IRL is Euro 2024’s best social platform
Footballco’s Paul Rayment reflects on why the Euros saw the welcome return of IRL and experiential investment as part of The Drum’s Sports & Fitness Focus.
International football tournaments are remembered for many things. They could be remembered for the mascot, an individual performance, a legendary player headbutting an opponent, or a fan sticking a flare where you should never stick a flare. In my career working in PR across football and media, more than a few times, I’ve found myself labeling a tournament in a press release as the ‘insert popular media platform/format’ World Cup or Euros. I’m not proud of it, but it’s part of the job.
In the past, we’ve had TikTok tournaments, vertical video World Cups, and other events where the alliteration didn’t quite work so well - Facebook Live World Cup, anyone? Kicking off 2024 and looking ahead to this year’s Euros, I was trying to predict what I’d be writing for Euro 2024 as most of the social platforms had matured and already been the media of choice for at least one previous tournament.
At the same time, the Footballco Insights team was surveying fans across Europe about what they wanted and expected from brands and media this summer. There were the usual demands, and, as you’d expect, different media and marketing preferences went up and down with age. But what stood out was an overwhelming feeling across all fans surveyed that their country felt divided, and the Euros could help bring it together.
Football is often touted as a unifying force, and while I don’t totally disagree with that statement, I also think it divides a lot as well. What international tournaments do, though, on the whole, is bring a country’s fandom together - it doesn’t matter if you’re United or City; when England plays, you’re backing the same team. This isn’t just true of regular fans; it also brings along the main-eventers who only tune in for the big internationals with the die-hards who travel home and away.
Another stand-out finding was the degree to which fans want to experience the Euros together. 86% of fans told us they’d prefer to follow Euro 2024 with others in person. This was 4% higher for Gen Z fans. Clearly, digital is still king, and little can compete with its reach, targeting and other benefits. As a publisher that engages with more than 800 million fans online every month, we know this better than many.
Also, fans have always enjoyed football together. Look at the photos for 1966; not a phone in sight, just fans living in the moment!
But in 2024, it means more. Since the pandemic, numerous pieces of research have shown a tendency for people, especially the young, to seek experiences over products and want to be placed in real life with their real-life friends. This is why I very much believe that the platform for Euro 2024 is real-life experiences.
A perfect example of this is Hotel MUNDIAL. Supported by brands including Xbox, Marriott Bonvoy, AB InBev, Reebok, Schuh, and Daily Paper, Hotel MUNDIAL came from the team behind the MUNDIAL magazine and the Reminding You Why You Love Football podcast. It served as a real place for fans to come together during the first week of the tournament to throw shapes rather than pints.
It was an event space that feels like it exists in a universe of its own, with something for everyone. That’s why, as well as showing the matches on a massive screen, we hosted panels with the likes of Daily Paper and industry heroes like Elis James and Statman Dave, creating zines with Football Beyond Borders and hosting a co-working day that brings together brands and people from across the football media community. But the star of our extensive image library was the immersive football x fashion installation with Reebok and Schuh. However, the Xbox gaming hub, filled with consoles, screens, and a fairground claw filled with prizes, deserves a special shout-out too. It’s working for us right now, in part due to the loyal following that MUNDIAL has cultivated over the past ten years before and after the acquisition from Footballco.
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We’re not alone, of course. Fan parks and experiential activations and events are all over Europe this month. There are many others who see what we see in the data and fan behavior, but I believe that we sometimes ignore how powerful events can be when combined with the power of football. PRs, like me, and journalists can be too quick to look at the latest digital shiny toy and neglect the importance of IRL.
When I think back to Euro 2020, played in 2021 due to Covid-19, I remember the pandemic still hanging over football and socializing. I remember watching England lose in the final at home on my own. This reason and others is why enjoying the Euros together will mean more than it has before for me and many others, even before the arrival of social media.