On Monday, 4th May 2026, a 25 year wait finally came to an end. Following an incredible season, Coventry City FC officially celebrated their return to the Premier League with a massive open top bus parade and a sold out festival at War Memorial Park. With an estimated 250,000 fans taking to the streets, the atmosphere across Coventry was electric.
As a long standing partner of Coventry City Council, Bay Media was incredibly proud to be tasked with dressing the city’s streets for the occasion, providing the visual backdrop for a day that will go down in local history. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at how we helped paint the city sky blue.
The Challenge
The reality of sports marketing is that nothing is guaranteed until the final whistle. When a city needs to mobilise for a massive, spontaneous celebration, timelines are understandably tight. We had under two weeks to coordinate, print, and install a major citywide campaign.
Unlike previous city centre parades, this route was designed to take the celebration directly to the community, winding through residential neighbourhoods like Holbrooks, Whitmore Park, and Chapelfields before heading toward Hearsall Common. Because many of these streets sit outside of our standard commercial advertising zones, our operations team had to act quickly.
Using a combination of Google Street View and on-the-ground night scopes, we rapidly assessed dozens of brand new lamppost columns to ensure they were structurally sound, offered sufficient clearance, and met all highways safety regulations. At the same time, we worked closely with the council to secure out of hours access to critical areas, including coordinating cherry picker access at War Memorial Park, ensuring everything could be rigged safely overnight without disrupting the public.
The Execution
Rather than attempting to densely pack every single street on the route, the strategy focused on high impact visual dominance. We targeted critical junctions, popular pub areas, and the “last mile” approach to the festival. In total, the campaign comprised 100 raised lamppost banners alongside 20 mobile flags.
Working closely with the club’s creative, we printed three alternating designs: “We Are Back,” “Proud of You,” and “Sky Blue Army.” These were installed in a repeating sequence to create a visual rhythm as the bus progressed along the route.
The tight timeline meant our operations team had to stay highly flexible. Working dynamically on the night, our installers liaised closely with the council to ensure the banners were perfectly distributed across key high-traffic zones. We also managed to expedite the production of the 20 mobile flags, rushing them to Broadgate and Millennium Place so they could be installed on Friday night, just in time for CCFC’s final Sunday game preceding the parade.
The Event
By 1pm on Bank Holiday Monday, the city was absolutely rammed. As the open top bus, emblazoned with its own “We Are Back!” banner, departed the Coventry Building Society Arena, it was met with a sea of blue flares and the sound of vuvuzelas. Fans lined the pavements, with many climbing onto bus shelters and scaffolding just to catch a glimpse of the Championship trophy.
The celebrations culminated at War Memorial Park, where 50,000 ticketed supporters gathered for a massive music festival. Local heroes The Enemy and Tom Grennan headlined the event, and the squad eventually took the stage to roaring chants, rounding off a perfect day for the city.
The Impact
In a standard week, our individual lamppost banners in Coventry can achieve over 350,000 views. When combined with a quarter of a million celebrating fans, the visibility of this campaign was unprecedented. The banners sat clearly above the crowds, making sure the club’s messaging was visible in the background of the photographs, news broadcasts, and social media posts from the day.
For the Bay Media team, the most rewarding part of the project was the reception from the city. Feedback from our partners at the Council noted that “the banners looked fantastic along the route and really added to the atmosphere… the whole day was a huge success.”
We are thrilled to have played a part in CCFC’s historic return to the Premier League, and we look forward to seeing the Sky Blues back in the top flight next season.
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