Driving massive global reach through a fan–powered football Cup

What happens when 128 football clubs from around the world face each other in a knockout competition powered entirely by fan votes? For Transfermarkt, the answer was clear: unexpected champions, record engagement, and millions of new fans reached globally.

This year, Transfermarkt hosted the Facebook Club Followers Cup, a fan-driven football tournament bringing together clubs worldwide. Leveraging Content Stadium’s all-in-one content creation platform, Transfermarkt produced over 120 high-quality visuals, kept pace with real-time voting rounds, and maintained a consistent identity across all visuals, creating one of the most impactful campaigns on Facebook in Transfermarkt’s history.

Curious to learn more? Keep reading!

The strategy behind the Club Followers Cup

We asked the Head of Marketing at Transfermarkt, Fin Lübbers, about the goals and execution of the campaign. Here’s what he shared:

”The objective of the Club Followers Cup was to achieve maximum reach through massive engagement, particularly shares from fan pages and passionate football communities. We had already tested a Nation Followers Cup earlier this year, which proved highly successful. The Club Followers Cup gave fans the chance to see clubs from smaller countries face global football teams like Manchester United or FC Barcelona, sparking fan communities to ‘go wild’ with shares and interactions.”

Key results: Massive reach and new audiences unlocked

While Transfermarkt had run similar campaigns in the past (one per year on Instagram and occasionally on Facebook) the Club Followers Cup was the first campaign on Facebook that delivered incredible results, reaching entirely new audiences for the very first time, particularly in Africa, including Egypt, Tunisia, and South Africa.

During the Club Followers Cup, clubs from smaller or emerging leagues activated fanbases like never before, generating many thousands of Facebook shares, comments and million votes that pushed them deep into the bracket. Semi-finalists included:

• Kaizer Chiefs
• Ha Noi FC
• Esperance Tunis
• Al Ahly FC, who won the final with 133,000 fan votes

Within just two weeks and across 154 Facebook posts, Transfermarkt’s Club Followers Cup results looked like this:

• 170 million Facebook views
• 4.6 million votes
• 125,000 Facebook comments
• 37,000 shares
• 200,000 new followers on Transfermarkt’s global Facebook page

That’s 1.1 million views per post on average, proving that Facebook can deliver massive engagement and monetization (through Facebook’s Content Monetization program) when paired with the right content strategy and a content creation platform like Content Stadium.

How Content Stadium powered the Club Followers Cup on Facebook

A. Real-time content creation

To handle 128 matches, each requiring a unique, branded voting graphic, Transfermarkt relied heavily on Content Stadium’s PSD Templates, enabling them to produce each voting graphic in just a few minutes:

B. Scalable and efficient content production

Out of 154 Facebook posts, more than 80% were created using Content Stadium. This efficiency allowed a small content team to deliver the output of a full social media team, scaling content production at speed.

‘‘Content Stadium allowed us to scale the entire tournament at incredible speed. Creating 128 branded voting graphics in just a few minutes each would have been impossible without it.” — Fin Lübbers, Head of Marketing at Transfermarkt.

Content Stadium is an all-in-one content creation platform that enables sports and media organizations to produce content at scale, quickly and efficiently. The platform not only allows teams to generate recurring social media content using smart templates but also offers flexible solutions for more customized content needs. For example, Content Stadium’s PSD templates are ideal for specific campaigns, tournaments, or events that require unique social media graphics to be created in real-time.

C. Content monetization

Since Facebook launched its content monetization program, many sports and media organizations have taken the opportunity to earn revenue from Reels, long-form videos, photos, and text posts.

When social media content reaches certain engagement thresholds, as seen with Transfermarkt’s Club Followers Cup, it becomes eligible for monetization. This made the campaign not only a powerful driver of reach, engagement, and follower growth, but also a direct revenue opportunity for Transfermarkt.

Conclusion

The Club Followers Cup was a success on Facebook for several key reasons:

• A fan-driven format: Fan voting tournaments naturally encourage community participation, sharing, and viral discussion.
• New audiences unlocked: The campaign reached new markets in Africa and Asia—particularly Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa, and Vietnam—resulting in 200,000 new followers on Transfermarkt’s Facebook page.
• Facebook’s strength as a sharing platform: Facebook remains the number-one platform for content sharing, where users actively engage with and spread posts within their communities.
• Fast, real-time content production: High-quality social media graphics were created and published in real time, thanks to Content Stadium’s platform, helping the campaign build momentum throughout the tournament.
• Turning content into revenue: Transfermarkt was able to monetize the campaign through Facebook’s Content Monetization program, making the Club Followers Cup not only a powerful driver of reach, engagement, and followers, but also a direct revenue opportunity.

Want the same for your team? Book a demo today!

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