We implemented a compelling digital strategy to meet content objectives, increase reach through owned, earned and media tactics, and helped FIFA build a closer relationship with its fans.

During the research phase, we uncovered actionable insights to guide creative processes and ensure content outputs met various goals.

Our define-and-refine strategy included activities such as:

• a channel audit to comprehensively understand FIFA’s audience and content performance
• setting clear KPIs and content measurement criteria to assess the performance

Audience insights identified key moments in fans’ lives, and across the football and cultural calendars, to boost content performance across platforms.

Meanwhile, we devised five-core workstreams that would position the governing body as the No1 social destination for global football fans:

• social audience intelligence, to inform and improve content development and output
• content strategy and planning, to maximise value and impact across FIFA content modes and moments
• drive innovation and maximise content by working closer and smarter with platform partners
• owned, earned and paid media tactics to increase reach
• strengthening FIFA’s relationship with fans via a community management strategy

Each workstream was an integral component of our ‘surface strategy’, which shifted thinking away from platform-led objectives to align with how modern football fans consume content at a surface level.

We executed this across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch and Spotify, and delivered content that engaged fans globally.

When first partnering with Yokohama Tyres, we identified key target audiences to produce an engagement-led, social-first content strategy. This was the key to driving significant growth in global brand and product awareness.

Our objective was to engage, excite and delight audiences around the world, telling the brand’s story through the lens of football. The strategy involved owned and paid channels, and was activated across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Content was designed to reach a global audience of fans. With an ‘always-on’ approach, we developed digital and social campaigns around Chelsea fixtures, player birthdays, seasons and cultural celebrations. We also rewarded fans’ participation with free tickets and merchandise.

We analysed Utah Jazz’s digital data points across social, web and CRM to collate audience learnings, and identify crossovers, gaps and opportunities. This helped us understand:

• Deterministic data – purchase behaviour, subscription history, log-in/survey data
• Third-party data – browsing behaviour, search patterns, content consumption
• Demographic data – age and gender, location, profession/education

We know that engaged fans drive increased response so we defined the pathway to purchase and identified high-value audiences – including local, national and global fans.

Social growth focuses primarily on Facebook and TikTok. We run a ‘glocal’ campaign strategy to engage non-English speaking markets, using translated copy and localised assets.

To boost ticket sales, we target rich data segments with paid social and search campaigns to drive ‘fear of missing out’ by showcasing epic scenes fans can only experience in-person. This involves eye-popping creative in various ad formats, with conversion through response-optimised creative assets.

To boost merchandise sales, data-led planning and use of best-in-class biddable tech platforms optimises and serves ads in real-time to key audiences.

Paid media drives awareness and enquiries of summer camps, with data-led content and messaging that spans the full conversion funnel.

With these insights in hand, we implemented an effective customer acquisition strategy that would deliver paid subscriptions and reduce high levels of churn.

Using first-party data, our ‘connected audiences’ and a prospecting set of engaged combat sports fans, we activated global media campaigns that were both personalised and tailored to individual local markets.

Campaigns were optimised and developed through local language, which included markets such as Russia and Japan, whereby localised assets and creative were developed and deployed.

We also identified new strategic opportunities in countries with a large MMA fanbase and enough disposable income to afford the product, namely Mexico, Poland and Kazakhstan.

With the overarching theme of ‘outplay them all’, social sits at the heart of our strategy for acquisition and organic growth. We deliver a strong content and engagement strategy to grow awareness, drive fan engagement and facilitate participation in key global markets.

Calendar planning is key. It enables us to co-ordinate content output and community management globally. Using available content libraries as well as WePlay’s in-house creative studio, we strategically plan content with the clear objectives of driving event awareness, engaging users to the website and boosting sign-ups.

Serving as an extension of the Neymar Jr’s Five global communications team, we liaise with all 63 countries, co-ordinating content output to provide each market with social video, animated and static creative, copy translations and localised strategies. This commercial growth partnership helps the brand build and monetise relationships with new and existing audiences.

With pandemic restrictions preventing supporters from attending matches, AC Milan needed to find new ways to grow.

Our solution was a best-in-class D2C strategy to convert interest into action and build loyal audiences.

We unearthed insights revealing the club enjoyed a 170% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS) for social followers compared to general audiences. Social followers also spent twice as much online at the AC Milan store.

We also discovered purchase likelihood was increased by fan engagement. Those who downloaded the AC Milan app, for example, showed a 2.5x higher conversion rate than social followers.

Our commercial growth efforts aimed to convert new audiences into social followers, and social followers into loyal fans:

• Ticketing strategy to bring fans back to the San Siro, using CRM, first-party data, search and social engagement, and creative visuals with strong CTAs
• Merchandising with full-funnel audiences to drive engagement, traffic and sales through the online store via paid social campaigns on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok
• Social growth efforts on the club’s Facebook, Instagram and TikTok channels to increase the size of commercially valuable engager segments
• Amplifying club content – MilanTV on Amazon and the Racconti Rossoneri podcast – utilising paid media to drive traffic to official landing pages.