2019
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION
JONNY MURCH - CEO INTRODUCTION...... 01 Welcome to #SportOnSocial: a Report benchmarking the performance of Olympic International Federations (IFs) on social media. At SECTION 1 – OVERVIEW...... 02 REDTORCH we’re passionate about the positive role sport can play in improving the health and well-being of people worldwide. SECTION 2 – FACEBOOK...... 08 #SportOnSocial is our way of encouraging ‘sport’ to improve its performance on social media, and inspire more people to watch, SECTION 3 – INSTAGRAM...... 16 participate and compete. SECTION 4 – TWITTER...... 22 CHRIS ARGYLE-ROBINSON - STRATEGY DIRECTOR Hello! With the 3rd edition of #SportOnSocial I believe we’ve seen the SECTION 5 – YOUTUBE...... 29 most significant change in social media since its launch. Social media platforms are prioritising people over brands, athletes are becoming SECTION 6 – METHODOLOGY...... 34 major influencers, and there is significant adoption of messaging apps. It’s been fascinating to see how IFs are adapting their social media NOTE FROM THE EDITOR...... X strategies in response to these developments. ABOUT REDTORCH...... X ALEX ROSS - HEAD OF CLIENT PARTNERSHIPS Thanks for taking a look at #SportOnSocial! Several months of research, analysis, planning and design from various members of the REDTORCH team have gone into its production. Whatever your role within the world of sport, I really hope you find the Report insightful, interesting and - perhaps most importantly - enjoyable! We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback, so please do get in contact. Happy reading!
1 SECTION 1 #SportOnSocial 2019 Rankings Table
OVERALL – ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS RANKING RANKING RANKING RANKING INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION (IF) CHANGE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION (IF) CHANGE 2019 2018 2019 2018
FIFA International Federation of Association Football 1 10 9 IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation 19 12 -7
FIBA International Basketball Federation 2 3 1 ITF International Tennis Federation 20 34 14
WR World Rugby 3 1 -2 IHF International Handball Federation 21 24 3
ITTF International Table Tennis Federation 4 2 -2 WT World Taekwondo Federation 22 28 6
FIVB International Volleyball Federation 5 5 0 - ITU International Triathlon Union 23 18 -5
IAAF International Association of Athletics Federations 6 6 0 - FINA International Swimming Federation 24 16 -8
UCI International Cycling Union 7 11 4 ISSF International Shooting Sport Federation 25 30 5
FEI International Federation for Equestrian Sports 8 9 1 WCF World Curling Federation 26 22 -4
IJF International Judo Federation 9 8 -1 FIE International Fencing Federation 27 20 -7
FIH International Hockey Federation 10 14 4 FISA International Federation of Rowing Associations 28 27 -1
ISU International Skating Union 11 7 -4 WS World Sailing 29 31 2
BWF Badminton World Federation 12 26 14 ICF International Canoe Federation 30 33 3
UWW United World Wrestling 13 4 -9 UIPM International Modern Pentathlon Union 31 29 -2
FIS International Ski Federation 14 15 1 FIL International Luge Federation 32 25 -7
WA World Archery 15 13 -2 IBSF International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation 33 23 -10
IBU International Biathlon Union 16 21 5 AIBA International Boxing Association 34 32 -2
FIG International Federation of Gymnastics 17 17 0 - IGF International Golf Federation 35 35 0 -
IWF International Weightlifting Federation 18 19 1 2 SECTION 1 OLLIE’S HEADLINES
FIFA 1 FIBA 2 BWF RANKED #1 JUMPED TO #2 JUMPED TO #12
FIFA was the best performing IF, FIBA climbed from No.3 to No. 2 in BWF climbed from No.26 to No.12 - largely as a result of the FIFA World the Overall Rankings due to being making it the joint highest climber. Cup 2018 in Russia. FIFA ranked No.1 on Facebook and its significant No.1 on Instagram and YouTube improvement on YouTube. Its jump is attributed to ranking No. 1 having experienced significant on Twitter and No. 3 on YouTube. growth on both platforms. This success can be attributed to international events including the BWF’s Twitter account had the 2nd On Instagram, FIFA doubled their FIBA 3x3 World Cup and the 2018 highest growth rate and one of the follower count to 12.4m, whilst on FIBA Women’s Basketball World highest engagement rates due to the YouTube they grew by 5.4m fans. Cup. VICTOR China Open 2018.
