‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. I am sure you have heard this phrase before. No I am not talking about the great circuses of the world. I am talking about World Cup 2014 in Brazil.
The World Cup, a place where dreams are made. We shout at the villains and cheer for our heroes. We see teams rise and empires fall, we are joyous in victory and dejected in defeat. At the World Cup on the field we see champions crowned and losers frown. Yes the World Cup is the greatest theatre and drama, it’s a Greek tragedy and Shakespeare Comedy all rolled into one! The beautiful game takes place in the minds and hearts of fans where now Social Media is the perfect forum to express these feelings.
Why Social Media is so important in this year’s World Cup? Well there is a very simple answer, Social Media is ‘Social’. Sport is the most extreme expression and definition of the word ‘Social’. Sport is all about engaging with each other and being part of a community. Social Media is the ultimate platform for a fan to express their passion and love for their team.
In addition the World Cup is a perfect barometer to measure how much Social Media has evolved. Brands and fans started to utilise Social Media in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Because the tournament is every 4 years, its gives us an opportunity to take a snap shot of how much Social Media has grown.
Here is some statistics on Social Media and the World Cup
- There has already been 300 million World Cup related tweets since the tournament kicked off (we are half way through). That’s twice the tweets in the 2012 Olympic games.
- In 2010 the Digital Marketing spend was 20% of the marketing budget. In 2014 the marketing spend is up to $1.3 billion with an increased share going too Digital
- In 2010 during the World Cup Facebook had 500 million monthly active users and Twitter had 200 million monthly active users. In 2014 Facebook has 1.28 billion monthly active users and Twitter has 255 million
- Its has been reported that there have been more tweets in the run up to the 2014 World Cup than the whole 2010 tournament
- In the World Cup Final of 2010 there was 3,051 Tweets per second when Spain scored the winning goal. In 2014 there was a staggering 5,077 Tweets per second when Clint Dempsey of the USA scored against Portugal. To put this into perspective, the USA vs Portugal was a group game!
- FIFA’s official Facebook page has grown from 4 million likes in January to nearly 33 million in June
These statistics are a brief reflection of how fast Social Media is evolving and how important it is to adapt to changing marketing channels. Tune in next week as we examine how we can adapt the lessons from the 2014 World Cup into our Social Media strategies.
To learn how New World Digital can help you build your brand on social media simply Contact Us.
