#MarketingGoals: UEFA’s Marketing Campaign For Euro 2024

Every year, the country explodes with football fans, flooding to their nearest pub or bar to watch the game, watching it from home on their television or PC, or even hopping on a plane to experience the final in person. With teams divided only by nationality, the Euros unite us all, no matter how different we may all be, with a singular purpose: to win the game for our country. 

But while fan loyalty plays a role in the popularity of the Euros, there is also a lot of work going on behind the scenes. From the video production team, to the marketing division, and social media team, like the players themselves, each professional plays a role in working towards scoring goals and ultimately, winning the game. 

And the team clearly has their marketing game down. This year, the UEFA final broke their viewership record, with a peak audience of 24.2 million viewers on BBC and ITV, 918,000 on RTE2 (55% share), and an additional 426,000 watching the match via livestream on RTE player, placing their global views at over 5 billion. UEFA EURO social media channels have also boomed this year, with 14 million new followers since the start of the championship, as well as 335 million engagements and 2.8 billion video views. 

But what makes the UEFA EURO marketing campaign so successful, and what can we learn from it? In this blog, we will look at UEFA’s marketing strategy in-depth, from collaborations with sponsors, to digital marketing strategies. 

1. Foster Connection

When you look at the photography of the game on social media, the first thing that jumps out at you is the raw emotion captured on the players’ faces. Photographs frequently feature close-ups of individual players at critical points during the game. 

This allows the audience to engage with the emotions of the players, riding the highs and lows with them throughout the match. By capturing the humanity of the players effectively, viewers are able to form emotional bonds with them, resulting in healthy parasocial relationships that foster a sense of attachment to the team. This sense of attachment keeps viewers coming back for more, year after year, and builds a sense of community and connection between football lovers from all walks of life. 

In your marketing strategy, you should emphasise that there is a human behind your business. Your marketing should reflect your own personality, sense of humour, values and ethics, allowing your customers to see you as more than just a business. This will help to foster brand loyalty and a sense of connection to your brand. 

2. Involve The Audience

The marketing content for the Euros 2024 keeps their audience engaged by involving them directly. UEFA’s social media accounts feature photography of the audience and individual fans, often side by side with their favourite player, fostering a sense of connection and showing viewers that their support is valued. The language of their posts directly address the reader, using both ‘you’ and ‘we’ to make them feel not only involved, but also part of a wider community. 

Consider how you can involve your customers in your marketing strategy. Perhaps you could include some reviews of your product or service, or include social media posts with photographs of your happy customers? Or maybe you could include some photographs or text about local events your business has got involved with, showing how you have engaged with the local community? 

3. Give Back To The Community

Since the 50s and 60s, marketing has been all about popping colours and catchy slogans - but much of it was style over substance. In fact, many corporations participated in activities that were actively detrimental to local communities and the environment. After numerous scandals from global giants such as Coca Cola and Nestlé, customers are now beginning to tire of corporate greed, and have been asking - what do corporations give back to the community in return for their hard-earned cash? 

UEFA have mastered the move towards ethical business, by embracing charity sponsors and even setting up their own charity, the UEFA Foundation for Children. The UEFA Foundation for Children is dedicated to ensuring better futures for vulnerable children living with disabilities and/or from underprivileged backgrounds by providing football education. This year, their 10,000 Smiles campaign, in conjunction with the Kaizen Foundation, will host 10,000 children across 40 matches in 10 different stadiums. 

UEFA has also supported the ‘Get Trained, Save Lives’ campaign this year, by introducing their own interactive training module for football fans. This allowed over 35,000 UEFA EURO 2024 attendees to train in CPR, providing them with the medical skills required to assist with a sudden cardiac arrest. 

By showing that you give back to your community, you show your customers that you are an ethical business that is worth investing their money in. This gives them an incentive to use your business over a less ethical competitor, even if their products or services might be cheaper. 

4. Use Sponsorship And Collaboration Effectively

The UEFA Euro is sponsored by a number of high-profile corporations, including Adidas, Coca-Cola Zero, AliExpress, Lidl and Booking.com among others. The UEFA Euro’s partnerships with major channels and publications also gives them access to high-profile publicity from major news outlets. 

Ever heard the phrase ‘You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’? Well, that’s effectively how sponsorship and collaboration work. By promoting other businesses or charities, you can build relationships, allowing you to not just promote them, but also promote yourself and increase your own business’ chances of getting promoted by a third-party. The companies you promote are also likely to mention your business’ name while networking, passing on your reputation to an even wider audience. Not only that, but if you offer a sponsorship option, businesses will pay you to promote their products and services, giving you an extra source of revenue. 

You might think sponsorships are just for large corporations, but in fact, there are plenty of opportunities for small businesses to get sponsored too! You can promote sponsorship opportunities to smaller, local businesses and organisations by creating sponsor incentives such as advertising space on your website. 

5. Make It Fun!

The best - and most natural - way to get your viewers involved in your marketing campaign, is to make sure that they have fun engaging with it! While audiences may roll their eyes about overly promotional, dry marketing, it’s difficult to keep this attitude when it’s a form of marketing that you actually enjoy. By making your marketing fun and engaging, you will keep your viewers interested, and it’s more likely to get shared and reposted to other viewers, making your reach grow faster.

The UEFA uses several methods to get their audience engaged, including:

• Fantasy Leagues - In the UEFA Fantasy Leagues, users can build their own team and compete against their friends! This gets the target market hooked by providing an interactive experience - thus cashing in on their competitive instinct. 
• Interactive Apps - The UEFA offers official Euro apps, which give football fans instant access to real-time stats, live scores, highlights and even AR experiences, allowing them to fully immerse themselves in the game. 
• Social Media Contests - Interactive contests on social media allow fans to engage in the full experience by predicting scores, sharing photos and answering trivia, with the added incentive of winning a prize. These contests are then shared among social media users, creating viral trends.