BEST FAN ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMME DURING COVID-19
Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) – #HorseOClock with Longines
With the COVID-19 pandemic, activities around the world came to a sudden halt, including the vast majority of sports events.
For the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), this meant far fewer opportunities for our partners to develop relationships with equestrian fans in a controlled, in-venue environment.
Swiss watchmaking brand, our long-time Top Partner, Longines, was particularly receptive to trying a different approach to brand engagement activities to stay close with watch and equestrian enthusiasts.
The result was #HorseOClock with Longines, an eight-question, equestrian-themed online quiz designed to match FEI fans with the Longines watch most suited to their personality in a fun and accessible way.
The community was kept engaged at every step of the six-week campaign through short, fun and interchangeable content.
Through owned and paid media on new and traditional FEI channels, we employed everything from press releases to CTA pop-ups and advertising on social media.
The campaign struck just the right chord with our fans. By pushing creative and technical boundaries, #HorseOClock reached 1.4 million equestrian fans. Page views on the quiz website climbed to 35,225 and resulted in almost 20,000 completions, opening the door to larger-scale campaigns that incorporate interactive tools such as quizzes, into future activations.
Aston Martin Cognizant F1™ – Team Car Launch
In 2021, Aston Martin returned to Formula 1 after an absence of 61-years. The launch presented a unique opportunity to celebrate the brand’s iconic status while demonstrating a new set of fan-first values. The team’s objective was to grow and engage its share of the F1 audience, bring fans into the heart of the story through the I / AM movement, and punch outside of the traditional F1 space to reach a new lifestyle community.
The launch of the team centred around the reveal of its 2021 challenger, the AMR21. The team activated several marketing promotions to drive social engagement and first party database growth across each of its newly established fan profiles through content, influencers and tailored experiences.
AMCF1’s social media community grew by 26% (vs 2.4% average), with growth twice as fast in absolute terms compared to the next nearest competitor. From a standing start, the team also accelerated to 150k database records.
The launch generated 230m social media impressions and reached a maximum potential broadcast audience of 780m, generating more than 5 hours of broadcast time across 101 global TV channels.
Everton Football Club
In response to COVID-19, Everton immediately put in place a multi-channel communications campaign for fans, staff, Everton in the Community (EitC) participants and community stakeholders, sharing public health messaging (in partnership with NHS, Public Health England and Liverpool City Council), health and wellbeing tips, educational and feel-good content, truly living up to its name as The People’s Club During the initial months of the pandemic, the Club adapted its digital strategy to provide tailored educational resources, entertainment and public health information, reaching more than 24 5 million people in the first four weeks (mid-March – mid-April 2020) Engagement was also at the heart of all communications, with the Club and its official charity (EitC) listening to fans’ needs to curate content and inform the wider Club response Members of the community in need were encouraged to request support from the Club’s Blue Family campaign, the first targeted campaign set up by a football club to support its community through the crisis Supported by Club and charity staff, Everton’s men and women’s players joined Ambassadors, the Club’s Chairman and CEO, and other staff to make more than 28,950 check-in phone calls to those in social isolation, and fans around the world.
FIFA X WePlay – #WorldCupAtHome
FIFA had not planned to stage a FIFA World Cup in 2020. Neither had it expected the year to bring a global pandemic that would confine billions of people to their homes.
The #WorldCupAtHome was a digital content campaign like no other.
Agile and ambitious, FIFA opened up the World Cup archive for a new generation, bringing full-match replays to life in unprecedented ways.
32 full match classic World Cup replays were live-streamed in the first phase of the #WorldCupAtHome which were presented as a premiere event on YouTube, offering audiences both on-demand and live viewing options.
It evolved into a celebration of two iconic World Cup editions – Mexico 70 and Italy 90 – and a lesson in the untapped value of archive to drive attention and engagement among a younger football audience.
The biggest impact, however, was the one FIFA sought: reaching over 300m fans in more than 120 countries, with a message that has proven to save lives – “stay home” – and an incentive to follow.
