The FIFA World Cup is arguably the greatest spectacle in all of sports. For the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer), it's the one time every four years that America – soccer fans, casual sports fans and even those who have no interest – passionately pay attention to the sport. The social landscape was primed for U.S. Soccer to attempt to make every American aware of the World Cup and engage, activate and mobilize them to support the team.
In December 2013, the U.S. Men's National Team (USMNT) was randomly drawn into the 32-team 2014 World Cup's "Group of Death" – a four-team group that featured soccer powers Germany and Portugal, as well as rival Ghana, which had eliminated the U.S. from the previous two World Cups.
As much as this was a challenge on the pitch, it was a great opportunity for U.S. Soccer off of it. America loves underdogs, especially when it's the collective us – as in U.S. The federation needed to utilize social media – especially Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube – to rally "us" and elevate its presence and engagement in social media to heights unknown.
That platform – "One Nation, One Team." – not only rallied the nation and achieved those objectives, but according to captain Clint Dempsey, it helped the Men's National Team accomplish its biggest challenge – surviving the Group of Death and advancing to the Knockout Round.
U.S. Soccer social efforts didn't just start a conversation, they created a first-of-its-kind movement.
Our strategy focused on developing quality, shareable content and memorable content, and seeding with key influencers to take the conversation to new heights.
The social push around "One Nation. One Team." began gradually during the Send-Off matches in May. U.S. Soccer and FleishmanHillard (FH) then identified key milestones during the World Cup to elevate the conversation – utilizing the first World Cup match against Ghana on June 16 as a "Digital Day," flooding Twitter, organically, with content and hashtags related to U.S. Soccer.
And for the following three matches, we created unique hashtags for each Group of Death match that unified and rallied the country.
U.S. Soccer and FH shared this strategy with key influencers – athletes, professional sports leagues, entertainers, musicians, actors, sponsors, politicians and more – and asked them to support the team on their own social channels.
To keep the conversation moving, we also mobilized a social listening team who could share content, respond to fan posts, and keep an ear to the conversations happening around the match – all in real-time.
Execution & Tactics:
- Social Media Saturation: We deployed the umbrella hashtag #OneNationOneTeam in the lead-up to and throughout the World Cup, as well as unique hashtags for each Group of Death match (#SeeYouSunday – Portugal, #LetsDoThis – Germany and #AreYouReady – Belgium) that unified and rallied the country.
- Fan Wall: During the tournament, we inspired players and connected them with fans back home by posting messages of support who used #1N1T (short for #OneNationOneTeam) in key locations, including their lockers.
- Custom Digital Jerseys: Leading up to the first match, we created custom digital jerseys for all fans who tweeted to the @USSoccer handle using the #USMNT hashtag.
- Real Jerseys for Twitter Influencers: We seeded authentic U.S. Soccer jerseys to key influencers including Ryan Seacrest, Joe Biden, Tim Lincecum, Josh Duhamel and Mike Trout that included their Twitter handle on the back to share on social media.
- Influencer Social Activation: Seeded hashtags with influencers from all areas, including professional sports leagues, artists, musicians, actors, entertainers, politician, athletes, and sponsors, to amplify the social conversation and promote hashtag use.
- Custom Graphics: Worked with more than 100 sports teams and players to create custom graphics incorporating hashtags and side-by-side photos of U.S. Soccer players and members of each specific team to share on their social channels.
- Jurgen Klinsmann "Work Excuse" Letter: Created graphic of a letter from U.S. Soccer head coach Jurgen Klinsmann encouraging bosses to let their employees off work to watch the U.S. vs Germany match, and shared on Facebook and Twitter.
The response to these efforts was unprecedented. Everyone shared support for U.S. Soccer on social channels. It didn't matter if someone's social feeds were sports-centric or not – the support transcended sports. U.S. Soccer was THE topic of conversation during the World Cup in the U.S., demonstrating how professional sports leagues, artists, musicians, actors, politician, athletes, sponsors and more can work as one to amplify a social conversation.
- U.S. Soccer social posts resulted in more than 14.2 million engagements and more than 264 million impressions on Twitter, and more than 2.7 billion impressions on Facebook.
- U.S. Soccer-generated hashtags resulted in more than 3.1 million tweets and 8.5 billion impressions, beating #WorldSeries (1.1 million tweets/2.9 billion impressions) and rivaling #SuperBowl (2.3 million tweets/9.4 billion impressions) in 2013.
- Custom digital jerseys totaling 120,000 were requested and created, resulting in more than 1.2 million views.
- @USSoccer Twitter followers increased 89% during the tournament – from 646,554 to more than 1.2 million. Facebook followers increased 46% to more than 1.8 million.
- Team Manager Jurgen Klinsmann's "work excuse " letter resulted in 3.1 million Twitter impressions, 36 million Facebook impressions, a cover story by the NY Daily News and a response from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
- While in Brazil, USMNT goalie Tim Howard said: "The interest has been mind-blowing and we've enjoyed watching every second of YouTube clips and Instagram and Twitter."
At the start of the World Cup, we were the ones reaching out to key influencers on social. But by the end of it, the tides had turned. Social media managers for teams ranging from the San Francisco 49ers to the University of Florida Gators were asking U.S. Soccer for the newest hashtags. After the World Cup, we received numerous responses from influencers saying, "When can we do this again?" They won't have to wait long, as the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup kicks off June 6.
Video for One Nation. One Team.
