Case Study/ ESPN FC

The underground campaign that scored big

ESPN FC Case Study/ ESPN FC

At a Glance/ The Story/ ESPN FC ESPN FC & TFL

Background Key Results The Goal

ESPN The World Cup is the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world. The 2014 event, held in Brazil, was an eagerly anticipated event with major sponsorship from some of the largest organizations on the planet, ESPN is a digital sports leader in the UK, operating websites and apps • Sparked engagement with including Adidas, Coca-Cola and VISA. Teams – and fans – from all corners of the earth travelled to the country. that deliver a range of multi-media content to sports fans. ESPN.co.uk – key demographic The world’s spotlight was on Brazil. the brands central offering in the region covers most sports, including ESPN FC wanted to capitalize on the mountains of excitement, enjoyment and enthusiasm from people all over the planet football, cricket, rugby, tennis, golf, boxing, F1 and others. • Identified where on the Underground the social campaign to hear about the matches taking place in Brazil. Other, sport-specific websites under ESPN’s stewardship include ESPNcricinfo was best received and ESPN FC, which are available in app form, as is the award-winning ESPN FC’s main goal over the period of the World Cup was to increase awareness of ESPN FC and to drive football ESPN UK app. • Achieved over 60% positive mentions fans to www.espnfc.co.uk for the latest news, scores and team information, helping build the profile of the brand about the campaign across the globe. With a mandate to serve sports fans wherever they are, whenever they want it, ESPN’s websites and apps carry the latest news, live scores, video, tables, fantasy games and more. Featuring ESPN’s global roster of talents from across The Challenge the entire sporting spectrum, the brand has enjoyed significant growth in the past 12 month in key user engagement metrics and continues to do so. ESPN is a ESPN FC likes to go the extra mile to serve sports fans, anytime and anywhere. sports television channel in the and Ireland owned by BT Group With the World Cup being held outside the UK, many of the games were being played at inconvenient times for sports fans under licence from American sports broadcaster ESPN Inc. in the UK to watch them live on TV, as the matches were being played while people were still at work, travelling home, or very late in the evening. The channel was operated by ESPN from 2009 to 2013, when it was sold to BT and became part of its BT Sport package focusing on international sporting ESPN FC wanted to find a way to get the games to sports fans wherever they were during the World Cup. events, predominantly American sports. Programming is available in standard definition and high definition formats. The campaign The Solution ESPN FC reached over During the World Cup 2014, ESPN FC estimated that 100 million people would travel on the London Underground. ESPN FC is the football-dedicated division of ESPN, providing rolling coverage of the world’s most popular sport. Formerly ESPN Soccernet, The majority of London's Underground stations do not have internet access, meaning fans were kept in the dark with ESPN FC is a multi-media football website that currently has Global, UK, 2,000,000 no access to the scores during vital points in the tournament. USA and Spanish editions. people on With their mantra of ‘serving sports fans anytime and anywhere’, ESPN FC had the ingenious idea of bringing the results The site offers news, live scores, fantasy football, , stats, interactive polls and of World Cup games to those travelling on the London Underground. more, ESPN FC showcases the best in world football coverage. Through ESPN FC Transport For London (TFL) are a local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London. TV, the website hosts football-related video, utilising the brands roster of global football experts, journalists and contributors, providing insight, analysis and ESPN FC partnered with TFL to display game results on announcement boards at 150 stations across London – a media first. reaction to football around the globe. No brand had ever displayed messages on TFL’s boards before.

Case Study/ ESPN FC Underground Results WATERLOO WATERLOO Searching for the online reception of a campaign when there is no internet reception can be tricky. Using Brandwatch, ESPN FC tracked 3,438 online mentions of the campaign in the first 7 days. This figure is of course limited due to the fact that GOAL most commuters have no access to WiFi or internet whilst on the Excelling London Underground, but indicative of the residual engagement of the campaign and the fact that so many remained excited about the campaign Underground/ when returning to street level – enough to share it online.

"Of the mentions relating Serving sports fans anytime and anywhere. to the live coverage over 60% of them were An Underground - breaking partnership. positivemuch higher than for most marketing campaigns."