ITF WT 6 ISU JUMPED TO HIGH + HIGHEST Ollie Davis #20 GROWTH RANKED WINTER IF Head of Insights ITF climbed from No. 34 to No. 20 - WT moved up the Rankings by 6 ISU remained the highest ranked With major World Championship events and the making it the joint highest climber. places, helped by high growth on winter IF, coming in at No. 2 on Instagram and Twitter. Twitter. Its Figure Skating channel 2018 Youth Olympic Games, it was fascinating The launch of ITF’s Instagram page saw substantial growth and to identify trends across social media in this was instrumental in their rise in the This comes as a result of the 2018 engagement during the 2018 World year’s #SportOnSocial report. Rankings, as was its merging of all Youth Olympic Games and having Championships in March and ITF circuit accounts into the main an additional 5th Grand Prix event the 2018–19 Grand Prix Final in page. in the same year. December. Here are some of the key headlines I’ve put together from the report.
3 10000000 12.5m 9.1% 8000000 19.7m 14.4% 6000000 58.1% 79.4m 4000000 25.2m 18.4% 2000000 SECTION 1
0 INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS (IFs) ON SOCIAL MEDIA0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
TOTAL POSTS PER PLATFORM
Year on year there was 9.7m 2% 6% 24.5m 27.4k 12% 224k POSTS little change in the 23% 51.4k proportion of content were analysed across 4 social across platforms media platforms. with Instagram 22% 93.9m and YouTube each292.8m 70% 12% 27.0k Over half of all content still representing 12% 12% of total posts. 118.2k 53% came from Twitter (53%) with many IFs using the platform to create conversations and provide Facebook TOTAL: 224,000 live updates from events. Twitter 0 10 20 30 40 50 Instagram TOTAL FANS PER PLATFORM YouTube 10000000 All pages analysed had 12.5m 9.1% 136.8m fans a combined 136.8m fans 8000000 58.1% of them on Facebook (79.4m) which also saw the highest absolute growth 19.7m 14.4% (9.5m new fans across all pages last year). 6000000 58.1% 79.4m 4000000 Instagram accounted for only 14.4% of all fans but had the 2nd highest absolute 25.2m 18.4% growth (8.7m) and the fastest growth rate (47%).
2000000 Instagram may have more total fans than Twitter next year due to the TOTAL: 136.8 million increase in monthly users and IFs creating discipline-specific pages. 0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
4
9.7m 2% 6% 24.5m 27.4k 12% 23% 51.4k
22% 93.9m 292.8m 70% 12% 27.0k 118.2k 53%
0 10 20 30 40 50 10000000 12.5m 9.1% 8000000 19.7m 14.4% 6000000 58.1% 79.4m SECTION 1 4000000 25.2m 18.4% INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS 2000000FAN GROWTH
0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 TOTAL GROWTH PER PLATFORM AVERAGE GROWTH RATE PER PLATFORM
1000000010m 9.5m 12.5m 9.1% 8.6m 80000008m Instagram 47.4% 9.7m 2% 6% 24.5m 27.4k 7m 19.7m 12% 14.4% 23% 51.4k 60000006m YouTube 38.3% 22% 93.9m 58.1% 79.4m 292.8m 70% 40000004m 12% 27.0k Twitter 16.1% 25.2m 18.4% 118.2k 53% 2.6m 20000002m Facebook 12.1%
0 Facebook Instagram YouTube Twitter 0% 100.0% 0.520% 1.030% 1.540% 2.050% 2.5 3.0 3.5
Facebook Twitter
Instagram YouTube
9.7m 2% 6% 24.5m 27.4k 12% 23% 51.4k 5
22% 93.9m 292.8m 70% 12% 27.0k 118.2k 53%
0 10 20 30 40 50 SECTION 1 INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS FAN ENGAGEMENT
The average engagement rate ENGAGEMENT RATE Engagement rate declined across all IFs declined in 2018
due to changes in Facebook’s algorithm that placed a greater emphasis in News Feed on content from friends and family rather Instagram 3.5% 10000000 than brands. 12.5m 9.1% 8000000 Facebook 0.6% 19.7m 14.4% 6000000 INSTAGRAM Twitter 0.2% 58.1% 79.4m As in other industries, Instagram had the highest engagement rate 4000000 than any other platform (3.5%). 25.2m 18.4% YouTube 0.1% 2000000 Engagement on all channels declined 0 0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% despite an increase in the number of followers as a result of difficulties in creating meaningful interactions and conversations with a large audience.
