Coca-Cola and soccer share a lot of love.
Both inspire happiness, optimism and togetherness. And we wanted to connect fans with their love of the US Women's National Team during the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. We wanted to make the fans a part of our team in Canada while they watched at home in the States. We wanted to bring them onto the bench.
Our objective was to get in the social conversation by developing a unique perspective on the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in a way true to the Coca-Cola brand.
We needed to create content people wanted to share by leveraging our partnerships with USWNT, star player Alex Morgan and her mother.
And we needed to give fans a voice that could be heard shouting and tweeting from every pitch our players reached in Canada.
@CokeSoccer connected US soccer fans with the USWNT by creating the hashtag #sharethebench.
Because every great team needs a deep bench. The bench is where the team comes together. But not just the team that shares jerseys. The team of support that's been there from the beginning. The family, friends, fellow players, and followers—who are all fans. This was our chance to give them a voice.
We began with a single post using Twitter to help us build the deepest bench of support for our team by tweeting and retweeting using #sharethebench.
We granted fans special access to highlights from every game and to one of their favorite players. We created exclusive content with USWNT star Alex Morgan and her mom featuring a look into their strong relationship and how it brought them both to the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. We also leveraged our partnership with US Soccer to generate posts. And we did it all in real time never knowing if the game being played would be our last.
As momentum began to build, so did our content. We created a Spotify playlist filled with music selected by the USWNT players to get their fans pumped. @CokeSoccer became a platform for fans to post their own #sharethebench inspired posts. We even invited athletes from other sports to share their love for the USWNT.
Through @CokeSocccer, #sharethebench turned Twitter into a worldwide megaphone. We brought fans into the stands with #sharethebench.
@CokeSoccer and #sharethebench racked up 165 million potential social impressions for less than $1 per engagement with 93% positive engagement all in real time. We created a platform for authentic fan content. We featured a Q&A with Alex Morgan's mom that generated 185% engagement rate. And most notably, we grew the @CokeSoccer follower base from 0- 54k in six weeks.
What started as one Tweet turned into hundreds of posts following every game and goose bump.
And when the US Women's National Team clinched victory on July 5, 2015, we were right there with them. With a bench 54,000 fans deep.
