Live stream matches, game day filters and in-stadium virtual reality. The sports world can teach us a lot about creating social content that captures the immediacy, excitement and conversation fans crave. But the lesson extends beyond the live and interactive social content made by sports marketers.
It’s the way sports thinks about authenticity in social content.
As technology advances have enabled the growth of rich, social experiences, people have become more hungry for fresh, engaging content at all times. They want to consume and share stories and images with people in the social networks they’ve built, and they want to interact with brands on social media through authentic stories and images.
Authenticity in content matters today. In a recent survey, content created by consumers was said to be 3x more authentic than content created by a brand, and also more influential in purchasing decisions. It breaks through the morass of self-serving advertising messages and stale content that audiences have to wade through every day to connect with brands. Without authentic stories that speak to them, people simply tune out. Connection lost.
However, for brands everywhere, it’s a daily battle to create and distribute enough authentic social content to keep that connection alive.
The sports world knows a secret that can help—a secret about how to build authentic social content at scale and stay connected to people:
Activate and collaborate with the most important voices within your own community to help tell your story.
If you’re a brand marketer—in retail, finance, travel or any other industry—identify and harness the community members that know you best and give them the opportunity to tell your story! Let them engage more deeply and share their own experiences with your brand—with their community and yours—to amplify your story in ways you can only imagine.
It’s the power of real people telling real stories.
COPA90, the home of football fan culture, needed a way to cultivate content during the UEFA European Championships. The company wanted to capture the experience from the fan perspective, across 24 markets, and maximize engagement during and between matches to keep excitement high throughout the tournament.
How did COPA90 do it?
You guessed it: by building authentic social content within its very own fan community.
Together with Greenfly’s community collaboration platform, COPA90 mobilized its most passionate fans to create and share content that reached 21 million fans during that one, month-long initiative.
Now, with over 1 billion content views, along with more than 1,000 creators in over 50+ countries, COPA90 is the world’s largest independent soccer media business and continues to harness its community creator network for major events like the FIFA 2018 World Cup.
Real people. Real stories. Real reach.
COPA90’s experience offers a roadmap for all marketers looking for compelling social content, by developing and mobilizing your own community to tell fresh, authentic brand stories at scale. A community that transcends campaigns to become an ongoing, active voice for your brand.
This approach not only accelerates content production, distribution and audience connection.
It can transform a brand.
And that’s a secret worth sharing.
To learn more about COPA90 and their experience, please reach out!
We’ll share:
•Tips to go beyond paid partnerships for capturing content
•Ways to develop and mobilize your own community for content authenticity
•Methods to build relationships easily with people across locations
•Ideas to engage and activate consumers that drive your business
We’re here to help and advise, anytime.
