As the 2018 World Cup pool play comes to an end and teams and fans gear-up for bracket play, there are some noteworthy numbers to report from the first two weeks of play. Granted, the games were intense with Cristiano Ronaldo’s hat-trick against Spain, Mexico’s major upset of Germany and Argentina’s goal in the 86th minute to pass Nigeria, these aren’t even the craziest things to report. The social media trends coming in from all over the world are shockingly high and truly one of the most noteworthy statistics from the action.
For social media, it’s no question that #fifa, #worldcup2018 and #futbol are the MVPs of Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook. In just under two weeks, there are over 1.5 million Instagram posts using #worldcup2018, and over 25 million impressions on Twitter of the same hashtag. Leo Messi’s Instagram post on June 14, captioned “Listos / Ready” racked up over 5 million likes, falling short of Cristiano Ronaldo’s “Vamos familia” captioned picture racking up just short of 10 million likes.
On Facebook, the German national team’s page, Die Mannschaft, has over 6.5 million people following their action with comments, likes, views and reactions. With Germany’s impressive social following, its shocking that Brazil’s page completely wipes them out. Brazil’s National team’s page, Confederação Brasileira de Futebol, had nearly 12 million followers. Snapchats are more difficult to track, in real time, but there is no question that fans are following all the action around the world with the 2018 Fifa World Cup Russia story. The following is so large, that the filter asking people to comment on Brazilian player, Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, new haircut is a trending story.
All of the different platforms allow fans to share their opinion, players to interact with fans, and teams make sure everyone is up to date on all the action. There is yet to be a clear winner on whose social pages have the highest following, most likes, shares and impressions. We will continue to track these numbers and see how our predictions hold up. But, one thing is clear – fans and spectators have countless ways of interacting with their team, the players and other fans across their country and the world. Digital marketers and media buyers have an incredible opportunity to be part of the conversation and turn users into buyers through targeted programmatic, social and search. There is a captive audience waiting to be messaged to. If you can join in and show fans that you also care, there is a great opportunity to be seen and heard.
Digilant’s FIFA 2018 Digital Advertising Infographic covers who the consumers are, social media trends, how the content is consumed and by who, and more!
Download the full infographic here and don’t forget to share #DigilantData.
Interested in learning more about how people are consuming World Cup Content? Check out Part 3 of our FIFA World Cup 2018 Infographic series here.