Information Builders: Football World Cup analysis
Nearly everyone loves football and people definitely like talking about it. So when it’s the World Cup, the talk is just non-stop about the players, performances, goals, diving, and the fake fouls. But people rarely have numbers to back up a point or argument with their friends.Step in Hotwire, who presented an idea to its business intelligence client, Information Builders, to analyse every game of the 2006 World Cup for the alternative and more interesting side of football. Who cares about possession, tackles, and pass completion, when you can get data on the number of dives, tantrums, wrong-offsides, and where goals where scored from? What is more, the statistics would be presented in a format (based on an Information Builders product called WebFOCUS Active Report) that would allow people to visit a website and carry out their own analysis (such as by country or by type of foul) and to draw their own conclusions. The talk would definitely get more interesting!
Objectives
As a software company that presents information to organisations, Information Builders saw how presenting the alternative World Cup statistics was an opportunity to raise their brand profile across Europe. In addition, Information Builders recognised that the campaign would produce an interesting and stimulating case study for its sales teams around the world in terms of its WebFOCUS Active Report capability.
Therefore, the main objectives of the ‘On the Ball’ campaign were:
. Raise the profile of Information Builders as a company
. Get Information Builders into the mainstream/consumer press
. Get the public to engage in the debate around foul play in football through web messages, blogs, correspondence and downloads of the report
. Create an interesting case study for the sales team to demonstrate to customers the benefits and ease of use of the Active Report tool
Strategy and Plan
Hotwire developed a plan and timeline for the activity, provided topics for analysis by the researcher during the games (e.g. fake injuries, tantrums, dives), and template materials for the European countries to use. Hotwire recommended a teaser email in the week prior to the tournament to generate interest from the media in the statistics and to alert them to the dates when the research would be made available.
Information Builders developed a specific WebFOCUS Active Report in conjunction with Hotwire to ensure the information provided was the most useful and easy to understand. On five agreed dates, selected to coincide with when matches were played, Hotwire distributed the findings to the media. The report was also put on a dedicated section of each of the European country websites everyday for the media and public to download and do their own analysis of the data.
Measurement and Evaluation
The campaign started with a teaser, and then one week into the tournament the first set of statistics were released. At the same time, the websites across Europe went live with the report. Minutes after its release, interest was already coming in from the sports desks of the UK nationals. Hotwire distributed four further sets of data during and at the end of the tournament to drive continued press coverage.
The ‘On the Ball’ campaign was a great success in terms of media coverage for Information Builders across Europe, and more lately, North America. In the UK, 23 pieces of coverage were generated in online and print media including The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Sun, Daily Mail, The Mirror and The Guardian. In addition, men’s magazine Nuts dedicated over one and a half pages during the tournament to the statistics and MSN.co.uk ranked the Information Builders ‘On the Ball’ website (UK) fourth in their 30 Alternative World Cup websites.
Germany, France, Netherlands and Belgium/Luxembourg, which had either limited or no extra budget for media outreach, still generated great coverage. In Germany, 14 pieces of coverage were secured including Computerwoche and Datenrettung-format. France had eight pieces including L’Equipe, Sport.fr, and Metro. Netherlands had 15 pieces and Belgium/Luxembourg had six pieces.
Due to the success that Europe was generating from the campaign, Information Builders in the US also began distributing the emails that Hotwire was producing and generated significant coverage in North American and Caribbean media. In particular, an Associated Press article generated near blanket coverage in local newspapers across the US, the highlight being a major piece in The Washington Post (circulation of 10 million).
Results
The campaign generated a significant level of coverage for Information Builders in Europe and the US. Circulation figures for UK coverage was 21.8 million including 10 pieces in the print editions of the nationals. Information Builders increased its UK website traffic from an average of 80 hits per day prior to the World Cup to an average of 2,500 hits a day during the tournament. During the World Cup, over 50,000 WebFOCUS Active Reports were downloaded by users from the UK website alone.
The media’s reaction to the statistics was very positive as well, with several national and men’s magazines enquiring whether Information Builders would continue with the research for the forthcoming Barclays Premiership season (2006/7).
A further illustration of how the campaign engaged with people was the level of debate that the public had around the statistics. Prior to the campaign Information Builders was generating little in terms of blogs, but as a result of the coverage, there was a significant increase in the number of blogs, messages and comments to articles, and emails to Hotwire and Information Builders.
Dave Armstrong, marketing manager, Information Builders, said, “The idea presented by Hotwire tapped into our desire to raise our profile by doing something a little different, yet still keeping a tangible link to our core business. It was creative, well thought through and brilliantly executed by the team at Hotwire. It exceeded all our expectations!”
(Website: www.informationbuilders.co.uk/ontheball)
