CFL GAME TIME
With a following of approximately 227K, Facebook was the CFL's highest engaged social platform in 2018. I led my team in actively engaging fans on the platform with a variety of content designed and produced with the modern sports fan in mind.
While it served as a fantastic engagement tool, we wanted to uncover the possibilities of using the platform to further strategic business objectives. This included targeting engaged and lookalike audiences with ticketing spots. At the same time, we also needed to highlight the players, stories and news of our League in new creative ways. With this in mind, we created a new weekly show called “CFL Game Time" in partnership with Facebook Canada who was seeking new ways to engage followers via their Watch tool. Our priority for the start of the 2018 CFL season was to highlight the game day experience at our stadiums across the country. With this in mind and an interest in engaging fans with timely, exclusive CFL content each week, we launched CFL Game Time. CFL hosts Brodie Lawson and Davis Sanchez connected with fans live from Thursday Night Football tailgate parties in a new city each week. We created our set in the heart of where fans gather before games and made them part of the show.
In the fall, the weekly show moved from a live, to live-to-tape format, filmed at a variety of locations including the Facebook Canada HQ in Toronto. Conceived as a 30-minute format, the show was then redistributed in segments that were further leveraged across cfl.ca and all other social platforms. Our learnings were constantly incorporated into the evolution of the show and resulted in an average of 171,550 views per episode.
CFL Game Time won for Outstanding Use of Facebook at the Hashtag Sports Awards, which recognizes effective engagement and defines the value of fan & consumer connection for marketers, creators, and storytellers.
I always believed in my team's ability to deliver engaging content to our fans but to be recognized by industry leaders was a boost. It proves that having a creative, nimble group willing to take risks can evolve sports and entertainment content.
For the 2019 CFL season, CFL Game Time evolved again. Our data analysis showed that engagement on Instagram was higher at this time, particularly via their "stories" feature which allowed for immediate interaction and deeper connections than a series of individual photos could provide. I re-envisioned the show for this format and led the creation of a small greenscreen studio space in the league office. Each week, our hosts engaged followers with the latest football news and behind-the-scenes moments from across the league. This resulted in 12M impressions across the season.
CFL Game time offered our partnerships team a variety of innovative ways to ingrate partners into our content. Some highlights included the "Tums Fast" moment of the week, where we highlighted the speediest on-field moment of the week and fantasy segments sponsored by Draft Kings and Leo Vegas. The show also allowed us to regularly promote ticket sales and other league marketing initiatives.
CFL Game Time - Season 1 Highlights
Check out highlights from the first season of the show which aired on Facebook Watch.
CFL Game Time - Season 2 Highlights
Check out highlights from the second season of the show which ran on Instagram stories.