Total 615 words used.
The first-ever Influencer Cup was a week-long, high-octane, pan-continental football campaign; held in preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2022. It saw 28 of the world’s biggest football influencers come together in Doha's 2022 World Cup venue, Stadium974 for a five-a-side football tournament.
The influencers were split into four-teams representing different regions: Asia, MENA, the Americas, and Europe and were coached under legacy ambassadors of the game Cafu, Ronald de Boer, and Tim Cahill for a two-day round-robin football tournament in their interim enjoying Qatari cuisine, heritage sites, traditional boat rides, a DJ experience at the iconic Zekreet, a sunset photoshoot at Tornado Tower, and first-access entry to the World Cup Draw. The nail-biting match was streamed to their millions of followers through a live-streamed broadcast,combined with updates live-clipped from the pitch and shot behind the scenes.
The initial concept was conceptualized by the Supreme-Committee and Istanbul-based influencer agency INFLOW Network and later implemented with the help of our combined team (including supporting agencies Allison PR, Football Co, Goat, Mailman, and Seven League)
The main-aim of the campaign was to engage, inform and educate a global audience, helping to demystify Qatar for those hoping to visit during the World Cup season.The Influencer Cup successfully collaborated with influencers to amplify the very essence of the campaign through storytelling, allowing them to experience Qatar - its people, culture, and heritage and speak about their experiences in their own voices; in a way that connects with their audience.
Their experiences were showcased through the @RoadTo2022 Instagram Channels (Arabic/English/Spanish/Chinese) and on other multi-lingual platforms namely on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, alongside Chinese channels Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Kuaishou, and Toutiao. This allowed the campaign to generate thousands of pieces of content around one single itinerary of events, and reach numerous discrete audience segments around the world in the correct language, and with an appropriate tone for the messages to land.
The campaign also succeeded by further amplifying its message through its sponsors and co-collaborators namely Qatar Airways, Qatar Tourism, and 433. This campaign targeted a media value of $2.7m but exceeded all baseline targets to generate a total of $18.6m across influencer and owned channels, and even more with the help of 3rd Party Media activities. This meant that the target of 170% return on investment, was resoundingly beaten generating a return of more than 2,500%.
The average engagement rate per influencer was 11%, considering the audience size of the influencers involved(including Sean Garnier, Billy Wingrove, Werevertumorro, and Bushar Arabi) these numbers were highly impactful!
The content was created in every available static and moving format, bringing fans into a future World Cup stadium to watch their favorite influencers compete on the pitch in live, near-live, and long-form VOD formats. The Influencers produced 42 long-form videos,268 short-form videos / Feed, and 2,075 stories/snaps averaging 12.4 million impressions (a 10.1million more than our targets)
This average % justifies the construction of such large-scale campaigns on influencers, and their proven ability to engage and communicate messages much more authentically and impactfully than faceless/brand-less organizations.
The campaign was strategically positioned right before the World Cup Draw which was attended by our influencers. This meant that at a time when the world was thinking about “Qatar” and the “World Cup”- the target audience's social media feeds were filled with authentic stories about the country. Overall, with just a few months to go, The Influencer Cup showed that Qatar is excited, welcoming, and ready for fans to visit in November 2022. Oh, and for those who are interested… Americas won, beating Asia in the final, with MENA getting better off Europe in the 3rd place playoff.
Nomination Title: The Influencer Cup : The Clash of Sports Influencers
