After football was ranked the most-watched content on YouTube in 2021, this year the company is looking to take advantage of the most-loved content category by launching World Cup Activations with mega global influencers to promote YouTube Shorts across all channels under Shorts FIFA World Cup.
Utilising the FIFA World Cup would provide them with another avenue to promote YouTube Shorts that YouTube has stated will be done through a range of themed activations and challenges for the event.
For the introduction week of the World Cup and the biggest and first-ever major football event to take place in the Middle East, YouTube has sent a group of popular Shorts creators to Qatar to create content for the event. The global stars that are currently working in collaboration with the social media giant to promote Shorts are Cheeky Boyos, Noor Stars, Rima and Jesser.
“With a combined reach of more than 90 million subscribers from around the globe, these creators will be sharing their experiences at the first round of matches in person. Fans at home can join in the excitement by following #ShortsFIFAWorldCup.”
An official statement released by YouTube Official Blog
#ShortsFIFAWorldCup takes advantage of football’s most-watch event globally to attract viewers to the platform
The benefits of running Shorts FIFA World Cup promotional campaign during the most anticipated world event where fans, influencers, sportsmen, and celebrities are glued to their screens to catch up on all the latest details is an amazing way to boost engagement via creators attending the events.
Content made and shared with Shorts around the world, by sending top stars to cover different angles and elements, immediately draws each creator’s fans, and extended audiences into the World Cup hype.
Sending mega influencers to cover the World Cup is only one portion of involving creators to promote Shorts FIFA World Cup, as YouTube plans to send a second cohort of Shorts creators to Qatar to cover the finals.
In addition, YouTube is also hosting classic World Cup matches on the official FIFA YouTube channel, along with other elements tied into this year’s tournament.
Shopping on Shorts Challenge
To add to the promotional campaign and push some of YouTube’s in-app shopping features via Shorts, the company is also hosting a “Shopping on Shorts” Challenge that is held in partnership with FIFA. This will enable users to purchase an official 2022 World Cup T-Shirt for their country directly via the Short streaming video.
“Post a Short to the official FIFA World Cup Challenge song showing your transition into your match day fit and your country love using the hashtag #FIFAWorldCupChallenge.”
The World Cup is set to be a major event across all social platforms, with YouTube, in particular, seeing surging interest in football in recent times.
YouTube says that soccer was the most watched sport on the platform in 2021, while the previous World Cup generated over 10 billion views of YouTube content. This year, considering that the World Cup has garnered major controversial issues and news regarding the event, workers’ rights, and other news surrounding the event, the amount of generated views will likely be doubled.
With this in mind, it’s worth noting such trends, and considering how you as an influencer, individual brand, or image may be able to link into the World Cup hype, and the global celebrations (and commiserations) related to the tournament.
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