It is likely that bigger accounts attract ‘BOT’ ACCOUNTS 9.7m 2% 6% 24.5m automated ‘bot’ accounts 27.4k 12% 23% 51.4k which can negatively impact engagement rate.
22% 93.9m 292.8m 70% 12% 27.0k 118.2k 53% 6
0 10 20 30 40 50 10000000 12.5m 9.1% 8000000 19.7m 14.4% 6000000 58.1% 79.4m 4000000 25.2m 18.4%
2000000 SECTION 1
0 INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS FAN0.0 ENGAGEMENT 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
ENGAGEMENTS
Instagram generated more engagements for IFs than any other platform (292.8m), 70% of the total. There are a number of reasons for 9.7m 2% 6% 24.5m 27.4k 12% this, including: 23% 51.4k INSTAGRAM ALGORITHM 93.9m Using image recognition technology to assess content 22% based on timelines, interests and relationships 292.8m 70% 12% 27.0k has helped increase engagements as News Feed 118.2k 53% prioritises more relevant content to users.
Users spend more time on Instagram MORE TIME than any other platform.
0 10 20 30 40 50
Users spend more time on 40% Instagram than any other platform. Facebook Twitter
As Instagram is based on images and videos it is likely users will engage with its content more frequently. Instagram YouTube
7 SECTION 2 FACEBOOK TOP 10
RANKING RANKING INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION (IF) 2019 2018 CHANGE
FIBA International Basketball Federation 1 5 4
FEI International Federation for Equestrian Sports 2 10 8
FIFA International Federation of Association Football 3 18 15
FIVB International Volleyball Federation 4 7 3
WR World Rugby 5 1 -4
ITTF International Table Tennis Federation 6 2 -4
BWF Badminton World Federation 7 4 -3
FIH International Hockey Federation 8 12 4
UCI International Cycling Union 9 11 2
IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation 10 12 2
8 SECTION 2 OVERVIEW
engagements 2.3 659 per post POSTS 84% were reactions (Like, Love, Wow, Sad, Angry and Haha.) average number of daily posts produced by IFs.
12.1% 23k views per video on average average growth with FIFA and FIBA over-indexing by
6.3x and 2.8x respectively.
0.6% 38% of content were photos; average engagement rate. however, this was as high as 69% for some IFs including FIFA and FIH.
9 SECTION 2 FIBA CASE STUDY
FIBA ranked No. 1 on Facebook, jumping 4 places from last year due to high growth rates, video views and engagements across their pages.
There were spikes in September and December 2018 after multiple countries qualified for the 2019 FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup (including Tunisia, Nigeria, France and USA).
While the two most engaging posts by reactions came from the FIBA Basketball World Cup page, the top 3 posts by shares were on FIBAʼs main page all of which were archived or lifestyle images.
The top 3 posts by comments came from live video content, 2 from In 2018 alone, FIBA livestreamed the 2018 FIBA Under-16 Asian Championship and one from the “ 2018 FIBA Under-18 Asian Championship. more than 1,700 games for free on Social Media. Video is definitely “ the preferred format of our fans so we have shaped our content strategy in that direction. Rina Rasolofoniana FIBA Digital Content Manager
10 SECTION 2 IMPACT OF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
FEI ranked No. 2 on Facebook (10th last year), primarily as a result of the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, USA and the launch of 7 discipline pages.
FIFA rose 15 places to No. 3 on Facebook, largely due to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. The opening weekend of the tournament generated more new followers than any other period; the day of the Final produced the highest engagement rate.
Live video content from previous FIFA World Cup tournaments produced more comments than any other post on The World Cup Facebook page. The top 2 posts by comments on the main FIFA page were a #FridayFeeling post and a friendship celebration post on New Year’s Eve.
“Launching the FEI discipline pages on Facebook was one of the most significant adaptations to our social strategy since the FEI’s first step into social back in 2011.
This was a decision taken off the back of extensive research into our audience & target market … we have come to realise over the years that the profile of a dressage fan is very different to that of a vaulting fan ...
So, if our fans had such a range of personas & interests how could we expect to effectively communicate with them with a blanket approach on one page?”
