Case study: FourFourTwo and McGettigan's

Who are ya?

Launched in 1994, FourFourTwo is the world’s most popular football magazine with 17 global editions. It has grown into a multi-platform brand that reaches 1m global readers in print and 5m website users per month.

Across its social media platforms, it reaches 80m people every month.

Since its first site opened in Dublin in the 1960s, McGettigan's has expanded into a global operation with venues across Ireland as well as locations further afield in London, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Jakarta and New York City.

What they did?

The game plan was to deliver a partnership between one of the world’s leading football media brands and a leading sports bar chain to create authentic and credible experiences for fans as well as generating incremental revenues for both.

Their goal was to create a great atmosphere and experience that could be enjoyed by fans of all nations during Euro 2016 at the McGettigan's site in Singapore – a country that obviously wasn’t represented in France during the European Championships and where many of the games kicked off in the small hours of the morning.

FourFourTwo and McGettigan's created a Euro 2016 fan hub – FourFourTwo HQ – at McGettigan's Singapore branch, targeting expats.

They hosted 11 promoted nights with FourFourTwo staff, ex-players, local internationals on hand to provide live match previews, as well as live bands and DJs to help build the atmosphere.

The venue was sponsored by Samsung, who provided televisions, World First and Grab, Singapore’s answer to Uber, which helped ferry people to and from the venue in the early hours. During the course of the month, there were more than 5,000 activations on Grab’s promo code.

FourFourTwo also created a wide range of Euro 2016 related content from the venue that populated an online content hub.

Why a pub?

Jackson highlighted that magazines can’t rely solely on print revenues any longer and that, during the past decade, emphasis has shifted to establishing what exactly FourFourTwo means as a brand.

Its aim has become to connect with football connoisseurs who are interested in the sport globally.

Jackson explained that a partnership with a pub was a “natural extension”.

He added: “Our audience are the most engaged and knowledgeable football fans in the world. We provided a place for them to come together.”

How it was done

FourFourTwo HQ was launched on the magazine’s website and publicised via other local media highlighting the best places to watch Euro 2016 – such as Time Out: Singapore.

Early content included flying a video drone over the venue and using it to create video content online. Live content from the event contributed to daily bulletins and features, all of which added to FourFourTwo’s online content hub.

The venue was dressed and branded for the whole month and there was a targeted outdoor campaign promoting the fan hub around the precinct in which McGettigan's was located.

FourFourTwo and McGettigan's also worked with local broadcasters who were looking for live crosses to fan locations before, at half time and after matches to add a supporter aspect to Euro 2016 programming.

Jackson added: “People watching TV in the venue and were seeing themselves and people watching at home saw what was going on.”

He also highlighted that small touches like spending a couple of hundred pounds on a replica trophy added an exciting, socially shareable, novelty to proceedings.

Broad international focus

Jackson highlighted that the "lazy" approach would have been to exclusively show England matches.

Instead, the team behind the partnership went to great lengths to sell other international games, giving the example of their approach to Ireland’s encounter with Belgium.

In order to attract Belgium fans to the venue, the team stoked rivalry via social media as well as contacting the ambassadors for both countries and invited them to sit in opposite sides of the venue.

Jackson also highlights the willingness of supporters to adopt a country based on which players are representing them.

“Football fans support their club, but idolise and follow players – that’s why Cristiano Ronaldo has more followers than Real Madrid.

“Think about your local club and who plays for them.”

World Cup 2018

With 27% of fans in the UK planning to watch the 2018 World Cup at a bar of organised event, 31% of FourFourTwo’s UK audience watching football in a pub or bar at least once a week, McGettigan's and FourFourTwo have decided to bring the party atmosphere to west London this summer.

Jackson explains that given the England games will, by and large, take care of themselves, the focus once again with be to drive footfall during other nations' games.

“We're not really focusing on England, we’re going to be busy for the England games, that’s not a problem,” he said.

Starting the marketing and promotion for the event four weeks prior to the opening game of the tournament, FourFourTwo and McGettigan's will follow a similar plan to the one that brought them success in Singapore.

Their strategy will revolve around creating content to populate an online hub, pre-event promotion online and on social media, outreach to local media and FourFourTwo’s existing email database and contacting local supporter groups representing different nations – for example, given the lack of a Brazil supporters club in London, the team behind the partnership has reached out to groups affiliated to Brazilian club sides such as Flamengo.

Remember why fans are there

In closing, Jackson’s key piece of advice is that regardless of the fanfare around the event, anyone looking to host World Cup events this summer needs to remember that everything needs to revolve around fans being able to watch games without being disturbed.

He said: “Don’t interrupt that 90 minutes.

“Fans go away with a different insight to what they’d see on TV and something personal."