While several other Bundesliga sides and European teams launched their own TikTok channels in 2019, Borussia Dortmund became the first German club to pen an official partnership with the ByteDance owned platform and launched it with a video-ked challenge to boost user engagement and attract a new, younger generation of fans.
Territory: Germany/Global
Agency: Lagardère Sports
Objectives
The primary objective for TikTok was to gain brand awareness in Europe during the early stage of the company’s growth, to establish trust in the (Chinese) brand in the European app-landscape and to get as much sport content as possible onto the platform.
For BVB the aim was to position itself as one of the most innovative and digital-driven football clubs in Europe, to strengthen its brand in China and engage a younger audience.
Activation
Background
Founded in 2017, the short video social platform which positions itself as enabling users to showcase their creativity, knowledge and most meaningful moments directly from their smartphone, has moved fast into the sports space with early rights-holder adopters including European club adopters such as Inter Milan and AS Roma, AS Monaco and Olympique de Marseille, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool and Bayern Munich, to the major US leagues such as the NBA and the NFL.
Like these other sports organisations, Borussia Dortmund is seeking to hold the attention of younger generations (Millennials and Gen Z) who tend to view sports less as they turn to other forms of entertainment (such as YouTube and gaming) and Borussia Dortmund seeks to position itself as ‘the hero’ and to use TikTok is used to help the club celebrate and share its ‘hero stories’.”
Dortmund’s TikTok strategic partnership was preceded by a month’s worth of ‘chemistry meetings’ where club and content platform planned aims, benefits, content and the terms of their deal.
For Dortmund the objective was to help drive awareness and sympathy with the club in a more targeted way that involves registration, learning and then providing them with more tailored content.
The partnership sees Borussia Dortmund seek to engage TikTok’s growing user base: with 500 million daily active users spread across 154 countries who are dominated by the hard to reach 16-to-25 demographic (with a ratio of female to male users is 54 to 46 per cent).
This made TikTok a good fit with the club as, since 2014, Borussia Dortmund has been the Bundesliga club with the highest increase in no of fans in the age group between 16-to-34.
Plus it seeks to take advantage of the fact that the ratio of German users on TikTok is currently higher than other, rival platforms with 4.1 million users and 6.5 billion monthly video downloads and an average daily usage time is 39 minutes across eight daily sessions.
The club uses virtual advertising and promotional content on the platform, extending beyond its own social feed, plus a bespoke @BVB/TikTok digitally designed service package with additional advertising and promotional opportunities including advertising in the club’s Signal Iduna Park stadium.
For TikTok the company is championing a culture that encourages “community stories based on sports” leveraging its local presence and the creative community around sports and fitness: using its presence at BVB as a communication platform to attract users worldwide.
The tie-up, which will initially run for 12-months, was the first official TikTok partnership with a German football club and was mediated by Lagardère Sports.
Activation
TikTok joined Borussia Dortmund as an official club partner and unveiled the tie-up ahead of the 27th April 2019 derby against Schalke with a video-led fan challenge.
To kick-start the alliance, the eight-time German champions launched its own @BVB channel at TikTok where it will post a range of video clips exclusively produced for the format and provide a social forum for fans to exchange views about and interact with the club using the hashtags #BVB #BorussiaDortmund and #YellowWall.
To mark the launch the partnership, the club started with a video of the best BVB TikTok moments starring Marcel Schmelzer and Julian Weigl alongside a TikTok challenge running under #cheerforBVB inviting fans to come up with their own creative responses to the challenge.
The challenge was also promoted across its existing social channels such as Twitter and Facebook.
Der BVB ist jetzt auf TikTok! Schaut vorbei!
Alle Infos: https://t.co/8fSz9JnxUg pic.twitter.com/PZZuFlIdHM
— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) April 25, 2019
As well as the launch challenge, followers could also watch a wealth of additional @BVB content such as a clip where Marco Reus photobombs Jadon Sancho’s interview with Maximilian Philipp, as well as a snapshot from a photo shoot with Lukasz Piszczek.
A TikTok in-house team also joined the club on its recent pre-season tour of the US to document the trip and to collaborate on content creation as the club and the channel sought to enable young fans to participate creatively in the BVB experience and exchange ideas.
Outcome
TikTok reports a positive influence from the BVB partnership in terms of its app-downloads in Germany and attitude and awareness in the German community in general – helped by the fact that BVB is, according to the club itself, the least polarizing club in Germany.
As of October 2019, the tie-up had resulted in 350k Borussia Dortmund fans (and 3.2m hearts) on the official Borussia Dortmund TikTok account – making it one of the Top Five football clubs on TikTok.
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