Alice Permain FEI Social Media Editing Manager
11 SECTION 2 ENGAGEMENT
GROWTH RATE Growth Rate by Winter and Summer Sports Growth Rate by World Championship Event Growth Rate by World Championship Event
35%35 35%35 40%40 32% 31% 36% 30%30 30%30 35%35 30%30 25%25 25%25 25%25 20%20 20%20 20%20 15%15 15%15 12% 15%15 13% 12% 9% 10% 10%10 10 10%10 8%
5%5 5%5 5%5
0%0 0%0 0%0 Summer Winter No Yes Summer Summer Winter Winter No Yes No Yes
Summer IFs which held FEI received its highest monthly growth rate SUMMER 4.5x a world championship during the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games event had a growth rate in Tryon, USA. IFs had a higher growth rate 4.5x higher than summer IFs which did (32%) than winter IFs (12%). not.
Most winter IFs experienced their FIBA experienced substantial growth highest growth in November 2018 on its Facebook pages during the 2018 11 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in coinciding with major Tenerife and the 2018 FIBA 3x3 World Cup international events. in the Philippines.
12 SECTION 2 ENGAGEMENT
Tier B summer IFs generated on average 1.0% more engagements per post 1,902 2.5x than the average
this includes FIBA and FIFA. 0.7% Engagement 0.6%
Tier D summer IFs produced the 876 average 0.3% D HIGHEST engagement rate 423 418 with FEI and FIH outperforming the average. 240 0.2%
Olympic B E C D A Tiers
Engagements Per Post Engagement
13 SECTION 2 ENGAGEMENT
POSTS Posts by type Engagements Per Post Engagements Per Post by Winter and Summer Sports 2000 1,902 7 Comment 1500 54
1000 876 18 Video 44% 38% Photo Share 106 500 423 418 240 171 Reaction 17% Link 0 776 Status 1% B E C D A 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 Summer Winter
44% of Facebook content were videos (22k), 40% of which were owned videos and received 723.2m views; all other video content generated an additional 182.2m video views.
On average, IFs got 23k views per video; FIFA and FIBA over-indexed by 6.3x and 2.8x respectively.
Owned video content produced the highest engagement rate, 1.9x higher than the Facebook average.
38% of content were photos; however, this was as high as 69% for some IFs including FIFA and FIH.
WT produced more link posts (74%) than any other IF and WA had the highest proportion of status posts (8%).
On average, each IF posted 2.3x a day. BWF posted an average 7.6x a day, largely due to the high volume of content produced at the YONEX All England Open 2018 and the 2018 BWF World Championships in Nanjing. BWF were responsible for the 3rd highest engagement rate; 3 other IFs also generated high engagement rates and posted more than double the average (ITTF, WCF, FIH).
14 SECTION 2 INSIGHTS PAGE
Obviously, paid promotion is You may have seen our social sofa The beauty of social media is that also key in that whole process which was live streamed on FB it allows us to have instantaneous to maximize the impact of post game show from the side of feedback and analytics, but we can these efforts and help increase the pitch, allowing us to create only be truly effective by responding the reach of everything that amazing content working with the to these insights with an agile we do. athletes. 2018 also saw the revamp strategy and the ability to adjust our of our magazine show, working with content in real time. Whisper Films, that produced a huge amount of content away from the field of play.
Rina Rasolofoniana Nikki Symmons Alice Permain
FIBA Digital Content Manager FIH Digital Manager FEI Social Media Editing Manager
15 SECTION 3 INSTAGRAM TOP 10
RANKING RANKING INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION (IF) 2019 2018 CHANGE
FIFA International Federation of Association Football 1 6 5
FIBA International Basketball Federation 2 1 -1
WR World Rugby 3 5 2
IAAF International Association of Athletics Federations 4 12 8
UWW United World Wrestling 5 2 -3
FIVB International Volleyball Federation 6 8 2
IJF International Judo Federation 7 9 2
FEI International Federation for Equestrian Sports 8 13 5
UCI International Cycling Union 9 17 8
ITTF International Table Tennis Federation 10 4 -6
16 SECTION 3 OVERVIEW
‘Tag a Friend’ generated the highest number of 1.6 Posts comments average number of daily posts produced such as UCI’s prize to win a signed Santini by IFs. Cycling jersey or FIBA’s Molten Basketball.
