Total African Cup of Nations, Gabon 2017 scores a strong presence on digital platforms with Lagardère Sports

The 2017 edition of the Total African Cup of Nations which started earlier this month in Gabon, has seen a historic digital reach across official online platforms. The Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) and Lagardère Sports have created a diverse content strategy to bring all the excitement from the tournament straight to football fans across the globe. The competition has seen a massive growth of its digital audience thanks to a number of exclusive live, backstage videos which have been broadcast on social media. 360 degree view videos have also been produced whilst the use of drones have allowed special views in every stadium. The ‘Total man of the match’ interviews, images of the stadium and the stands for the “Orange Fan of the Match” activation have also displayed the competition filled of good vibes.

The official Facebook page recorded a gain of 1.2 million fans to reach an overall total of 2.3 million, and views of video content reached 13 million after only a week. This shows that fans of the most prestigious African competition are more commited than ever. While the 2015 edition had 500,000 engaged users, that number has now reached 5 million for the 2017 edition. On average, all the statistics on social media have grown ten times since the last edition and the official hashtag #CAN2017 as well as other hashtags related to the competition have reached 2 billion impressions on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The new audiences that have been reached are a benefit to the competition’s partners including title sponsor Total. Lagardère Sports has created and  implemented two Total campaigns including the ‘Total Social Stadium’ activation in the Libreville and Franceville stadiums. These social media spaces gather all backstage content and allow communities following the matches differently on social medias. Three African influencers were invited to the space and produced 288 posts which reached 60 million people in two days. The second activation – a webshow named ‘Total Ball Boys’ presented five kids selected in Africa to be the ball boys of the finale. Content from this campaign reccorded 8 millions views at the end of the first week.

Idriss Akki, Managing Director Africa of Lagardère Sports said : “These figures are the result of a lot of hard work by our teams in collaboration with CAF, Total, Orange and the leading digital platforms. 36 Africans countries have logged on to CAF digital platforms since the competition began. These results further show that Africa is more connected than ever. CAF’s competitions gather millions of people throught the continent and broadcasters, partners and fans benefit from this unprecedent exposure. This Total African Cup of Nations 2017 will beat records and we are looking forward to seeing all the results.”