Charles Boss, Head of Marketing, ESPN FC UK. Influencing The Right In order to truly understand the The Right Line Commentating effectiveness of this campaign, Demographic ESPN FC used Brandwatch Analytics Finding out where commuters are To Commuters to measure how many mentions other tweeting can be just as important The ESPN FC & TFL World Cup During the campaign, London London Underground-based projects as what they are tweeting. campaign was aimed at the commuting received over a similar time frame. commuters travelling during the masses. However, ESPN FC wanted to ESPN FC utilized Brandwatch’s advanced World Cup final were able to follow ensure that they were also reaching the Remarkably, the recent decision Boolean Queries to listen to conversation Germany’s 1-0 win over specific demographic segments relevant to introduce Euro cash points in specifically from each tube line during thanks to ESPN FC’s live commentary to their brand. London tube stations generated the campaign. and analysis at Waterloo Station. only 218 mentions in the first week, Using the Brandwatch Demographic whilst commuters mentioning Virgin The Central Line proved to generate The game was relayed over the public feature, ESPN FC were able to identify Media’s new London Underground the largest volume of conversation of address system at London’s busiest train which mentions about the campaign Wifi was only slightly better with 473 ESPN FC’s World Cup updates, with station by ex-Chelsea defender Scott were from Sales, Marketing and PR mentions over 7 days. 40% of tweets coming from that line, Minto and Tottenham Hotspur Assistant professionals, a key audience they whereas the Northern and Jubilee lines Head Coach Steffen Freund. were attempting to target. When placed in this context, ESPN FC’s followed with 27% and 23% of the chat. World Cup updates were mentioned Using Brandwatch’s sentiment analysis In terms of all positive sentiment about the over 7 times more than these similar These insights could prove to be ESPN FC were able to gauge public campaign 18% came from Sales, Marketing campaigns, proving they had the invaluable to ESPN FC when planning reaction during the commentary. Of the and PR professionals, and just 0.4% of loudest fans and the campaign was future advertising campaigns mentions relating to the live coverage over negative sentiment came from that industry. well received. on the London Underground. 60% of them were positive, a figure much higher than for most marketing campaigns. Those tweets went on to help influence five other important people in that sector, “...Brandwatch was able to demonstrate that, using their More significantly, ESPN FC didn’t receive each with over 1,000 followers. Using a single negative mention for their World Brandwatch, ESPN FC were able to Impression score, the campaign reached a potential Cup Final commentary: pretty impressive measure that those five tweets alone 2,363,921 people on Twitter...” considering many of those commuting reached nearly 15,000 followers. Charles Boss, during football’s signature game aren’t Head of Marketing, ESPN FC UK. the biggest fans of the sport. “ Thanks to this innovative and well-managed campaign, unique visitors to ESPN FC’s website increased by 25% year on year“

Charles Boss Head of Marketing ESPN (UK) About/

ESPN FC TFL Brandwatch

ESPN FC is the football-dedicated Transport for London manages Brandwatch is one of the world’s division of ESPN, providing rolling London’s buses, Tube network, leading social media listening and coverage of the world’s most Docklands Light Railway, analytics technology platforms. popular sport. Formerly ESPN Overground and Tramlinks, It gathers millions of online Soccernet, ESPN FC is a in addition to Barclays Cycle conversations every day and provides multi-media football website Hire, London River Services, users with the tools to analyze them, that currently has Global, UK, Victoria Coach Station, the empowering brands and agencies to USA and Spanish editions. Emirates Air Line and London make smarter, data-driven business Transport Museum. decisions. The site offers news, live scores, Every day around 24 million journeys The company grew over 100% fantasy football, blogs, stats, are made across TfL’s network, and year-on-year in 2013, has won awards interactive polls and more, ESPN FC their job is to keep the city moving. for its technology and renowned showcases the best in world football TfL invest in the latest technology to corporate culture, and regularly wins coverage. Through ESPN FC TV, the make their services easier to plan and accolades for its impressive growth. website hosts football-related video, use, and make all of their travel data The Brandwatch platform is used by utilising the brands roster of global freely available to other organisations, over 1000 brands and agencies, football experts, journalists and so that they can create maps and including Whole Foods, Verizon, contributors, providing insight, apps as well. Whirlpool, Pepsico, British Airways, analysis and reaction to football Sky, and Dell. around the globe. For more information, please visit www.tfl.gov.uk Now You Know. For more information, please visit For more information, please visit www.espnfc.co.uk www.brandwatch.com

@brandwatch | Brandwatch | Brandwatch Page