47.4% IFs had ‘Highlights’ saved under growth rate 30 their Instagram profiles with Athlete Takeovers, Highlights, Q&As, Tips and Top 10s the most popular saved Instagram Stories.
of posts were 3.5% 17% Carousels average engagement rate. and produced higher engagement rates than Photos and Videos.
17 SECTION 3 FIFA CASE STUDY
FIFA was the best performing IF on Instagram, partly due to the doubling of its follower count to 12.4m. 74% of FIFA content were photos.
With 12.4m Instagram followers (and 12x more followers than the 2nd highest IF), FIFA was responsible for the top 100 posts by engagements, with an average of 5 hashtags per post.
Three of the highest posts by engagements came from paid partnerships with Budweiser, which presented Man of the Match awards during the 2018 FIFA World Cup to stars including Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Other than content from the 2018 FIFA World Cup, #HappyBirthday posts achieved substantial engagement throughout the year.
18 SECTION 3 ENGAGEMENTS
POSTS Posts by type Engagement Rate by Winter and Summer Sports 5.6% Summer 4.8% 17% Carousel Winter 4.2%
3.1% Video 29% 2.8% 2.7%
53% Photo
Carousel Photo Video
ANALYSIS Of the 27k Instagram posts, 53% were photos, 29% videos and 17% Carousel posts. However, for winter IFs the proportion of Carousel posts went up to 23%.
56% of posts were photos from IFs with a world championship event; this dropped to 36% for those without.
Carousel posts produced the highest average engagement rate for both summer and winter IFs, followed by photo content.
Of the 10 IFs that posted the highest proportion of Carousel posts, 8 had an engagement rate higher than the average.
19 SECTION 3 FAN GROWTH
After FIFA and FIBA, WR achieved the 3rd highest growth in followers, 20% coming in November 2018 (coinciding with the majority of Autumn Internationals).
UWW posted an average 4.8x a day, with an increase in content during the ABSOLUTE GROWTH BY WORLD 2018 World Wrestling Championships in Budapest and the UWW European Wrestling Championships in Dagestan. 58% of content were videos, 2.3x higher CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT than average.
195.7k UCI ranked No. 9 on Instagram, also jumping 8 places. Among the most engaging 200000200k content were viral moments from the 2018 UCI Road World Championships in Innsbruck-Tirol and fun posts that encouraged followers to tag friends or leave a comment.
150000150k IAAF climbed 8 places on Instagram to No. 4, high growth coming in August during the last 3 meets of the 2018 IAAF Diamond League. Humorous captions and voting in #AthleticsAwards generated most engagements.
100000100k Similarly, the FEIʼs use of humour significantly helped their engagement on Instagram. 61.8k
5000050k
The success of the main feed Instagram was due in large part to the high quality of our imagery, but the 0 development of Stories also allowed us to take a dramatically different approach, establishing a more No Yes youthful tone of voice to tell the live story of our events. Filters, gifs and pun-filled captions enabled us to communicate with fans in a unique way by taking advantage of the platform’s USPs. This resulted in Stories generating double the impressions of the main feed content throughout the FEI World Equestrian Games.
Alice Permain Social Media Editing Manager
20 SECTION 3 VIDEO VIEWS
VIDEO VIEWS
OTHER (19.7%) FIFA (27.7%) ANALYSIS 7.9k videos generated 449.8m views combined.
WR and FIFA were each responsible for 28% of the views, followed by FIBA (15%). UWW and ITTF accounted for 5% of total views.
65% of video views came from IFs which had a world championship event ITTF (5%) and on average these videos generated an engagement rate 1.3x higher than IFs without such an event.
UWW (5.5%) 2019 sees the continuation of this strategy along with the launch of our own OTT platform, FIH.Live and a push to grow our Instagram numbers.
FIH.Live will become a vital part of building the extremely engaged hockey community and provide us the ability to have all of the mentioned content and more in one place, giving our fans a more seamless experience.
FIBA (14.5%) WR (27.7%) Nikki Symmons FIH Digital Manager
21 SECTION 4 TWITTER TOP 10
RANKING RANKING INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION (IF) 2019 2018 CHANGE
BWF Badminton World Federation 1 24 23
ISU International Skating Union 2 4 2
FIBA International Basketball Federation 3 2 -1
UCI International Cycling Union 4 13 9
FIFA International Federation of Association Football 5 18 13
ITTF International Table Tennis Federation 6 10 4
WR World Rugby 7 7 0 -
FIVB International Volleyball Federation 8 6 -2
ITF International Tennis Federation 9 23 14
IBU International Biathlon Union 10 33 23
22 SECTION 4 OVERVIEW
5.8 engagements Tweets 83 per tweets average number of daily tweets produced on average, of which 25% were by IFs. retweets.
