SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Big moments are big opportunities…
Senior Vice President at Nielsen, Sean Casey, said “sports events account for 2-to-3 percent of television programming every month. Yet that small amount produces roughly 50 percent of Twitter’s overall activity around TV.” The World Cup is the sporting event, and so the second screen, and Twitter, enjoyed even more attention over the course of the month.
It is naturally the major, unforgettable moments, good and bad, which garner the most Twitter attention and as such it is these which brands aim to capitalise on. Below are three of the biggest with details on how brands made the most of them.
– Germany v Brazil
Surely the greatest humiliation in World Cup history, Germany delivered a crushing 7-1 blow to the favourites, to the hosts, and in doing so caused a Twitter storm. With 35.6m tweets it became the single most tweeted sports event which is perhaps best represented by the heat map below:
Twitter loves a good old fashioned sporting humiliation (actually we can just leave out the word sporting) and realising the potential attention of getting in on the act, many brands couldn’t help but kick Brazil when it was down.
– The Suarez bite
He just had to do it didn’t he? Luis’ decision to bite Chiellini eventually earned him a hefty footballing ban but not before Twitter, brands included, had made the most of the incident.
Best (branded) Suarez bite tweets:
- Snickers: “Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers.” with the image of a snickers and caption ‘More satisfying than Italian’ – 48,000 retweets
- Specsavers: “Should’ve gone to Specsavers” with images of Chiellini and Cannelloni – 29,000 retweets
- Nandos UK: “Hey @luissuarez16, if you’re that hungry, why not get your teeth stuck into something really tasty?” – 38,000 retweets
- Mcdonalds Uruguay: “Hola@luis16suarez, si te quedaste con hambre vení a darle un mordisco a una BigMac ;)” – 77,000 retweets (I don’t think a translation’s needed)
Paddy Power had been planning an expert piece of ambush marketing with Suarez to don a branded gumshield but his ban put a stop to that. This, almost undoubtedly, would have been a social media smash hit. The bookmaker though still revelled in a highly successful World Cup social media campaign and surpassed their 1m Twitter interactions target.
– The final
The final received a record 618,725 tweets in a minute and brands got in on the action. These were mostly in terms of congratulating the Germans on winning their fourth World Cup.
(Adidas congratulate their sponsored winners Germany, not forgetting the all important #allin hashtag.)
The World Cup 2014 was the most social to date. To the extent that even Sepp realised it; “This has been the first truly mobile and social World Cup.”
Brands anticipated this and it seems that preparation was the key. Adidas, the big winners in terms of social media and specifically Twitter marketing at the tournament, employed the social media agency, We Are Social, a year before the campaign commenced.
The role of the agency was to amass a ‘content bible’ of 1000 images and 160 videos on over 100 Adidas players meaning the Adidas digital team were ready to attack real-time marketing immediately, and with zest, whatever occurred on the pitch. By December, still six months before it all began, they had compiled an hour by hour calendar of the full tournament anticipating what might happen in each match and collecting and producing content around this. To be visual and engaging are two successful social media marketing rules, and the likes of Adidas and Nike followed these principles down to a tee.
(Images such as this one, following Colombia’s defeat, were ready to go before the final whistle, as were alternatives should Rodriguez and co. have beaten Brazil.)
“Anticipated moments has been one of the keys to our success. We’re ready for moments, and we’re ready for lots of moments,” said Adidas’ Tom Ramsden.
The second screen floodgates were smashed open this World Cup, and they will not be shutting anytime soon.
For both Adidas, and those they trumped in Twitter and social media marketing at Brazil, it’s now time to swiftly move on and make the most of the World Cup fallout, transfer comings and goings and the forthcoming domestic seasons. Twitter never sleeps, and so nor can they.
Content Sources
- http://adage.com/article/global-news/embedded-adidas-social-media-team-world-cup/294016/
- http://youngwomenindigital.com/global-brands-using-digital-marketing-2014-world-cup/
- https://blog.twitter.com/2014/insights-into-the-worldcup-conversation-on-twitter
- http://iammoulude.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/football-world-cup-2014-product-branding-and-marketing-opportunities/
