Footballco’s Paul Rayment reflects on why the Euros saw the welcome return of IRL and experiential investment as part of The Drum’s Sports & Fitness Focus . International football tournaments are remembered for many things. They could be remembered for the mascot, an individual performance, a legendary player headbutting an opponent, or a fan sticking a flare where you should never stick a flare.
In my career working in PR across football and media, more than a few times, I’ve found myself labeling a tournament in a press release as the ‘insert popular media platform/format’ World Cup or Euros. I’m not proud of it, but it’s part of the job. In the past, we’ve had TikTok tournaments, vertical video World Cups, and other events where the alliteration didn’t quite work so well - Facebook Live World Cup, anyone? Kicking off 2024 and looking ahead to this year’s Euros, I was trying to predict what I’d be writing for Euro 2024 as most of the social platforms had matured and already been the media of choice for at least one previous tournament.
At the same time, the Footballco Insights team was surveying fans across Europe about what they wanted and expected from brands and media this summer. There were the usual demands, and, as you’d expect, different media and marketing preferences went up and down with age. But what stood out was an overwhelming feeling across all fans surveyed that their country felt divided, and the Euros could help bring it together.
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