16.1% growth rate 1.5x 1.5x more link tweets from winter IFs (55%) than summer IFs. (36%)
0.2% average engagement rate.
23 SECTION 4 OVERVIEW
Overall, 118k tweets generated 24.5m engagements, with sports fans turning to Twitter during live events to find out what was happening in real time.
According to comScore, Twitter sees a 4.1% increase in unique visitors during key sporting events, while there is no significant uplift on any other platform.
BWF ranked No. 1 on Twitter as a result of high growth (39.8%), 2.5x higher than the average growth rate. 6% of its entire growth (1,773) came on the final day of the VICTOR China Open 2018.
BWF was responsible for the 2nd highest engagements per tweet (341) and one of the highest engagement rates, with nearly all content coming from video tweets. Among the most engaging content were highlights featuring Indonesian, Chinese and Malaysian shuttlers.
The addition of Near Live Clips and Daily Highlights on the @BWFMedia handle over that last year has provided fans great access to the performances of its stars.
ITF were a big climber, up to No. 9 on Twitter due to high growth and increased average engagements per tweet.
In addition to the Grand Slams, the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires was one of the most talked about events of the year; links to the 2018 ITF World Champions Dinner and Awards were among the most engaging.
24 SECTION 4 POSTS
POSTS by Type
25% Photo Half of all tweets featured a photo or video (25% each). Tweets with links represented 41% of the total; 9% of Link 41% tweets were text only. 9% Text Video accounted for 1.9x more of the total tweets for summer IFs than winter IFs - possibly due to available 25% Video resources.
The majority of tweets from winter IFs included links (55%), 1.5x more than the proportion of link tweets from summer IFs.
Post Engagement Rate IFs with a World Championship event produced 2.9x more 45% 41% text-only tweets than those without, mostly due to the 0.31% 0.30% nature of Twitter and the need to provide live commentary. 40% 0.29% 35% 0.25% Photo (0.31%) and Video (0.29%) tweets had the best 30% performing engagement rates, 1.8x and 1.7x higher 25% 0.20% respectively than the average. 25% 25% 20% 0.15% Link tweets had the lowest engagement rates (0.15%), 0.16% 0.15% however their purpose is to generate clicks through to the 15% 0.10% website and not necessarily likes or retweets on the post. 10% 0.05% 5% 9%
0% 0.00% Photo Video Text Link Tweet Tweet Tweet Tweet 25 SECTION 4 ENGAGEMENT
ENGAGEMENT Engament Rate by post type ISU climbed 2 places to No. 2 on Twitter; high growth 0.40% and engagement came during the 2018–19 Grand Prix 0.31% of the Figure Skating Final in Vancouver and the 2018 World Figure Skating Championships in Milan. 0.35% 0.29% Content featuring Shoma Uno and Yuzuru Hanyu 0.30% resonated with the Japanese audience and produced high levels of engagement.
