Case Study: ESPN FC (ESPN) achieves 25% increase in unique visitors and 60% positive social sentiment with Brandwatch

The underground campaign that scored big

ESPN FC, the football-focused arm of ESPN, set out to boost global awareness and drive fans to espnfc.co.uk during the 2014 World Cup. With many matches playing at inconvenient times for UK viewers and most London Underground stations lacking internet access, commuters were unable to follow scores or live updates while travelling — a clear barrier to reaching audiences “anytime, anywhere.”

ESPN FC partnered with Transport for London to become the first brand to display World Cup results on announcement boards at 150 stations and even hosted live commentary at Waterloo, while using Brandwatch to track impact. The campaign reached over 2 million people on Twitter (2.36M potential reach), generated 3,438 mentions in the first week, achieved over 60% positive sentiment, outperformed similar tube campaigns by 7x in mentions, and helped unique visitors to ESPN FC rise 25% year‑on‑year.

ESPN

Charles Boss

Head of Marketing