By Tom Parsons
April 11- Wembley plays host to this weekend’s FA Cup semi-finals with football’s first social media pen opening at the historic venue at the same time.
Two ‘Phoneographers’- photographers who use smartphones rather than professional cameras – will be given the same accreditation as professional media. The two phonegraphers, Oliver Neilsen from Leeds and Ope Oduyungbo from London, will become official social reporters of the FA Cup as part of Budweiser’s documentation of this season’s FA Cup.
The phonegraphers will be able to capture, edit and share all the action from the semi-finals live from their mobile phones in the same fashion other media do.
The Budweiser initiative continues one of the company’s sponsorship themes of bringing the FA Cup closer to fans. The content will be used in an advert that tells the story of the 2012/13 FA Cup from a fans perspective.
The two minute ad will be broadcast during the last commercial break before The FA Cup Final kicks off at 5:30pm on the May 11.
The phoneographer’s images will be shared on Twitter under the hashtag #tothedream and fellow football fans will also be able to tweet their videos and photographs to @budweiserUK for their chance to appear in a Budweiser fan film TV advert.
Budweiser’s UK Marketing Director Iain Newell, said of the promotion: “It reflects the changing way people get their football updates and our desire to bring the magic of The FA Cup even closer to the fans, which social media certainly has the potential to do.”
Clubs and sponsors are increasingly incorporating social media into their marketing and media mix. 90 out of the 92 English football league clubs are on Twitter (the exceptions being Manchester United and Morecambe), with all 92 clubs having a Facebook page.
In February, Australian A league side Melbourne Heart produced kits where players had their Twitter handles on the back of their playing shirts instead of their names. This wasn’t the first time this happened; Mexican side Jaguares did the same with their players and sponsors back in 2011 in attempt to help them gain more exposure and followers on the social networking site.
Valencia also used the opportunity to self promote their twitter page when they didn’t have a paying sponsor for a game against Barcelona. The feat worked as their then 25,000 followers has risen to 250,000 since October 2011.
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