After successful live Copa events during our limited beta release in Brazil and Indonesia, it was clear that Matchday Champions was ready to dial it up. With our move into open beta globally, we needed stars who could match that ambition. Enter the Queen of football and two-time Ballon d’Or winner, Alexia Putellas, alongside YouTube megastar Céline Dept, who commands an audience of nearly 35 million subscribers. Together they brought and firepower to our Copa event like never before.
But first, what exactly is a Copa event? It’s a limited-time event, a tournament of sorts, within Matchday Champions where players choose a side and contribute to their team’s points by playing matches. The side with the most points at the end wins exclusive in-game rewards (don’t tell anyone but the runners up also get something). Events like these are important to keep up interest for long term players, as well as bring in new groups of players who come for the event and enjoy the game.
The Tweet That Turned the Sports World Upside Down
Before the Copa even kicked off, we started the ball rolling towards the goal. A simple 'mysterious' tweet from well-known sports journalist Maria Tikas, who dropped a cryptic if not low-key message: “Alexia has an announcement later on Instagram.”
We anticipated some buzz, but what followed blew us away. Agents, journalists, fans, and internet sleuths scrambled to figure out what the big news could be. The speculation was so intense that Maria had to send out a second tweet clarifying it wasn’t sports-related. Ironically, this clarification tweet garnered even more views than the first!
Kick Off
To launch the nine-day event, we enlisted the help of Billy Wingrove, a popular football YouTuber whose channel centres around football skills and family fun. Billy’s video was a virtuous triangle. It tapped into his engaged audience, introducing Alexia and Céline to new fans. For Alexia’s supporters, it was a treat to see her in a laid-back, fun environment. Meanwhile, Céline’s fans loved seeing her in familiar territory, taking on football challenges and, of course, encouraging them to back her in the game.
Céline of course produced her own video (featuring Alexia and Billy), rallying her fans to support her in the Copa, and the results spoke for themselves. Her solo video racked up almost a million views in a very short amount of time.
Squad Goals
Our goal was straightforward: get players into the game and keep them there. Events like these tend to drive higher retention, but what happened next was unexpected even for us. By pitting Alexia’s and Céline’s dedicated fanbases against each other, we saw engagement levels skyrocket, with a staggering number of matches being played on both sides.
To keep the energy going during the Copa, we brought in Jenni Hermoso, Alexia’s national team teammate and Spain’s all-time top scorer, for a mid-event activation.
As if all that wasn’t enough, we teamed up with a major telecom operator for a quick-strike campaign to hit a broader audience during the Copa. The limited time nature of the Copa adding a layer of urgency to the campaign.
In total, we reached almost 24 million measurable views, and likely several times that through organic sharing by the fanbases of Alexia, Céline, and Jenni and others. As ever with campaigns like this, where good content lives on on platforms like Youtube, the positive effect of the campaign continues with a longer tail. Video views are served long after the event is finished and these raise awareness of the Matchday Champions. Within Matchday Champions, the final scores saw Alexia's dedicated fanbase propelling her to victory. Together, both fanbases combined for almost 2 million points earned in game over the 9 day period.
If you have any questions about our live event strategy in mobile gaming, we’ll be happy to talk about them! As ever, the conversation lives on Discord.
