DELO Women’s EHF Champions League FINAL4 2019: high class fan-entertainment opened up for remote fans too
Last weekend ‘Seyu – Together for victory!’ stepped out on the world stage of sport by taking part in the 2019 DELO Women’s EHF Champions League FINAL4 event in Budapest. The event attracted 12 000 excited fans from Russia, Norway, France and Hungary to bear witness to the battle of the best of the best in women’s handball and excited over 24 million in front of the televisions in 55 territories.
The Hungarian Handball Federation and EHF truly stepped up their game this year too by having Anastacia, the American superstar singing in the opening show. But the show did not end there, organizers have simply wowed fans with pre-match shows at every encounter. Every single one of them being a masterpiece itself.
Fans in the Papp Laszló arena were kept entertained from the first second by interactive games and activities created by the top class show hosts. One of the most heartwarming part of the weekend was when Edit Szalay, one of the hosts, sang all four teams’ songs on their native language together with the fans, making all fans feel at home at the FINAL4.
‘Seyu – Together for victory!’ came into action as a late addition to the extraordinary entertainment that took place this year’s finals, in the aim of bringing closer remote fans to the action and giving a chance for them to motivate their favourite players in the fight for the title.
Handball loving fans in tune with their teams’ social media channels were quick to learn about and taking up on the tech savvy way of cheering, for the happiness of players on the court. Throughout the weekend fans showed their support to the teams and the whole arena from fourteen different countries, located on three continents, thanks to Seyu. Of course, supporters in the arena took up on the opportunity as well, quickly enough, and plastered the giant screen above the court with their photos too.
Despite being communicated to the fans by the European Handball Federation and the clubs only few hours before the first semi-final took place, ‘Seyu – Together for victory!’ stayed true to its reputation built up in the past ten months in business in Hungary, and delivered spectacular numbers in organic social media exposure.
Without a Penny spent on boosted social media campaigns, the fan-entertaining service attracted over nineteen hundred supporters around the world to take selfies. These fan-created images were then shared on Seyu’s official Facebook site – unfortunately not all clubs had a chance to share them on their sites due to the busy weekend – and helped Seyu generated contents deliver the organic reach of 36k users, thanks to the activities of 3.7k engaged fans in seven days.
The potential is obvious. Once clubs and organizers will consciously share the fan-generated content on their official social media channels, they will make way for the power of emotional marketing to create its magic. A recent survey of PwC also stating the importance of fan-generated content, marking it as one of the most popular content types of the next 3 – 5 years. “Beyond live and highlight video, the rise of user-generated content in sports is well reflected in the responses we received, with confident growth estimates across team, athlete and fan-generated content. The native, social and often viral nature of user-generated content is a strong recipe for reaching, engaging and monetising young audiences and achieving commercially-relevant levels of engagement with them.” – source, Sports industry: Lost in transition? by PwC.
Taking a broader view on the amazing experience of the DELO Women’s EHF FINAL4 and on the value that ‘Seyu – Together for victory!’ delivered: the fan-entertaining tool proved to be a useful asset for the organizers in filling up unexpected gaps in the entertainment, generated additional organic social media exposure – some could say expanded the event’s marketing portfolio -, beside making thousands of handball loving fans happy on three continents who, now, have a stronger emotional bond to the sport and the event itself.
