Project Summary

STATSports are the World’s leading player tracking and analysis provider in elite sports, with current clients including: Liverpool, Juventus, Manchester City, English FA, England RFU, IRFU. In 2018 STATSports created a version of their elite sports APEX product, named APEX Athlete Series, to target the consumer market.

What We Did

- Digital Advertising Strategy
- Digital Creative Requirements
- Paid Social Advertising
- YouTube Advertising
- Google Advertising

Problem

In Q3 of 2019 English Premier League footballers Raheem Sterling and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain were signed as brand ambassadors and having used the STATSports technology since their early teens, proved an authentic way to tell the STATSports story. S

STATSports alongside Groundswell identified this as a huge opportunity to join the dots between the elite product and the consumer product. In particular, the Liverpool vs Manchester City game on 10^th November 2019 where Raheem Sterling and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain would both be playing was selected for the launch of the ‘Talent alone is not enough’ campaign across UK, US and EU to coincide with peak retail season in Q4.

Solution

We launched a multi-channel digital marketing campaign with the below objectives:

Secure and deliver Sky Sports TV ads during the Liverpool vs Manchester City game
Launch full digital advertising campaign across:
- Facebook
- Instagram
- YouTube
- Google Search
STATSports Apex product to be featured on Raheem Sterling and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain’s organic social channels
Increase sessions to the site by 100%
Increase transactions by 100%
Greatly increase STATSports and Apex Athlete Series product awareness

Following an initial planning session with STATSports marketing team, the project implementation included:

Strong bank of assets created featuring Raheem Sterling and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain optimised to be used across channels
Targeted paid social strategy to capture attention and drive users to the site and remarket to various levels of intent
Google Search campaigns built to include relevant keywords and text ads, particularly for users who saw the Sky TV ad and searched during the game
Display campaigns built using custom intent audiences
YouTube TrueView For Action campaigns in UK & USA using specific custom intent targeting including
Custom Intent audience targeting for users who are searching football training drill related keywords
SkySports TV 10 second ads secured for half time ad break during Liverpool vs Manchester City game
SkyGo 6 second pre roll ad secured for Liverpool vs Manchester City game
Email marketing campaigns built and scheduled for campaign launch

Our main goal for this campaign was to utilise our brand ambassadors Raheem Sterling (Manchester City and England) and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain (Liverpool and England) during a key game in the season which coincided with peak retail season in Q4. Ensuring we increased visibility of the STATSports brand and accelerated sales was key to this campaign. Having worked with Groundswell since 2017, they have a deep understanding of both our business and our ambitious targets. The approach and implementation from the start of the campaign planning phase right through to launch was a great success and we’re delighted with the results. We not only had 2 record consecutive months but hit our 6-figure sales target!

Ian Forrester - Head of Marketing - STATSports

Results

Record sales months for STATSports

149% increase in sessions to the site (vs previous year)

150% increase in transactions (vs previous year)

Over 1 million video views on YouTube ad

Over 3.7 million video views on Facebook and Instagram

125 Sky Sports TV ads – included during Liverpool vs Manchester City game, football and Sky Sports News

613%

Increase in brand search via the UK

126%

Increase in revenue (vs previous year)

Case Study