Eurosport: OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Social Media Marketing

Advertiser: EUROSPORT

Product/Service: WINTERZONE WEBSITE

Date of First Appearance: Jan 29 2010 12:00AM

Entrant Company: EUROSPORT, Issy-Les-Moulineaux, FRANCE

Entry URL: http://winterzone.eurosport.se

Project Manager Nordics: Fredrik Montgomery (Eurosport)

Public Relations Officer: Per Boström (Eurosport)

Head of Digital: David Schwieler (Grey Stockholm)

Production Manager: Anna Dahlquist (Grey Stockholm)

Planner: Anders Norman (Grey Stockholm)

Art Director: Gustav Westman (Grey Stockholm)

Copywriter: Marcus Nyström (Grey Stockholm)

Designer: Richard Landérus (Grey Stockholm)

Developer: Erik Hansson (Grey Stockholm)

Media placement: Consumer-Generated Content - Facebook/Facebook Connect - 29 January 2010

Media placement: Online Banners - Eurosport - 29 January 2010

Media placement: Online Banner - IFokus.se - 29 January 2010

Media placement: Online Banner - Svenskafans.com - 29 January 2010

Media placement: Online Banner - Familjeliv.se - 29 January 2010

Media placement: Online Banner - Nyheter24.se - 29 January 2010

Media placement: Online Banner - Sportnik.se - 29 January 2010



Results and Effectiveness

Nearly 700 torches were lit and more than 311,000 clicks registered on Winterzone (including 64,000 negative clicks).

Winterzone gained 10,000 extra unique users, each clicking an average of 30 times. By integrating the event into Facebook feeds we reached an estimated 1.3m people.

Traffic at Winterzone rose by more than 5,000% in Sweden.

The viral impact is demonstrated by the success of the individual winner: his friends from a World of Warcraft forum ensured he got top spot.

Trade press coverage also helped raise awareness of Eurosport’s online properties among the media community.



Creative Execution

The torch relay – Fackelkampen – was based at Winterzone. Participants could light a torch, log into Facebook Connect and return to add “clicks” to keep it alight. The more clicks they got, the higher up the leader board they were placed. Rivals could also take clicks away by visiting Winterzone.

Every move was reported on Facebook feeds to keep Winterzone top of mind.
To add a team element we also secured the participation of five of Sweden’s biggest social networking communities, each torch bearer could select the community they supported, with the top team winning a €3,000 donation to the charity of their choice.

The relay ran from January 29 for 14 days, finishing on the eve of the Vancouver games.

Promotion ran across Eurosport’s online properties in Sweden via editorial and advertising. Banners featuring live click counters ran on the home pages of the five participating communities.



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

Eurosport’s online coverage of wintersports in Sweden was attracting a tiny audience. Sports fans were opting for local media outlets: we had to boost awareness and drive traffic to our dedicated wintersports site Winterzone in the run up to the Olympics.

Ordinary sports fans can participate in the Olympics via torch relays in the run up to the games. Our strategy was to combine Sweden’s love of social networking – it’s a top 10 Facebook market by penetration – with the torch relay metric.

We would create a digital torch relay ahead of the Vancouver Olympics. Based at Winterzone but virally distributed across social networks, participation would require frequent visits to our site. Torch bearers would also be encouraged to recruit their friends to keep the torch alive.

Facebook Connect and partnerships with other communities would ensure that every social networker knew about Winterzone.