How brands can join the football conversation on Twitter

Football is a huge passion for people on Twitter and with less than 100 days to go until the World Cup begins in Russia that passion will be at its peak. Fans will turn to Twitter throughout the tournament to see the latest video clips and join the conversation. That means there is a significant opportunity for brands to win, and to help them do that we’ve put together these seven tips.

Twitter is a mobile first and video platform that has experienced a 124% year on year growth in football video clips being shared [1]. The reasons for that are clear. It is home to broadcasters, journalists, pundits, clubs, and more than 15 million football fans in the UK who combine to make football the most Tweeted about topic in the country.

That massive audience is likely to grow even larger as the World Cup gets closer and excitement rises. We already know, that as many as 90% of Twitter sports fans plan to watch the World Cup [1], and that at the time, the last tournament became the most Tweeted about in history [2]. This underscores how football happens on Twitter like no other platform, and makes it the best place to follow the World Cup.

1. First View

Using First View on Twitter is a way to ensure your campaign gets noticed. It’s a highly effective 24-hour timeline takeover. It spotlights your campaign and ensures when users in the UK & Ireland first visit Twitter on their phone or twitter.com, the top ad slot in their timeline will be your Promoted Video. @Samsungmobile recently used First View to launch its new S9 phone to great effect:

2. Emoji targeting

People love emojis and the sense of fun they bring to Tweets. As many as 95% of internet users have sent an emoji at some point and there are over 10 billion emojis sent each day, according to Brandwatch. During the World Cup people will be expressing themselves in emojis in greater numbers as they celebrate and commiserate with each other during the tournament. Brands can target those emojis, which drive large amounts of conversation, to reach those football fans with emoji targeting now available in the Twitter ads dashboard.

3. Sponsorship packages

Our real-time clips with official broadcaster ITV are sold out, but the good news is that there is a great deal of football happening on Twitter between now and the World Cup. We have other World Cup themed sponsorship packages and real-time clips available around the upcoming England friendlies as well as the FA Cup and Premier League.  

We will also have a variety of original content being created by a number of our partners around the tournament. This will include insights and buzz around the build up to the event. All of this great content is available for brands to get involved in and associate themselves with what will be the biggest sporting event of the year.

4. Sponsored Video Website Cards

Video website cards are hugely popular and effective at driving click-throughs to websites and loads of brands have already taken advantage of them. What our sponsorship team can now offer is Sponsored versions of these. As you can see in the example from Sky Sports and @bet365 below.

5. Video Poll

Everyone loves a poll. They drive fantastic levels of engagement and polls and football go together. Add video into the mix and you are onto a winner. This is a great example from @VirginMedia. It used a video poll to drive engagement around the footballing drama that encompasses #DeadlineDay. And here's another brilliant example from @McDonaldsUK that generated over 331,000 votes.

6. The Power of Niche

Niche is Twitter’s global creator division, and its job is to connect those creators with brands to get their message out in a way that strikes the best possible note with the target audience.

There are lots of great Niche examples out there including how @Vauxhall worked with a team of creators during the 2016 Euros. More recently Niche helped launch Season 2 of Amazon’s #TheGrandTour in a globetrotting extravaganza with the help of some of the UK and the world’s biggest social creators and some Tweet-powered cars. 

7. Auto-Response API Campaigns

We’ve recently seen these used incredibly effectively to remind people to tune in to live events, regardless of whether it’s a forthcoming livestream or the start of a new season of everyone’s favourite show. Auto-response campaigns are a brilliant creative tool.

You can see another example of this in action right now. Head over to @TwitterMktgUK to engage with our Tweet to make sure you get some of the best football and brand Tweets sent straight into your at mentions throughout the World Cup.

Sources:
[1]  MediaCom Sports & Entertainment deepdive, December 2017 [2] Global Twitter Internal.