FAI SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT 2014 by sports marketing
As part of our Social Media Report Series, Sway looks back at 2014 and examines how some of the key Rightsholders in Ireland provided effective digital and social activation for their Sponsors. With Social Media having been identified as a key area of Sponsor focus in driving more effective activation of sponsorship investments across 2015*, we aim to shine a light on whats been done so far and the challenges that lie ahead. Content: 01. Current Following 02. Sponsors 03. Interaction With Followers 04. Community Work 05. The Year In Review 06. Ways To Improve *Onside Sponsorship Industry Survey 2015
01 CURRENT FOLLOWING The FAI have a total of 110k Facebook followers, and 79k ontwitter. There is little doubt that, on the whole, soccer is a bettersupported game than rugby, although the IRFU are streets ahead when it comes to their own online presence. The Scottish FA actually has 375k Facebook followers, as well as 86k on Twitter. There is a significant gap between the two, despite having a very similar population and football culture. The Welsh FA don t fare quite so well, coming in at 75k on Facebook, and just 60k on Twitter. Social Media Stats: 86k 79k 60k 375k 110k 75k FAI Scottish FA Best week November 13 20th 1800 new followers (Umbro #WornWithPride / Ireland v Scotland) FAI Scottish FA Welsh FA Welsh FA Stephanie Roche Goal: https://vine.co/v/odovkw06oz3 At the time of writing, their focus was on the campaign to get Stephanie Roche voted winner of this year s Puskas Award for Goal of the Season. Stephanie was up against James Rodriguez and Robin van Persie for the prize, and eventually came second behind the Colombian playmaker. It was a great opportunity to promote women s soccer in Ireland, and one which they are now making great progress with. They use all of their media channels to promote this story, as well as the Irish Amputee World Cup side, who were competing in Mexico last December, and Robbie Keane s MLS Cup win. There is a nice spread of stories across different codes, and makes for informative reading.
02 SPONSORS These times before a big game are the ideal way to capitalise on the excitement of fans, to make Irish football a national conversation, and bring sponsors into the mix as much as possible. Whilst this was clearly a successful campaign, there is little doubt that it would not have had the same impact a month before the match. A week prior to this, however, in the build-up to the crucial European qualifier against Scotland, they introduced a fantastic photo competition on Twitter - fans were encouraged to send in old pictures of themselves as children dressed in Ireland football gear. The campaign seamlessly incorporated the FAI kit manufacturer Umbro into the conversation, given that they have been sponsors of the Irish team for several years now. The prize was a signed Ireland jersey, and the hashtag was #WornWithPride. It was an excellent way of getting people involved in the online discourse, as well as evoking the kind of excitement we all felt as children ahead of a big game for the Boys in Green. October and November of this year were a boom period for the FAI s social media, during the week of the Ireland v Scotland game they were averaging 450 new followers each day - on a typical day prior to this, they would attract 30-40 new followers. Best week November 13 20th 1800 new followers (Umbro #WornWithPride / Ireland v Scotland) They have also incorporated campaigns for Lucozade (#DiggingDeep) and their main sponsor, 3 Mobile (#SupportWorks) into their Tweets and Facebook posts over the last 12 months. Bus Eireann were promoted in a very simple, concise and effective manner in October, when the FAI posted If you re going to cheer on the Boys in Green this Saturday evening in the Aviva Stadium, why not travel aboard an Expressway or Bus Éireann coach and provided two branded photos to accompany the post. Astroturf providers Limonta also got a mention back in August after signing a new deal to provide training surfaces.
03 INTERACTION WITH FOLLOWERS The FAI should also be commended for taking the brave decision of inviting fans to leave comments on Facebook in a Reviews section. This is an optional feature, and one which the GAA and IRFU does not partake in. A quick look at this section goes some way to illustrate the polarised opinions that are out there regarding our national team and those that are in charge of it. Many reviews are glowing, but often refer to the team and the players rather than the FAI s own operations. There are many other reviews that give just 1 Star, and refer to a sense of dissatisfaction with those in charge of the domestic league, and ticket allocations to away games. When all is said and done, however, there is no doubt that the FAI do their very best to promote the sport in Ireland, and not just on the men s side either, there are plenty of updates on the underage setup as well as the womens teams. This is perhaps where the FAI are strongest in fact; there was not nearly as much coverage of the Women s Rugby World Cup on the IRFU s social media, whereas there are constant updates albeit sometimes from third-party sources on WFAI news.
04 COMMUNITY WORK There is currently a huge drive to get more people involved in soccer at the grassroots level, and there are constant updates and pictures from the Late Night Leagues, which are run with the support of the Gardai and IPB Insurances, both of whom get a mention in their posts. This programme is a great example of the FAI working with communities to create healthy alternatives to anti-social behaviour. They describe the initiative as a diversionary programme incorporating soccer leagues at various locations across Dublin since 2008. It is aimed at encouraging at risk young people to participate in meaningful activities, thus reducing anti-social behaviour in disadvantaged areas. The Late Night Leagues are open to young people aged 13-21, and take place during prime anti-social hours such as Friday nights. An average of over 1,200 young people participated, with approximately 50 in each league to date. On top of this youth-oriented project, there are links on both Facebook and Twitter to coaching programmes available to anyone who might be interested in getting involved in coaching at any level. There is a nationwide demand for underage managers and volunteers, so there is a constant demand for people who are willing to donate some of their time to this.
