WePlay win “Leaders in Content Creation Award” alongside partners FIFA
WePlay
15th Oct 2020
WePlay are proud to have been recognised alongside our partners FIFA, as ‘Leaders in Content Creation’, for our work together on the #WorldCupAtHome campaign.
The Leaders Sports Awards, which is in its 6th year, showcases the most innovative companies that have continued to push the boundaries of the sports industry forward over the past year. The Content Creation Award in particular, recognises those that have created the most engaging content in a year that sport as we know it has changed markedly.
Sports competitions continue to be played behind closed doors, fans have to support from afar and everyone is adapting to new digital-first experiences. Prior to such disruption, FIFA had not planned to stage a FIFA World Cup in 2020. Neither had it expected billions of people across the world to be confined to their homes during lockdown.
In a context like no other, the WorldCupAtHome was a digital content campaign like no other. Agile and ambitious, it opened up the FIFA World Cup archive for a new generation, bringing full-match replays to life in unprecedented ways.
The starting point was less a strategic objective, than a simple question: “What does the world need from FIFA right now?”. As the governing body of the world’s game, FIFA resolved to use the full range of its assets and reach with two clear aims:
- To reinforce the crucial ‘stay at home’ global public health message, by connecting with as many football fans as possible
- With live football on pause, to entertain and engage a global fanbase, bringing fun, distraction, nostalgia and strengthening bonds of community, at a time of challenge and uncertainty in fans’ lives
In total, 32 FIFA World Cup classic games were premiered on FIFA’s YouTube channel. The campaign placed fans at the centre, giving them the power to define the match schedule by taking to Twitter to vote for the matches they wanted to see. Fans could also engage with the campaign and the wider football community during the match through YouTube’s Super Chat, which hosted match-specific debate and half-time quizzes.
For both FIFA and WePlay, the WorldCupAtHome was a chance to experiment and fast-track innovation in the areas of fan engagement and digital content distribution.
We’re delighted to report that the campaign generated 500 million impressions, 100 million video views and 14 million engaged users.
Huge credit goes to the FIFA team, who had the foresight to conceive the idea and we are delighted to have been jointly-recognised by Leaders for our involvement in the project.
