On December 17, 2025, TEAMMATE brought an entirely new sporting experience to life in the medieval streets of Murten. The 1000 Lights Run was born from a close collaboration between the Murten Licht LAB, Morat Tourisme, the Union fribourgeoise du Tourisme, and TEAMMATE, the creator of the concept. It is the first night running event of its kind in the canton of Fribourg.

Around 750 participants set off on a 5 km course illuminated by unique light installations, winding through the picturesque alleys of the old town and along the lakeshore. The evening was marked by the presence of event godmother Audrey Werro, 800m specialist, Paris 2024 Olympian and ambassador of the Union fribourgeoise du Tourisme, whose energy and inspiration gave the event its sporting soul.

Inspired by the famous Murten Licht Festival, the 1000 Lights Run transformed the Swiss Capital of Lights into an immersive journey mixing art, heritage, movement and sport, and proved that a new format of accessible and festive night running can find a natural home in Fribourg.

TEAMMATE led the project across all three pillars. At the thinking stage, it designed the concept, defined the format and built the institutional partnership structure. At the building stage, it coordinated the full event production alongside the Murten Licht LAB’s creative team. At the growing stage, it embedded the 1000 Lights Run within the Union fribourgeoise du Tourisme’s athlete ambassador campaign, using Audrey Werro’s profile to amplify reach and anchor the event within a broader destination marketing strategy.

Links

• Official Event Website
• Fribourg Tourism Page
• Murten Licht LAB
• SRF Coverage

The America’s Cup e-Series, conceived and delivered by TEAMMATE alongside agencies Experientia and Burson for America’s Cup and Emirates Team New Zealand, earned recognition at some of the most prestigious award ceremonies in the global events, marketing and communications industry.

At the BEA World Festival, one of the most respected live events award ceremonies internationally, the project won the Gold award in the Product and Service Launch category.

At the AEVEA Awards 2025, the leading awards programme for the Spanish experiential marketing and events industry, the America’s Cup e-Series received the double distinction of Best Sporting Event and Best Project of the Year, standing out from a field of 175 projects.

At the 2025 Sabre Awards EMEA, one of the most authoritative programmes in strategic communications, the project was recognised in the Marketing to Youth category, reflecting the e-Series’ success in reaching a new generation of fans for a sport that had historically struggled to connect with younger audiences.

These awards reflect the broader ambition behind the project: to demonstrate that sports innovation, when built with strategic purpose and creative precision, can redefine how audiences connect with iconic competitions and open entirely new pathways between sport, gaming and culture.

Links

• BEA World Festival Entry
• AEVEA Awards 2025 Winners
• Sabre Awards EMEA 2025

TEAMMATE has been appointed as the official agency for the Union fribourgeoise du Tourisme (UFT) for a landmark campaign: the centenary of tourism promotion in the canton of Fribourg. The mandate places athlete marketing at the centre of the anniversary strategy, using the power of sport and local sporting heroes to bring the campaign to life across the region.

In a partnership that reflects TEAMMATE’s deep roots in the Fribourg sports ecosystem, the campaign leverages the inspiration of athletes as ambassadors, embodying the values of the canton and connecting with audiences in an authentic and impactful way. The approach draws directly on TEAMMATE’s expertise in athlete marketing, one of the agency’s five core pillars, and on its ability to connect institutional stakeholders with the world of sport in a meaningful and credible manner.

Links

• Union fribourgeoise du Tourisme

Following ski mountaineering’s historic debut at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Games, the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF) has appointed TEAMMATE as its sales and marketing advisor, marking a new chapter in the federation’s commercial development. The appointment was covered by Francs Jeux, one of the most influential media outlets in international sport.

Ski mountaineering’s Olympic debut brought the discipline the visibility and credibility it had long been building toward. The ISMF’s president Regula Meier had been candid about the challenge ahead, noting that attracting a major sponsor had remained the federation’s primary commercial objective. With Olympic momentum now behind it, the ISMF is entering what it describes as a decisive phase, and has turned to TEAMMATE to help convert that momentum into long-term relevance, structured commercial growth and sustainable value.

