LA Galaxy

How does a sports franchise capitalize on breaking news about an athlete to generate awareness?

Challenge

Build on excitement surrounding the news of a popular athlete’s renewed contract to generate awareness for the team.

Solution

Used Promoted Tweets in timelines to engage with fans along with Promoted Tweets in search to guide real-time conversations and drive website traffic.

Results

  • Twitter #1 website traffic referrer
  • 47% of referral traffic on event day
  • 39% of referral traffic overall
Tweet

The Los Angeles Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) is a Major League Football team that has won the MLS Cup championship title three times. They made international headlines in 2007 by signing British superstar David Beckham from Real Madrid in a deal potentially worth $250 million.

Their challenge

The Los Angeles Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) wanted to capitalize on the exciting news of their renewed contract with superstar David Beckham. Anticipating that fans, sports enthusiasts and the press would be talking about the news on Twitter, they saw an opportunity to guide those conversations and drive traffic to their website.

Their solution

@LAGalaxy generated excitement about Beckham’s renewed contract amongst followers and users similar to their followers with Promoted Tweets in timelines.

To guide real-time conversations, @LAGalaxy targeted prominent sports media outlets and trending topics such as ‘Beckham’ and ‘Galaxy’ with Promoted Tweets in search. Their Tweets also directed fans to the team’s website, and ultimately, to a live-streamed press conference using the hashtag #BeckhaminLA alongside images and quotes from the team.

“We knew the story would break on Twitter, and we wanted to drive those conversations to our web properties.”

Lisa BregmanDigital Content Manager, LA Galaxy

Their results

3 keys to success

  1. Activate your fan base. 
    Target your Promoted Tweets to the timelines of fans to build awareness and excitement around big announcements or events. @LAGalaxy used Promoted Tweets in timelines to broadcast the news of Beckham’s contract renewal to their followers and users similar their followers. 

     
  2. Capitalize on real-time conversations. 
    When news breaks, it breaks on Twitter. @LAGalaxy anticipated the online buzz following the news of Beckham’s renewed contract and guided those conversations using Promoted Tweets in search with terms like ‘Galaxy’ and ‘Beckham.’ 
  3. Increase engagement with exclusive content. 
    Heighten the fervor from fans and spur conversations with exclusive pictures, quotes and videos. @LAGalaxy increased engagement by including images of Beckham, a live-stream of his press conference and quotes from the team in their Promoted Tweets.