September 25 – The AFC is committing to a deeper and more engaged digital engagement strategy for its new club competition following the record numbers achieved for its national team competitions this year.
A meeting of the AFC Media & Communications Committee for the 2023-2027 term was updated on the growth achieved, led by the Asian Cup Qatar 2023, which recorded 7.9 billion impressions – a 791% increase on 2019 across the AFC’s digital platforms.
Growth was not confined to the Asian Cup with U17 Women’s Asian Cup Indonesia 2024 showing a 321% uplift, 266% for the U23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024, 72% for the U20 Women’s Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2024 and 22.3% for the Futsal Asian Cup Thailand 2024.
Video views across all digital platforms rose to 1.27 billion for 2024 – a 164% year-on-year improvement – and total followers stood at 30.6 million, a 20% increase. There was also a 258% year-on-year increase to 48.1 million page views for the AFC’s website, accompanied by a 228% increase to 13.1 million users.
The AFC said there will be a further reconfiguration of the website supporting the AFC’s revamped club competitions that kicked off this month.
Building on this strong momentum, the Committee was updated on the new efforts being implemented in tandem with the revamped club competitions for the 2024/25 season – the AFC Champions League Elite™, AFC Women’s Champions League™, AFC Champions League Two™ and AFC Challenge League™ – that kicked off earlier this month.
These include a reconfiguration of the AFC website, which continues to serve as the main source of information for all of the Confederation’s competitions.
The AFC has added Fantasy Football and Match Predictor gamification for the Champions League Elite, while at the same time boosting coverage of the AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to 26.
The AFC said these initiatives will increase data within customer relationship management (CRM) system, which was launched last year to gather detailed knowledge of Asian football fans’ preferences.
The meeting noted that the AFC LIVE mobile application has had more than 280,000 downloads since its launch in 2023. Available in English and Arabic on both Apple and Android devices, the app is the mobile hub of the latest AFC news and scores.
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