On a senior level, the SSE Airtricity League is covered by a separate Twitter feed, website and Facebook page. There is very little Twitter activity (just 391 Tweets in over four years), the Facebook page has just 5k followers (similar to the Twitter page), while the website is sparse. In a different world, this particular website would be the ideal testing ground for new marketing techniques, because now more than ever, the Airtricity League must be doing everything it can to entice people to come to the games and get involved with their local team. Social media is the most cost-effective and direct way for the league to do this, and they do not appear to be capitalising on the opportunity. In their defence, the season is over at the moment, but there are always ways of drumming up interest through competitions, articles, interviews and offers, as the GAA and IRFU have illustrated with their own campaigns. If the Airtricity League maintained a certain amount of synergy with the flagship page, it would increase their audience share twenty-fold overnight. The Scottish FA employs this tactic on their own social media channels to great effect, and it is something that would yield an overnight improvement. FAI TWITTER TRACKER 2014 current 79k 59,061 The FAI s digital media is a mixed bag, and fluctuates between huge amounts of daily updates, to virtually none. One issue is the serious lack of original content; they rely heavily on retweets instead of contributing their own news and opinions. An interesting recent example came on November 18th, when Ireland took on the USA. They took to Twitter to live-blog through the clash in a comprehensive manner, but there was a real lack of post-match analysis. It would have been an opportune time to reflect on the impact that debutants Cyrus Christie and David McGoldrick had on the game, but they only covered the bare minimum.
05 THE YEAR IN REVIEW Aside from the more recent work that we have mentioned, the FAI were working hard all year to give a little more insight into their day-to-day work, and have grown their following steadily throughout the whole year. They have grown by 8k Twitter followers since September 2014, with the biggest jump coming during the weeks of the European qualifier matches. Richard Dunne retired from international service in July, prompting the FAI to launch a photographic retrospective of his career in the green jersey. The piece was shared and re-tweeted thousands of times by fans of this very popular defender, who earned 80 caps for his side over a 14-year spell. Throughout the year, they also made great use of Vines, usually at training camps around the world, and usually to promote discussion on Facebook and Twitter amongst fans about who should start and how the game might go. September saw Roy Keane and Martin O Neill pay a visit to Temple Street Children s Hospital, in what was a very touching piece which was available on all forms of social media. The pair posed for pictures with parents and children, and was a great reminder about the kind of work that the FAI coaching staff have always been involved with, both now and in the past. July also saw extensive coverage of the Women s U-19 European Championships, which was well received by followers on Facebook and Twitter. FAI CEO John Delaney got involved in the Ice Bucket Challenge in August in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease Foundation. The craze was born on social media, and was easily the most successful viral campaign of 2014. There wasn t a huge amount of activity on the field in June, so it was the ideal time for the FAI to team up with McDonald s to host a competition where the prize was a day s training with veteran defender John O Shea. It was open to all clubs nationwide, and had links to an entry form on the McDonald s website. It was a great way of generating traffic for both parties.
2014 was also the year where the hashtag #COYBIG (Come On You Boys In Green) cemented its place in modern Irish parlance, after initially gaining popularity during the 2012 European Championships. It is a real asset to have a term such as this which is instantly recognisable as a theme to support the side. It is almost always trending on Twitter during matches, and streamlines a lot of FAI-related posts into the one heading. At the end of the day, social media needs to be able to drive revenue, all other forms of advertisement cost quite a lot of money, and in many cases are not as effective. Commercially, it is clear to see that the FAI are getting the most out of their own social media campaigns, and it is likely to drive the organisation forward, and hopefully we will see the team move out of the transition period we have seen since the departure of Giovanni Trapattoni, and into a new era. In terms of domestic football, however, the current situation requires continous investment. The current European qualifying campaign is going to reach its climax in 2015, and there are some make-or-break fixtures ahead for the lads. Support will be paramount in these games if we are to qualify for France 2016, and with this in mind, the FAI have been working hard to promote the final home games through social media. In a bid to ensure full houses at all these games, there is currently a huge push to sell all the remaining tickets, and the real winner here is the spectators, who can now avail of discount prices on the remaining three home games - the Hat-Trick Package, as it s known. Followers are reminded of this offer on a regular basis, and with the regularity of posts about it at the moment, there can be little doubt that those seats will be completely full by the time the fixtures come around.
06 2015 ONWARDS The SSE Airtricity League is full of potential, and there are die-hard fans around the country who give it precedent over the English Premier League. There s no denying that English football, as well as a host of other competing influences, are vying for the same market as the League of Ireland, and on the whole, they re winning. In order to remain relevant, the FAI should use some of its own financial and social clout to bring the league back into the public eye. The first step would be to include it in the FAI s own social media campaign, while increasing the traffic and activity we see on the rather under-used SSE Airtricity League social media setup. The aim should be first of all to increase awareness, then increase attendances, and finally, create interactive platforms which help maintain interest and discourse between fans and the organisation itself. As we stated earlier in this article, the SSE Airtricity League could be a hotbed for innovative marketing solutions; and those that are found to work best can be applied to the national setup and beyond. In this respect, both the FAI and SSE Airtricity League will have to enhance their digital and social channels to drive fan engagement throughout 2015 as this will be critical to sponsors, who increasingly focus on innovative activations and measurability to demonstrate a return on their investments. Implementing cutting-edge, cost-effective digital tools such as Crowdsight ensures the capture of unique, fan-generated content that keeps fans coming back for more. Additionally, exploring the potential for club-managed Youtube channels could also generate real dividends. http://www.crowdsight.co http://www.crowdsight.co
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