The achievements of the #WorldCupAtHome are built on the twin pillars of “Purpose” and “Performance.” FIFA believes they will be the foundation of future sports industry success.
Formula TX
Fan’s Day during the semifinal and final of St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy 2021
Entertainment program for the Fan’s Day was innovative and rich and included such activities and actions:
1. Single and double semifinal and final matches.
2. Unique presentation of players on the tennis court with the use of high-tech solutions.
3. Ceremony of awarding the winners and finalists of the tournament.
4. Prize drawing for fans from the partner Porsche.
5. Possibility to view the match from the own auto in the event-space outdoor cinema “Kinoparking”.
6. Open after-match conference with Daria Kasatkina.
7. Unofficial talk-show “TENNIS TALK” for the spectators with Aslan Karatsev.
8. Virtual autograph signing sessions with the players.
9. Entertainment area “NORM OF LIFE” from the official partner Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation.
10. Press-conference in the spectator area with headliners of the closing show and participants of the project “Ladette: Katya Vanysheva and Natasha Goncharova.
11. Awarding the winners of the contest among the painters “Tennis and Saint Petersburg”.
12. Ceremony of awarding the winners of the professional contests.
13. Closing show “THE WHOLE WORLD ON THE COURT” after the ending of the final match.
Harlequins
Eighteen months ago rugby – and the world – ground to a halt. The Premiership was postponed and players stopped training. The women’s season was cancelled.
Our core offering – and means of connecting with supporters – was stopped almost overnight.
We moved quickly and our extensive efforts to engage supporters laid the foundations for record-breaking digital results.
Since March 2020 our social media following has increased by 23 per cent.
From July 2020, when training resumed, to June 2021, when the season ended, we added more followers and generated more engagements than any other team in the league.
In the same period our social media video views and impressions increased by 67 per cent and 36 per cent respectively compared to the previous 12 months.
Season Ticket renewals have increased 29 per cent and look set to hit a record high.
Our digital efforts returned tens of thousands of net sponsorship value that was undeliverable due to Covid.
Harlequins Live, our new matchday show, has been viewed 1.6m times and is now our most valuable digital asset.
Said one fan: “You really have been on fire since the first lock down. Loving your work.”
Midea World Class Awards
We wanted to help Midea use their partnership with Man City, to grow their brand awareness and build a real engagement with football fans.
But because of the pandemic, all we had were digital and social tools to connect with fans in a natural way.
And when Man City were crowned Champions, we wanted to give Midea a genuine reason to celebrate and share in the trophy lift moments Our solution: the Midea #WorldClass Awards! While every player had contributed to the win, there was only ONE PL trophy. So Midea created a range of appliance shaped trophies, highlighting some of the best moments on the field and invited fans to vote for who deserved which trophy, making them an integral part of the process.
To launch the trophies and announce the nominations, we got Man City Legends, Paul Dickov and Shaun Wright-Phillips to host a humorous content series. After the voting, a second series announced the winners and offered these loyal fans discounts on Midea products, helping us link our brand to customers in an authentic way as well as use sport to connect to the hearts and minds of fans and customers, increasing engagement and interaction with them.
West Ham United Football Club
Whilst coronavirus has changed the way we live and work in so many ways, West Ham’s focus has been to support our fans during this uniquely challenging and unprecedented time.
The club’s Marketing and Comms team has delivered a fan-centric strategy since the start of the pandemic. Digital activation, user-generated digital activations and personalised contact from club staff has been at the forefront of adapting our fan initiatives. This was part of an effort to connect directly with our fans, create a community feel across the club’s channels and remind fans that they were not alone whilst supporting from home.
The Club has engaged, supported and championed our supporters from across the Claret and Blue fanbase. Whether that’s been vulnerable people, our elderly season ticket holders, young, local or international Hammers fans, the club have made every effort to reach out and offer support.
