Customer Stories - Premier League ePL Players Invitational

Case Studies, Sports May 26, 2020

Customer Stories - Premier League

Challenge

To engage and entertain football fans in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

Solution

ECAL leveraged Premier League’s vast, global, connected calendar audience, to help engage fans in the Premier League’s new eSports offering, that smashed all records!

1. Introduction

In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, the world’s most popular football competition launched the ePremier League Invitational. This EA Sports FIFA20 battle saw each Premier League team represented by a player in a knockout format to decide an overall series champion.

A prize fund was donated to the #PlayersTogether initiative, which was created by the Premier League players as a collective way of generating funds for the National Health Service and distributing them where they are needed most.

2. Objectives

The main objective was to engage and entertain fans. As Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Masters, said “We are aware of the importance of finding new ways to entertain fans at this time and we are excited to bring together a strong line-up of players for the ePremier League Invitational tournament.”

3. Strategy

The strategy focussed on informing and engaging their vast, connected, global calendar audience in this new eSports offering. This would involve targeted messaging to fans, based on their favourite teams, so fans could tune-in to watch their favourite players in action.

As a given, the solution needs to be responsive, as the ePL Invitational is a fast-paced ‘knockout’ format, with daily rounds held over just five consecutive days, with the Semi-Final and Final played on Saturday with just 15 minutes break.

4. Solution

Premier League fans who had nominated a preference for a team received detailed event information for whenever their team played next. General football fans would receive a daily schedule of match-ups in-calendar, so they could choose to follow the games of their choice.

All entries featured a strong call to action to ‘watch live’, with smart alerts and direct links to the various options for live view, including via the Premier League website, YouTube and Facebook.

5. Outcomes

During the five days of the ePremier League Invitational tournament, ECAL delivered nearly 3 million event impressions, over 30,000 clicks at a click-through rate of over 1.2%.

This eSports solution for Premier League acquired many new fans from all over the world, that the League will continue to communicate and engage with on an ongoing basis.

The ePL Invitational was won by Leicester City’s James Maddison, who echoed the sentiments of players, and fans. by saying: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the whole tournament and am delighted to come out victorious.”

Testimonials

"Thank you for your tremendous support this year, especially during the last few months as we pulled more rabbits from hats, fixture/season structure changes and unknowns than I think any of us has ever seen in sport. You helped us achieve a result that we are so immensely proud of, and have built a platform that can take us to heights that we thought impossible some 6 months ago. The WNBL is ready for lift-off! We broke the ECAL record for a season easily, and I can’t wait to see subscriber numbers jump again in 2021."

Rob Flude

Head of Digital Services @ Basketball Australia

"ECAL has proven to be a great channel for us at AVFC, benefitting sales and fan engagement more and more each season whilst providing data and insight for us to improve the fan experience as a whole. With the successful integrations of Women and Youth team schedules this season, we’re looking forward to what’s coming next!"

William Street

Digital Marketing Executive @ Aston Villa FC

"The ECAL solution allows Formula E fans to sync their local race or the full season race calendar to their personal calendars. The platform ensures that fans can easily find out where to tune in and watch Formula E live in their territory and it also gives us the ability to deliver targeted messages to users, based on location and behaviour. The team at ECAL are a great bunch and are always at hand whether through their fantastic support team to day to day management of our account and sharing new ideas. I would have no hesitation in recommending them. "

Tecwyn Davies

Senior Digital Project Manager @ Formula E

"ECAL has been a very effective tool for the England and Wales Cricket Board. Our audiences can download full competition schedules or individual team calendars for domestic competitions, as well as the England Men’s and Women’s fixtures. The events within the calendar provide information on where / when to tune-in to follow matches, and can also be used as a reminder for important ticket on-sale dates. The process to set-up was very straightforward and the support we receive has been great. We look forward to continuing to work with ECAL."

Rebecca Maskrey

Head of Marketing @ England and Wales Cricket Board

"We've engaged ECAL to deliver Fox Sports TV programming direct to our subscribers' calendar. It's a cool feature, and we believe our customers will really enjoy this service. They should never miss their favourite sports team again! We're also working with the team at ECAL to look at additional ways we can leverage the platform commercially."

Barney Glover

Head of Digital Delivery @ Fox Sports