CASE STUDY: Event organisation, sponsorship activations, sales, marketing and promotion for the biggest football related event in this part of Europe (in cooperation with AB Sport Consulting)
MAIN GOAL: Bring all football fans in the region to one place and make a football spectacle!
ABOUT FOOTBALL FEST
Football Fest is a specialized exhibition dedicated to football. Our desire is to attract fans of the most important secondary thing in the world in South-Eastern Europe (and beyond) to exchange experience, knowledge and contacts while presenting their products, services and projects. Football Fest consists of Conference, Expo and a Fun Zone.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE?
In cooperation with our project partners, AB Sport Consulting, we managed to create a 4-day football spectacle at Zagreb Fair and attract visitors from the entire region. Nearly 16,000 visitors came through our entertaining three pavilions and left the Expo with a smile on their face.
FOOTBALL FEST CONSISTS OF:
1. Conference
We gathered business and sports business professionals from the entire region, as well as some worldwide-known sports marketing experts, inside Zagreb Fair Congress Hall for a two-day conference.
speakers set foot on Football Fest Conference stage
guests were in attendance during official opening of Football Fest Conference
different football-related topics were discussed during Football Fest Conference
2. Expo
Three pavilions or a little bit over 3500m2 of Zagreb Fair were just enough to accommodate 75 exhibitors that hailed to Zagreb from all over the world (Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Pakistan, Italy, Netherlands, etc.).
m2 of exhibition space
visitors during a 4-day event
exhibitors at Football Fest Expo
3. Fun zone
We had to keep our 10,000 visitors of Football Fest entertained at all times and keep them wating to come back for more. For that reason, we placed various football related activities throughout the entire exhibition space.
football related games and activities throughout Football Fest Expo
tournaments were played at Football Fest
contestants participated in Football Fest tournaments
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THINGS WE HAVE DONE TO ACHIEVE OUR MAIN GOAL
1.
Online promotion
We used Football Fest official website (footballfest.eu) and official Facebook page (facebook.com/footballfesteu) as base for online promotion on growing platforms (in our region) such as Instagram and YouTube.
2.
Offline promotion
Entire country, with focus on Zagreb, host city of Football Fest, was covered with posters, city light posters and billboards.
3.
Media partnerships
We created a story that was covered by 33 national and international media, as well as 3 national TV stations, 2 regional sports TV channels and 4 other TV networks.
There were over 70 press releases (unfortunately for our English readers, all of them were in Croatian) from October 25-30 on various news and sports websites in Croatia and surrounding countries.
4.
Graphics and visuals
Visuals were created to get people’s attention and to get them to think and get excited because such an event is happening in their country.
5.
Branding of Zagreb Fair
We branded the entire Zagreb Fair area, including Zagreb Fair Congress Hall, with banners containing the Football Fest logo (property of Overtime) and our partners’ logos.
6.
Sponsorship activations
With help from the host of our entire fun zone program, and in cooperation with our sponsors and partners, we created entertaining content to engage all visitors of Football Fest on a daily basis.
7.
Project ambassadors
In events such as Football Fest, former footballers and coaches can help engage more participants. Famous former Croatian football coach Miroslav Ćiro Blažević, and former players Dario Šimić and Aljoša Asanović supported Football Fest and emphasized the importance of such events for our region. Coach Blažević and Dario Šimić also visited the event themselves.
Luka Modrić, Real Madrid star midfielder, showed his support for Football Fest by sharing our promo video on his official Facebook page.
Drago mi je što se u Hrvatskoj događa ovako veliki nogometni događaj kao što je Football Fest. Uživajte na Zagrebačkom…
Geplaatst door Luka Modrić op Vrijdag 21 oktober 2016
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WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
Timing is key
October 27-30 seemed like a perfect date to organize this event even though November 1st (Tuesday after Football Fest) is a national holiday and many people took Monday off work to travel home or take a short vacation. However, we didn’t think that this would affect the number of people that will visit Football Fest. But it did, and next year we must be wiser when picking a date.
Lack of will to learn
We are very dissapointed by the lack of interest from sports and business professionals to learn from worldwide-known experts in digital and sports marketing. We invited experts to Football Fest thinking many people would come to the conference, but we were unpleasently surprised with the turnout.
Hype among football clubs
We did not create a big enough hype among 1st, 2nd and 3rd division football clubs in the country. We sent out a general information pamphlet to local federations, but we should’ve picked up a phone and contacted club management personally. This would’ve produced a much better result within this target group.
#ItsPossible
It’s possible to organize, promote and execute an event of these proportions when the entire team of people is on the same page. Generally, we are very happy with how everything turned out, but we know there is always room for improvement.
See you next year!
