Case Study: Kick It Out reveals the scale of Premier League social media abuse with Brandwatch

Tackling unprecedented levels of social media abuse

Kick It Out, English football’s equality and inclusion organisation, saw a sharp rise in social-media abuse toward players, clubs and fans from the 2012/13 season and wanted to reveal the true scale of the problem. In January 2015 they partnered with social media agency Tempero and social-intelligence firm Brandwatch to investigate discriminatory online abuse across the Premier League and inform strategy and public awareness.

Using Brandwatch’s query builder and Tempero’s analysis, the team tracked 20 clubs, 400+ player names and hundreds of abusive terms, collecting and analysing over 400,000 abusive mentions. The report identified top targets (eg. Chelsea and Liverpool; Mario Balotelli received over 8,000 racist posts), provoked 900+ news stories and 100,000+ online conversations, and gave Kick It Out the evidence and public reach needed to raise awareness and drive next steps.

Kick It Out

Mick Conroy

Head of Insights & Innovation, Tempero