#WorldCup

July 3, 2014

|In Advertising, Blog, Lifestyle, Online Marketing and Social Media

As the World Cup goes into a lull until the quarterfinals, I thought I would explore what FIFA has done to make a soccer (or “futbol”) tournament the most popular event in the world. With more mentions and hashtags than the Sochi Olympics, the Oscars and the Superbowl combined; the World Cup has taken over social media.

If you’re not already checking into one of the numerous social ‘hubs’ on Twitter, Mashable, TSN or FIFA, then you’ve already noticed the oh-so-clever, daily, Google ‘doodles’.

For the lucky ones who get to watch at work, home or at local restaurants, you get to see the creative commercials which sponsors have spent billions on. Yes, billions, and it’s for good reason.

For example, ESPN online had a record-breaking 1.7 million concurrent viewers during the USA vs. Germany match. Along with that, the first two weeks garnered over 300 million tweets. Using the #WorldCup hashtag, along with fans cheering for their favorite countries (#BRA, #MEX, #GER, etc.), it made it easier for advertisers to target their audience.

As a matter of fact, 75% of viewers are also engaging on social media while watching the match. Analytics company, Sysomos, actually created a global hashtag tracker to show which countries are talking about #WorldCup the most.