TEAMMATE’s mandate is to act as the federation’s sales and marketing partner, focused on forging long-term partnerships that will help shape the next stage of ski mountaineering’s development. This mandate is a direct application of TEAMMATE’s Think-Build-Grow model at federation level: helping the ISMF define its commercial vision and positioning, structure and activate a partnership programme suited to its new Olympic profile, and grow its revenue base and market presence in the years ahead. The appointment also builds naturally on TEAMMATE’s relationship with the ISMF through advisor Thierry Borra, founder of Sport Matters Consulting, who has worked with the federation as part of his broader advisory work with Olympic institutions.

Links

• Francs Jeux Article
• ISMF Official Website

TEAMMATE is proud to welcome Veronique Cremades-Mathis and Thierry Borra to its advisory board, two highly respected figures whose experience and networks bring significant depth to TEAMMATE’s strategic development.

Veronique brings 35 years of global leadership experience, having built and transformed branded businesses across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Oceania and the Americas during a distinguished career at Nestle and through her subsequent advisory work. Today, through Mathis Consulting based in Singapore, she advises CEOs and boards on transformation, scalable growth and governance. Her expertise spans business turnarounds, restructuring programmes, acquisitions and integrations, and embedding sustainability into core business strategy. As TEAMMATE Advisor, Veronique will accompany the agency’s strategic development while contributing actively to selected mandates where business transformation, governance, ESG and long-term value creation are central.

Thierry Borra, founder of Sport Matters Consulting, brings more than 30 years of international experience at the intersection of sport, business and society. He previously led The Coca-Cola Company’s global Olympic partnership, and today advises leading organisations including the International Olympic Committee, the Paris 2024 and Milano Cortina 2026 Organising Committees, federations including FIFA and the International Ski Mountaineering Federation, as well as global brands, cities and institutions. As TEAMMATE enters a new phase, Thierry will contribute strategic perspective to the TEAMMATE Lab and collaborate on selected projects where his expertise adds specific value, particularly in vision crafting, partnership strategy, storytelling and stakeholder engagement.

Both advisors join the TEAMMATE Lab, the agency’s exclusive advisory circle that brings together senior leaders and subject matter experts who accompany TEAMMATE’s strategic development and actively contribute to selected client mandates, allowing the agency to remain agile while accessing world-class experience when it matters most.

Links

• Welcome post for Veronique
• Welcome post for Thierry

Six months after the launch of AC Sailing, the America’s Cup e-Series reached its crescendo. The Grand Final took place at the heart of the America’s Cup Race Village in Barcelona, bringing together eight elite players from seven countries in a head-to-head battle for the first-ever e-Series championship title and a share of the 50,000 euro prize pool.

The success of the inaugural season was significant: over 100,000 game downloads, 1.25 million tournament views, more than 877 million media impressions, and an audience community where 65 percent of followers were under 44. The Grand Final itself drew over 2,000 attendees to a live show that blended virtual racing with live entertainment, light shows and a closing DJ set.

In an unprecedented move, the top two finalists, champion eSailingCentral and runner-up Booshify, embarked on the ‘Gamer to Sailor’ experience: three days of intensive simulator and on-water training under the guidance of Emirates Team New Zealand, culminating in a real race aboard an AC40 against a UniCredit Youth America’s Cup team.

TEAMMATE conceived, designed and executed the full e-Series programme alongside agencies Experientia and Burson, from the esports league architecture to the Grand Final show event in Barcelona. The project was a full expression of the Think-Build-Grow model: a bold strategic concept translated into a complete phygital event ecosystem, and amplified into a global sports-esports moment that reached entirely new audiences for the America’s Cup.

Links

• Grand Final Official Page
• Champion Crowned via World Sailing
• Gamer to Sailor Race

On September 1, 2024, Fribourg made athletics history. The first-ever Fribourg Track Lab took place at the Saint Leonhard University Stadium, not a standard athletics competition but a laboratory for the future of the sport. The initiative was led by the Canton of Fribourg and TEAMMATE, and was endorsed by World Athletics, European Athletics, and the Wanda Diamond League.

Designed and produced by TEAMMATE, Track Lab was built around a clear ambition: to create a new kind of athletics meeting that puts teams and technology at its centre rather than individual performance rankings. Six teams, each captained by an international athlete, competed across eight disciplines under a format designed to maximise spectator engagement and test new competition rules in a live environment.

