Sport is a hot topic this summer with major sports events such as the World Cup and Tour de France taking place over the coming months. As a sports broadcaster ITV has stated its intentions to encourage sport participation among its viewers as well. ITV is partnering with Olympic and Paralympic sports charity, Join In, to encourage volunteering at community sports centres.

The campaign will be called ITV Local Heroes, and kicks off on 4 June. As a part of the project a World Cup fan park in Manchester, called ITV Fever Pitch will act as host for a community programme that teaches schoolchildren beach soccer, the venue will also screen all of the World Cup games. This particular park is a condensed illustration of the integrated nature of the partnership, where ITV's programming and its CSR are closely linked-up. ITV Local Heroes incorporates programming into viewer's everyday lives thus creating strong brand engagement.

Sara Hanson, ITV's head of corporate responsibility says, "This summer ITV will be bringing some of the world's biggest sporting events into our homes, and we hope to channel some of that national pride and emotion into local community sports. Over the year we run a number of public campaigns linked to our programming or national events to encourage more viewers to make a difference. Our hope is that fantastic events like the World Cup will inspire viewers to get active and offer their help, so even more people can enjoy community sport - there is no better time to become an ITV Local Hero."

Through its strong ties to local communities the project also sits well with ITV's brand positioning as a broadcaster of the people.

Join In's research shows that for each volunteer that takes part, twelve people are given access to community sport. The project aims to source 100,000 new volunteers thus opening the doors to up to 2.1m participants at local sports clubs.