one innovation fans can feel than with a season of logo placements - especially when it fixes a real exclusion.
Aftermath
Unsilence the Crowd won the Brand Experience & Activation Grand Prix at Dubai Lynx 2025, a Gerety Silver, and multiple One Show awards. La Liga and Serie A adopted the Sela Sound Shirt, and Sela committed to providing it at all future Newcastle home games; the run logged 771 media outlets, more than 15,400 mentions and over 100 broadcast minutes.
Sources
- Unsilence the Crowd
- Unsilence the Crowd - Sela
- The One Show - Unsilence the Crowd
- All the 2025 Dubai Lynx Awards
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