Innovations included the elimination of the established 0.100-second reaction time threshold for false starts, new technology to measure actual heights and distances in pole vault and long jump, and the staging of a mile steeplechase as a new discipline. World-class athletes including Alison Dos Santos, Anderson Peters, Audrey Werro, Angelica Moser and Nadine Visser took part, with the event broadcast live on YouTube and covered by the European Broadcasting Union.

TEAMMATE’s contribution spanned all three pillars. At the thinking stage, it conceived the Track Lab format and the philosophy of making athletics a team sport experience. At the building stage, it led the full event production, athlete relations and technical delivery. At the growing stage, it secured the institutional endorsements of World Athletics, European Athletics and the Diamond League, and distributed the event to a global audience through broadcast and digital channels.

Links

• European Athletics Official Announcement
• World Athletics Results
• Aftermovie
• Le Temps Article
• SRF Sport Panorama

Following the April launch of AC Sailing and the announcement of the America’s Cup e-Series concept, the full competitive format of the inaugural season was officially revealed in July 2024. Six online qualifying rounds would run from July 31 through September 14, open to all players globally, with the eight best competitors earning their place in a Grand Final in Barcelona on September 28, 2024.

TEAMMATE played a central role in designing the format, working across the Think-Build-Grow model to ensure the competition was both accessible to a global audience and capable of producing a compelling live event spectacle. The esports league structure, qualifier mechanics, and pathway from online play to physical Grand Final were all shaped with a view to growing a new community around sailing.

Links

• e-Series Format Announcement Video

Over two consecutive summers, Fribourg established itself as one of Switzerland’s most compelling destinations for elite urban sport, hosting two international FIBA 3×3 events that drew thousands of spectators and brought some of the world’s best players to the city’s streets. In 2023, Fribourg welcomed a stop on the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series, featuring powerhouses from China, Azerbaijan, France and beyond. In 2024, the city stepped up to host a FIBA 3×3 Challenger, a direct qualifier for the FIBA 3×3 World Tour, with top-ranked teams including Ub Huishan NE (SRB), Amsterdam (NED) and Liman (SRB) competing alongside the home side Fribourg (SUI).

Behind both editions, TEAMMATE played a central advisory and connector role. Drawing on its long-standing relationships within FIBA and its knowledge of international federation structures, TEAMMATE served as the strategic bridge between the Canton of Fribourg’s institutions and FIBA, facilitating the dialogue, building the case for the city as a host, and coordinating the alignment between both parties that made the events possible. This is a direct expression of the Think dimension of TEAMMATE’s model: identifying the opportunity, positioning the host, and connecting the right stakeholders at the right moment.

The timing of these two editions carried particular significance. With the Paris 2024 Olympic Games approaching, 3×3 basketball was in its second Olympic cycle and national teams were actively seeking high-quality competitive environments to sharpen their preparation. Fribourg became one of the last major hubs of Olympic preparation for athletes who went on to compete in Paris, including future Olympic champions and finalists, giving the city an unexpected but meaningful place in the story of the Paris 2024 Games.

Links

• FIBA 3×3 Challenger Fribourg 2024
• FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series Fribourg 2024
• FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series Fribourg 2023

On April 9, 2024, the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup officially entered the virtual world with the launch of AC Sailing, the official simulation game of the competition. Built on the same physics engine used by America’s Cup teams in their real-world simulators, the game was made available as a free download on Steam and Epic Games, democratizing access to the most prestigious yacht racing competition in the world.

Alongside the game, the America’s Cup e-Series was announced: the first-ever esports league in the history of the competition, open to players worldwide, with online qualifiers leading to a Grand Final in Barcelona in September 2024.

TEAMMATE was part of the core team behind the strategy, product launch concept, and esports league design that brought this initiative to life. Working in partnership with America’s Cup Event (ACE) and alongside agencies Experientia and Burson, TEAMMATE contributed its expertise across three key areas. At the thinking stage, it helped define the conceptual framework that would make sailing accessible to a new generation through the ‘Gamer to Sailor’ philosophy. At the building stage, it shaped the competitive structure of the e-Series and the experience design connecting the digital and physical worlds. At the growing stage, it supported the activation and visibility strategy that drove over 100,000 game downloads and positioned the e-Series as a landmark moment in sports and esports convergence.

Links

• Official America’s Cup Announcement
• Launch Event Recap
• Download AC Sailing on Epic Games