Article

Matt Bowell
Matt Bowell 30 June 2016

Euro ’96 To Euro 2016: Football’s Not Coming Home, But It Has Gone Digital

Putting my disappointment aside, lets ponder how digital has changed the way we consume the feast of football that is the Euros.

When Wes Hoolahan banged in Republic of Ireland’s opener against Sweden, I was on board a Chiltern train somewhere between London and Birmingham streaming it via BBC Sport’s website. I promptly tweeted what I was doing to plain show off (using Twitter’s national flag emoji of course) and could see that #IREvSWE (23.6K tweets) was trending along with #Hoolahan (18.9K) and #MarkLawrenson, who was commentating on the game – and not doing a good job of it, according to the Twitterverse. I must highlight that #Zlatan (61.9K) was also trending, but it’s pretty standard for Zlatan Ibrohimivic to go viral these days, even when he’s not on the field of play.

Streaming, tweeting, trending, emojis, going viral… These are words that wouldn’t have been anywhere near our vocabulary during Euro ’96 twenty years ago. How things have changed since we hosted the same tournament on home soil.

1996 was the year the Internet became a ‘thing’ for much of the population. Windows 95 was being used and the future of Apple was in doubt. Outside of this, DVDs were emerging and digital photography began to trickle into public consciousness. Nobody had a mobile phone – not in my circles anyway.

This obviously impacted how we consumed a major football tournament. We could either watch it at home with family and friends on our analogue TV (not smart, HD or 4K ready) with four terrestrial channels, or we went to the pub to watch it on the big screen (or slightly larger TV). We talked or shouted our thoughts at the screen and then analysed the game afterwards with a drink and some scampi fries. How times have changed.

90s-football.png

And now look at us. Bespoke content feeds or bots serve up personalised Euro 2016 content to us just how we want it. We’ve got statistics coming out of our eyeballs that tell us everything we need to know about teams, players, shots, tackles, assists and more. Big data tries to predict results, while a raft of online gambling companies hope we’ll put our money where our mouth is. All while brands are trying to work out how to find an angle and get cut-through with their content.

Some of the best so far include Orange illuminating the Eiffel Tower with the colours of the team who received the biggest support via social media during each game, and Carlsberg using their familiar ‘If Carlsberg did…’ advertising theme to roll out a series of stunts activated online intended to generate significant social buzz. Needless to say bloggers, vloggers and successful digital content creators have likely been secured early by brands to help with digital marketing objectives throughout the tournament. But of course, some brands just got the luck of the draw.

Match-Of-The-Day.jpg

We’ve also seen the power of instant media sharing. A moment caught on camera can instantly be replayed, edited and spread across the internet, ranging from the spectacular (think Boateng’s goal-line clearance in Germany’s opener) to the downright bizarre (Joachim Löw, the German manager, having a scratch down his shorts followed by a sniff). We’ve also seen a YouTube clip of a bloke from Wigan singing an adaptation of popular 1997 hit Freed from Desire. The song about Wigan and Northern Ireland striker Will Grigg consequently went viral and was a popular song at the Euros amongst Northern Ireland and England fans alike.

Does all of this digital content compliment or dilute the watching of a live football broadcast? Well, that’s open to debate. Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of people would probably still like to watch the game at home or in the pub – but it wouldn’t be without a device in hand through which their thoughts, anger, elation and analysis could be voiced for the world to see in real-time. And how else would you impress your mates with the half-time stats, replay the goals and near-misses and check whether anyone else has noticed that one Irish fan dressed as a leprechaun among a sea of Swedes?

So instead of dwelling on #ENGICE, let’s hark back to ’96 and the content we could have enjoyed: Pearce’s penalty celebration GIF and memes generated off the back of it; streams of Three Lions via Spotify and SoundCloud; Periscopes galore of celebrations around the country after the Dutch victory. I also wonder what would have happened after Gazza’s goal against Scotland and dentist chair celebration in today’s world. They talk about content breaking the internet – I’m pretty sure that moment would have done just that, and left it limping for quite a while afterwards.

Original Article

Please login or register to add a comment.

Contribute Now!

Loving our articles? Do you have an insightful post that you want to shout about? Well, you've come to the right place! We are always looking for fresh Doughnuts to be a part of our community.

Popular Articles

See all
How to Review a Website — A Guide for Beginners

How to Review a Website — A Guide for Beginners

A company website is crucial for any business's digital marketing strategy. To keep up with the changing trends and customer buying behaviors, it's important to review and make necessary changes regularly...

Digital Doughnut Contributor
Digital Doughnut Contributor 25 March 2024
Read more
The Impact of New Technology on Marketing

The Impact of New Technology on Marketing

Technology has impacted every part of our lives. From household chores to business disciplines and etiquette, there's a gadget or app for it. Marketing has changed dramatically over the years, but what is the...

Alex Lysak
Alex Lysak 3 April 2024
Read more
How to Understand Your Customer Needs Through Social Media?

How to Understand Your Customer Needs Through Social Media?

Social media is generally known to be a tool of online communication that is used to easily share information and bring together people with similar ideas on the internet. But brands use them as a marketing tool. And...

Manisha Sukhyani
Manisha Sukhyani 29 August 2017
Read more
5 films with Brilliantly Designed Websites

5 films with Brilliantly Designed Websites

The best websites take visitors on a journey that will leave them wanting more. So set aside an hour or three and explore these five brilliantly designed film websites.

Nathan Jones
Nathan Jones 15 April 2016
Read more
Brand Advertising: 5 Ways to Increase Brand Awareness

Brand Advertising: 5 Ways to Increase Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is one of the most important KPIs that a company can focus on. It is an important driver of growth and is one of the main factors involved in leading a consumer to make a purchase. With millions of...

Steve Habazin
Steve Habazin 11 February 2020
Read more