Serie A side Juventus created an interactive live gameshow to engage its Chinese fanbase.
The online initiative, running under the club’s ongoing ‘J-Squad’ initiative, was essentially a two-hour live stream which split supporters put into teams which competed against one another in what was positioned as an online football match – complete with two halves, a half-time segment, plus a post-match review.
The gameshow, which came with its own dedicated hashtags, included audience participation through Weibo poll voting which helped choose the winners and it was broadcast live on multiple social media platforms including Juventus’ own official Weibo account, plus on Yizhibo, WeChat and Douyin.
“It’s more important than ever right now for us to be delivering original and creative content for fans in China, and across Asia,” commented Juventus marketing boss Luca Adornato.
“We’re tailoring our content specifically for each region in order to allow our fans to feel closer to the club and become more actively involved,” said Luca Adornato, head of marketing at Juventus
“The recent live stream was a great platform to give our fans a voice and have them involved with our events, especially during a time when there are no live matches.”
Federico Palomba, Juventus APAC Managing Director, added, “The club opened an official office in Hong Kong last year to bring us even closer to our fans, partners, and media friends. It’s been a tough time for all during the Covid-19 period, and that’s why we’ve been working hard to deliver inspiring and entertaining content for our fans to keep spirits high and strengthen the connection with the club.”
Outcome:
The statistics suggest Juventus has a hit show on its hands as the stream reached a total viewership of 11.2m, with 30k engagements and 2m reads
Comment:
This was an original format for a European football club in China and further consolidates the club’s strong support in China where the reigning Serie A champions have 37 official fan clubs (the most for the team outside of Italy) and 4m followers in China across the team’s social channel.
Juve had continued its push into China with a mix of both offline and online activities, including touring the nation in 2019 for a pre-season and launching the J-Squad activation that attracted a total of 50 million views on Weibo. They also produced the Juventus Village in Shanghai, a 1,500 square-foot fan experience hub at the foot of the Oriental Pearl Tower.
An innovative campaign which saw Juve become the latest European football giant to turn to a country-specific live online event to engage fans in China during the pandemic and it follows on from Borussia Dortmund’s cyber party for its fans in China which attracted 2.9m supporters to the two hour live stream (see case study).
Links:
Juventus
https://www.youtube.com/user/juventus
https://twitter.com/juventusfc
https://www.facebook.com/Juventus/
https://www.instagram.com/juventus/
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