The HBO Boxing Digital & Social Media Team strives to lead the conversation about the sport year-round through a cross-platform strategy of live and reflective storytelling; providing the highest quality assets, coverage, and promotions to activate our core audience while cultivating new fans. Though challenged with an inconsistent schedule, niche audience and few household names in 2013, HBO Boxing managed to overachieve while placing the sport and it’s personalities at the forefront of our digital content. A CREATIVE STRATEGY In 2013 HBO re-imagined our strategy for boxing on social media and expanded both our coverage and content offerings in efforts to tap into mainstream conversation. We executed this strategy with a focus on “snackable" content that would be easily digestible for casual fans, while still fun and satisfying to our core audience. One highlight of this content strategy was an adaptation of the industry-standard quote cards, created to showcase the drama of the competition and introduced as Fighting Words across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Another highlight of the year was the Under The Lights video for Pacquiao vs. Rios, which illustrated the tactics and tendencies of each fighter in a quick-hitting music video format. TIMELY CONTENT With the introduction of our #TwitterReplay feature, we were able to drive appointment viewing by delivering instant video and moving GIF highlights to Twitter during the broadcast. This Social-TV integration generated over 175K clip views on Twitter in the 4th quarter of 2013 and helped to boost viewership on three of the top five most viewed boxing matches on cable in 2013. EXCLUSIVE ACCESS In our introduction of the sports’ next crop of stars, our coverage ventured beyond the broadcast and behind the ring; offering our fans 24/7-style access to digitally meet fighters at their promo shoots, training camps and even inside locker rooms with photos, quotes and Q&A’s across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. STRONG RESULTS In 2013, the HBO Boxing social footprint saw a 53% year-over-year increase, closing with nearly 1.9 MM connections across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, further cementing HBO Boxing as the number one network/brand in social media for the sport of boxing.
http://connect.hbo.com/events/hbo-boxing/hbo-boxing-marketing/
