15/05/2017

Spurs Salute White Hart Lane Stadium Via Intergrated #TheLaneTheFinale Initiative

The penultimate weekend of the 2016/17 Premier League season saw Tottenham Hotspur say goodbye to their beloved White Hart Lane home with an multi-platform, multi-strand campaign to enable the club and its fans to pay homage and bid farewell to ‘The Lane’.

 

Spurs, who will play at Wembley Stadium next season while its new stadium is completed, rolled out a nostalgia-fuelled, integrated #TheLaneTheFinale campaign built around the last ever game (against Manchester United) at the stadium that has been the club’s home for the last 188 years.

 

The club and its kit partner Under Armour launched a special edition kit for the game (the last under the current partnership as Spurs switch to Nike next season) which the team wore for the final match.

 

As well as displaying the fixture details, the shirt features a special edition White Hart Lane crest underneath the collar on the back, while the Tottenham Tribute Trust’s logo appears on the front.

 

 

A set of signed limited edition shirts were auctioned after the match,

 

 

Fans were also invited to enter the parallel signed shirt competition here.

 

 

The players will warm up wearing special warm up t-shirts, which will bear the names of sponsors @AIAGroup_Press and @TributeTrust. #TheLaneTheFinale

 

 

Other special edition memorabilia created for the last match include a ‘The Lane’ clothing range

 

 

and a special pin badge,

 

 

The proceeds from the auction, along with other money raised from additional initiatives (including the sale of match memorabilia) will go to the Tottenham Tribute Trust.

 

(The trust was formed in 2002 to help former Tottenham players facing difficulty either financially, medically or both and was the designated charity throughout the Lane’s send-off).

 

But #TheLaneTheFinale was no simple commemorative kit campaign.

 

Rather it was an initiative designed to enable the club and its fans to enjoy and share their favourite stadium memories – the best games, the finest goals and they key moments – with a live event at its core.

 

The stadium and its local area were decorated with street banners and OOH executions,

 

 

while a commemorative programme was also sold.

 

 

The ceremonial centrepiece followed the final whistle when the club held a farewell ceremony fronted by a squad of legendary stars who had played for Spurs at White Hart Lane.

 

It was streamed live on the club’s Facebook page and was also amplified on its YouTube channel too.

 

 

 

Another key pillar of the initiative saw Tottenham live-stream the second leg of the famous 1984 UEFA Cup final in its entirety

 

The game, which saw Spurs win on penalties against Anderlecht at their home ground in front of their own fans, was a fitting send-off for the grand old ground by the club’s digital team and it was made available to be streamed in full on the club’s news feed.

 

Within a few days of being posted, it had generated 3.5k comments and more 800 shares (even though its broadcast at the unlikely time of 3pm on a Thursday)

 

Through the last week of The Lane, the club also rolled out an avalanche of other commemorative content pieces marking the last match at its famous old stadium.

 

 

 

 

and even encouraged fans without tickets to have their own parties with an event #TheLaneTheFinale toolkit – including food ideas, playlists, invites, bunting, stickers, games (like spot the ball), player facemasks and a competition to win commemorative, player-signed posters

 

 

-which comes with a digital hub at http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/the-lane/party-toolkit/

 

This complex, multi-strand initiative also included an interactive timeline on the website called ‘Memory Lane’.

 

Activative Comment:

 

Of course, this isn’t just a commemorative kit launch like New Balance’s recent pair of campaigns for Liverpool FC (see Case Study) and Celtic FC (see Case Study), but an integrated, multi-platform initiative that reminds is what rights owner live streaming really is for.

 

And with all the recent hype and the criticism over Facebook Live and Twitter streaming it is good to remember what these platforms were initially envisaged to do.

 

In the sports space conversation has recently been focusing on sports rights and whether these streaming deals confirm that these social media outfits are no longer tech companies but mere broadcasters and media businesses after all, while the mainstream media seems fixated on live-streaming with fake news to real-time crime.

 

Between the two, it is nice to be reminded that social media live-streaming is a tool for friends to share in real-time among their social groups and that it can still be a useful and effective tool that enables rights holders to produce their own compelling content without the need to for a third party broadcasters to come between fans and what they are passionate about.

 

We don’t want to spoil the nostalgia-fest party, but why all the fuss?

 

After all, Spurs aren’t actually leaving the Lane at all.

 

The new stadium is being built on pretty much exactly the same plot.

 

 

Perhaps the club know the real reason that it is the #TheLaneTheFinale is because they have already sold the naming rights to the new ground and the stadium will be called something quite different indeed when it reopens in 2019?

 

Spurs are scheduled to move back into the new stadium in 2018 (after playing the 2017/18 season at Wembley) and this will, of course, open up several additional new revenue streams.

 

In terms of early, top level results, the legends-led on-pitch farewell ceremony on Facebook Live gained an impressive 1.1m viewers and 40,000 engagements.

 

While on Twitter, the hashtag #TheLaneTheFinale trended in the UK for the whole of Sunday and generated more than 30m impressions.

 

Links:

 

Tottenham Hotspur FC

http://spurs.to/YouTube
http://spurs.to/Facebook
http://spurs.to/GooglePlus
http://spurs.to/Instagram
http://spurs.to/SpursOfficial

http://shop.tottenhamhotspur.com/

 



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