0.25% 0.16% 0.15% On Twitter the ISU strives for balance. Balance between 0.20% informative and engaging content; balance between stories, photos and videos. Twitter allows us to get closer to Figure 0.15% Skating fans who are passionate about the sport and look for quality and relevancy. Listening to the fans, and providing what they want, organically creates a high engagement rate. 0.10% Andrés Durán ISU Digital Communications Coordinator 0.00% Photo Video Text Link
26 SECTION 4 FAN GROWTH
Growth Rate by Winter and Summer Sports Absolute Growth by World Championship Event Growth Rate by Olympic Tier (Summer Only)
25% 20%20 6000060k 25% 24% 17% 50.4K 5000050k 20%20% 15%15 14% 4000040k 16% 15%15% 10%10 3000030k 13% 10% 10%10% 2000020k 13.9K 9% 5%5 1000010k 5%5%
0%0 0 0 Summer Winter No Yes 0 A B C D E
SUMMER 17% boost OLYMPIC TIER B HIGHEST GROWTH RATE Summer IFs experienced a combined 2.6m growth in followers, equating to Olympic Tier B sports had the highest growth rate (24%) a 17% boost. followed by Tier C sports (16%). SUMMER 1.8x more engagements WINTER 14% increase 1.4x more engagements 14% On average, summer IFs generated IFs with a world championship event Winter IFs grew by only 44.2k 1.8x more engagements per tweet received 1.4x more engagements per followers, but this was still a 14% (121) than winter IFs (66). increase. tweet than IFs without one. 27 SECTION 4 THE TWITTER PURGE
Twitter Followers - The Twitter Purge
200000200k
150000150k
100000100k
5000050k
0
Followers -50000-50k 01/07/2018 02/07/2018 03/07/2018 04/07/2018 05/07/2018 06/07/2018 07/07/2018 08/07/2018 09/07/2018 10/07/2018 11/07/2018 12/07/2018 13/07/2018 14/07/2018 15/07/2018 16/07/2018 17/07/2018 18/07/2018 19/07/2018 20/07/2018 21/07/2018 22/07/2018 23/07/2018 24/07/2018 25/07/2018 26/07/2018 27/07/2018 28/07/2018 29/07/2018 30/07/2018 31/07/2018 -100000-100k
-150000-150k
-200000-200k
-250000-250k
-300000-300k
In July 2018, Twitter announced its effort to ‘build trust and encourage healthy conversation’ by locking accounts that detected sudden changes in account behaviour.
On average, IFs underwent a 1% decline in Twitter followers after its purge in July.
The Twitter purge drew attention to an important metric that is frequently ignored engagement rate, calculated as followers divided by number of engagements.
The Twitter purge ensured stakeholders focused on engaging their audience rather than relying on vanity metrics such as follower counts.
28 SECTION 5 YOUTUBE TOP 10
RANKING RANKING INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION (IF) 2019 2018 CHANGE
FIFA International Federation of Association Football 1 4 3
FIH International Hockey Federation 2 19 17
BWF Badminton World Federation 3 16 13
IAAF International Association of Athletics Federations 4 15 11
FIBA International Basketball Federation 5 18 13
ITTF International Table Tennis Federation 6 2 -4
IJF International Judo Federation 7 12 5
WR World Rugby 8 1 -7
WT World Taekwondo Federation 9 11 2
FEI International Federation for Equestrian Sports 10 3 -7
29 SECTION 5 OVERVIEW
38.3% growth rate 0.1% average engagement rate. on average.
26.1k engagements video views 200 per video
4.9x more video
4.9x content produced by summer IFs than winter IFs.
30 SECTION 5 OVERVIEW
We are very proud of the results we achieved in 2018 – we clocked up our 100,000th YouTube subscriber as we entered
“ into 2019 but are conscious this is only the beginning. Our
FIFA ranked No. 1 on YouTube due to high primary goal in 2019 will be to revamp our YouTube channel growth and video views. The account grew by 5.4m fans, of which 81% came during the and make it the number one reference in terms of athletics 2018 FIFA World Cup. Similarly, 89% of video videos worldwide. We hope the World Championships“ in views (985.8m) came during the tournament. Doha will help deliver increased engagement across all our IAAF jumped to No. 4 on YouTube, rising from No. social channels as we work more closely with our athletes, 15 last year. Its growth rate (70%) was the 4th helping them to tell their stories. highest, and it was also responsible for the 4th highest engagements per video. On average, each video produced 16.7k views. The most watched video (3.8m views) featured Laura Arcoleo a flashback from 2012 with Usain Bolt at the IAAF Social Media and IAAF Diamond League. Fan Engagement Senior Manager
August was one of the best-performing months for IAAF on YouTube with the Diamond League Finals in Zürich and Brussels. Consistent thumbnails on each video help inform viewers of the content and was a likely reason IAAF had one of the highest average views per video.
FIBA jumped 13 places to No. 5 on YouTube, their commitment to live-streaming games paying off with a 48% year-on-year increase in video views. Two of the most-watched videos featured the Philippine’s team at the FIBA U18 Asian Championship 2018 in the Semi Finals and Final.
31 SECTION 5 VIDEO VIEWS
Views per video by Olympic Tier
79.4k 8000080k Summer IFs produced on average 4.9x more video content 7000070k than winter IFs and 8.2x more views per video (29.1k vs 3.5k).
