Euros 2020: England wins on Twitter

England might have come in second at Euros 2020, losing a nail biter against Italy, but the team won big on Twitter.

On Monday, we dug into the data in Blinkfire trying to find some interesting stories to tell. Italy winning would have been the obvious one, but then we found ourselves in Global Ranking. And, there it was. England sat atop the list followed by Italy, France, Germany, and Denmark.

England’s Twitter engagement during the tournament was

• 192% more than Italy
• 418% more than France
• 552% more than Germany
• 557% more than Denmark

The question we had was “why?”. What did England do so well on Twitter to elevate their engagement by such numbers. We have a few ideas.

Twitter content themes

There were four content themes that stuck out when looking at England’s Twitter posts. And, after some simple math, we think we were onto something as some 50 posts drove nearly 15% of England’s total Twitter engagement. Wild, huh?

Home field advantage
Wembley wasn’t just a host stadium for #Euros2020. It also hosted the semis & finals, offering the team opportunities to post images and videos of fans/supporters inside and outside of the stadium.

Creativity with game preview posts
More often that not a team will post a typical game preview post with an image of a player or two with the time of the game. However, England took it a step further. Before every game they posted an image of a jersey w/ their team crest + opponent and date embroidered. Bonus: Exposure for apparel sponsor Nike.

Player Recovery + Pool Time
Inflatable pool unicorns are fun in general, but when you see world-class soccer players on them, well, it just hits differently. England posted a series of images of their team enjoying their down time in the pool — unicorns and whales were also guests.

Teamsheet (aka Lineup graphics)
Yes, it helps when you’re winning to get fans excited before games. But, posting lineup graphics and highlighting players yields great results on social. England did just that.