Best Digital/Social Media Team
WINNER
Motherwell FC
Motherwell FC traditionally sits in the position of being one of Scotland’s “provincial” clubs. A £4m turnover business, it lies in the regional shadow of Celtic and Rangers, based 12 and 15 miles away respectively.
With 4,500 season ticket holders and engaged social media following of 120,000, the club communicates its mission statement – To improve people’s lives – through strong emotional storytelling of its values. In having a bigger purpose other than winning matches, it stands out as a club with an authentic and differentiated identity.
With just three staff members, the club has crafted a content strategy that enjoys some of the highest engagement per head in world football. Through innovations such as access to the dressing room, interviews on the pitch at full-time and the monthly Inside Motherwell documentary series, together with important work in the areas of suicide prevention and child poverty, the club stands out with a strong identity.
Surpassing its engagement and follower targets in 2020, the digital team also won acclaim for their documentary charting the recovery from injury of David Turnbull, showcasing his physical and mental rehabilitation before eventually winning back his move to Celtic for a club-record fee.
SILVER
Everton FC
In a challenging period for football – and all industries – Everton brought its fanbase and community together through relevant and engaging content that aligned with the Club’s values of Family, Determination, Authenticity and Ambition.
Digital and Social played a vital part in the delivery of the Blue Family campaign, as Everton engaged with both existing and new audiences to provide health and wellbeing advice and connect fans around the world with their club – and one another.
This included collaborating with footballers, musicians, local authorities and staff across the Club to create content that was relevant, entertaining and informative.
Digital and Social played a significant part in raising thousands of pounds for the Blue Family campaign, which is supporting the most vulnerable people in our community during the pandemic.
Additionally, the teams had to react quickly to the major signing of Colombian superstar James Rodriguez from Real Madrid, developing a plan to capitalise on the global splash it would inevitably make, and turn it into an opportunity for international growth and engagement, particularly in the Club’s target markets of North and South America. This included the launch of a new Spanish-language Club website and Spanish-language social media accounts.
BRONZE
Leicester City FC
We launched our official TikTok channel in November 2019, and it has since gone on to become one of the most engaged social media accounts in world sport.
It has seen us interact with a new audience; a much younger generation of supporters that consume fast-paced, and most importantly, humorous content.
Ensuring that fan engagement is at the heart of our strategy, our approach on TikTok is much more contemporary than our other channels, and with it has produced viral content, and even created platform trends.
Our audience is not restricted to Leicester fans, and we regularly reply to opposition supporters, who we would previously never engage with, allowing us to further expand our reach.
A key age range of TikTok users is the mid-to-late teens, and this has helped us to connect with younger supporters all over the world who may not yet have chosen a club to support, ultimately providing us with the potential of gaining fans for life.
In late 2020, we analysed our current digital strategy, and have since developed a plan for the next three years that will focus on engaging with a younger demographic, with TikTok now at the very centre of that strategy.