The FIFA World Cup Final between France and Croatia was 60k 60000 the 4th most watched video (29.5m) after: Match 3, Portugal vs Spain (68.6m); Match 50, France vs Argentina 5000050k (35.0m), and Match 43, Korea Republic vs Germany (31.5m). (TIER B)
40k 40000 Excluding FIFA World Cup content (past and present), the most watched video – Mohamed Salah’s Puskas Award- 3000030k winning goal – garnered 2.9m views. (TIER B)
FIBA generated over 1.9m video views on 16 November 2000020k 13.5k 2018 due to #ThisIsMyHouse content produced and 9.9k repurposed for participating nations of the FIBA Basketball 10k 0.8k World Cup 2019. 10000 0.4k
00 A B C D E Olympic Tier
32 SECTION 5 SUBSCRIBER GROWTH
GROWTH RATE IFs with a World Championship event had a growth rate 1.3x higher than those without. Growth Rate by Winter and Summer Sports FIH climbed 17 places to No. 2 on YouTube, primarily due to the 2018 Menʼs Hockey 48% 50%50 World Cup in India. The tournament accounted for 48% of 101.5k new subscribers and 28% of total video views (3.3m). A live stream of the opening ceremony generated 40%40 591.5k views, more than any other video, with highlights of the opening game of the 2018 Menʼs Hockey Champions Trophy between India and Pakistan generating the 2nd highest video views (429.8k). The tournament represented 23% of total video views 30% 27% 30 for FIH.
20%20 BWF ranked No. 3 on YouTube, jumping 13 places. In addition to the 2nd highest number of YouTube subscribers (827.5k), it had the 2nd highest growth (320.5k) and 10%10 2nd highest views per video (36.2k).
The highest day of growth (8.0k subscribers) came during the YONEX All England Open 0%0 Summer Winter 2018. 17% of growth came in September as a result of 2 high-profile tournaments in quick succession: the China Open and the Japan Open. The most watched video, the Men’s Doubles Finals at the YONEX All England Open 2018 got 2.5m video views.
Growth Rate by World Championship Event The popularity of the sport in Asia was highlighted by the top 50 videos by views all featuring at least one shuttler from the region. BWF INSIGHT - Overall, our aim is to
50 bring our athletes and fans closer together. 50% 44.4% In 2017 we took the decision to revamp our YouTube channel instead of building our own 40%40 “ 33.7% OTT, even though many federations were doing this. We felt the timing was not right for us yet, and we had an audience there that needed looking after and fed the right 30%30 content as opposed to moving them to yet another platform. We then struck a deal with YouTube, which was extremely helpful to our strategy. Along with other strategic moves, 20%20 “we used their new pay per view feature for our LIVE into dark territories and territories with broadcasters in order to capitalise on exposure for our content across different 10%10 platforms. - Nikki Symmons, FIH Digital Manager
0%0 No Yes 33 SECTION 6 METHODOLOGY
METHODOLOGY
All stats and results used in this #SportOnSocial Report were measured from 1 March 2018 – 31 January 2019.
As an ever-increasing number of IFs use separate pages/handles for specific disciplines and for world championship events, it has been important to measure performance of IFs across these pages.
Until now, our methodology has been based on a 2-metric calculation of number of fans and engagement rate. However, we wanted to take even more metrics into account to ensure this would be our most significant and in-depth Report: performance is now measured on 8 metrics per channel.
• Fans
• Absolute Growth
• Growth Rate
• Engagement Rate
• Engagements
• Engagements per Post
• Views
• Views per Video
Performance was calculated through an analysis of 4 social media channels – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube – which were then positioned in our Rankings Table.
We were unable to see data regarding impressions, so Engagement Rate was calculated by dividing the number of engagements by the number of fans on each platform.
As open source data was used, it cannot be determined if engagements were based on Organic or Paid impressions.
“DISCLAIMER: In referencing this #SportOnSocial report for your own purposes you acknowledge and accept that the measurements and analysis cannot be guaranteed by REDTORCH and REDTORCH disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including warranties for merchantability, and fitness for any particular purpose that you may use the Report for.”
34 SECTION 7 ABOUT REDTORCH
WHO?
We’re an independent digital communications agency that turns data into insight to engage target audiences in the most authentic, innovative and creative way.
WHY?
To inspire action. We deliver targeted digital campaigns that enable sports organisations to build sustainable relationships and share experiences, values and opportunities with millions of people worldwide.
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