‘The level of exposure is phenomenal’: UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 surpasses 1.34bn social impressions

• UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 social media content registers 1.34 billion total user impressions and 14.3 million user engagements
• Tournament’s top-10 social media posts generated more than 308.4 million user impressions, more than four times the FIFA 2019 Women’s World Cup’s top-10 posts
• England Team and Lionesses TikTok and Facebook channels dominate social interactions
• ‘We’re seeing the democratization of women’s football on social,’ says Relo Metrics’ CEO, Brian Kim

In summing up the success of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 campaign and the opportunities its popularity over the past month will seed for commercial growth, the sector must first take a closer look at the tournament’s audience data. In addition to TV viewership and ticket sales, this includes, notably, how national teams and federations are boosting engagement with their women’s football fans via social media.

Needless to say, the tournament’s impressive attendance and viewership figures, alone, give reason to be optimistic. By way of an example, the BBC’s coverage from the final, which saw England’s Lionesses defeat Germany 2-1 in extra-time, drew a 23.3 million peak audience across the host public-broadcaster’s linear and digital platforms.

Meanwhile, Wembley Stadium also set a record 87,192 attendance for the final – the biggest turnout for any men’s or women’s Euros game – and capped a women’s record 574,875 spectators throughout the entire tournament. The figure, which represents a significant increase on the 240,055 spectators who attended the previous edition, when the Netherlands hosted and won the Women’s Euros in 2017, gives yet another indication of women’s football’s rise to prominence.

Dig deeper, however, and data gleaned from social impressions and engagements registered throughout Euro 2022 unearths some compelling evidence for the popularity of the women’s game among the tournament’s digital following and reveals more about the platforms that receive the most engagement. 

According to data gathered by Relo Metrics, the sponsorship analytics intelligence company, in the 30 days leading up to and including 1st August, the day after the Euro 2022 final, tournament-related content posted via the national teams and UEFA’s social media channels registered 1.34 billion total user impressions and 14.3 million user engagements.

Notably, the tournament’s top-10 social posts (ranked by impressions) accumulated more than 308.4 million user impressions. By comparison, this figure is more than four times the 76 million impressions accrued by the FIFA 2019 Women’s World Cup’s top-10 social media posts to date. The data shared with N3XT Sports covers every competing national team and federation that posted on their social channels during Euro 2022, as well as content published by UEFA and its WEuro2022 account.

The data is broken down by impressions and engagements, respectively, and demonstrates how fans interact with content differently across platforms. For example, the majority of Euro 2022’s top social posts (ranked by impressions) were posted via the England Team’s Facebook page, as well as the team’s respective England and Lionesses Twitter channels. The most significant post, published on Facebook, celebrated the Lionesses' victory over Germany with a simple graphic, and fetched 57.8 million impressions and 187,000 engagements within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the majority of Euro 2022’s top-10 social posts (ranked by engagements) were posted via TikTok and showcases the influence the short-form social video platform, launched by China-based ByteDance in September 2016, continues to have on sports audiences. A study carried out by Influencer Marketing Hub identified sports and fitness content as the platform’s fourth most engaging category, contributing in excess of 57 billion sports-related hashtag views as of July 2020. 

As women’s football attracts more media and brand partnerships – including the unbundling of men’s and women’s sponsorship rights – understanding which channels fans are engaging with women’s football content is vital for the sector’s commercialization between major events. This includes the impact of player-focused, featured video content, which proved powerful for building fan advocacy during Euro 2022.

By way of an example, five of the top-ten social posts (ranked by engagements) were published via England’s TikTok account. At the time of analysis, the most engaging TikTok post came before the final itself and featured a Q&A with Lionesses striker Fran Kirby, who answered popular-culture questions while doing keepy-ups. At the time of writing, that post had racked up more than 4.3 million video views. 

When compared to the performance of other major social media platforms, while Instagram accrued a higher (total) number of engagements on average compared to TikTok, the teams that published via TikTok registered an average 5,100 engagements per post, which equates to almost 3.5 times more engagements per post than teams averaged via Instagram. 

However, despite greater cut-through on TikTok, Relo Metrics’ data shows that, of the 16 UEFA member associations involved in the Euro 2022 finals, only a handful regularly posted via their dedicated TikTok accounts, with England setting the benchmark.

According to Brian Kim, Relo Metrics’ CEO, this signals an “opportunity” for UEFA’s member associations to build their women’s football audience via TikTok, while the data also highlights “the speed in which the digital landscape is changing”. This is pertinent, Kim says, considering that, by comparison, all but one of the 2019 Women’s World Cup’s top-10 posts (ranked by impressions) were posted via Instagram, while the global gathering’s top post was published via the earned media outlet, Fox Sports, and generated 12.2 million impressions.

“What we are seeing is the democratization of social media channels across women’s football,” Kim continues. “By demonstrating a wider breadth of engagement and interactions with fans via a multitude of platforms, the women’s game is not only capable of growing its fan base but is increasing its commercial viability among brand sponsors attracted by the appeal of women’s club and international football to mass audiences.”

TikTok was confirmed in May as the Official Entertainment Platform of UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 and follows the platform’s partnership with UEFA for the men’s EURO 2020 tournament, which was deferred until the summer of 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and took place across multiple European cities. 

While a massive coup for UEFA and the exposure TikTok offers women’s football in European markets, Arianna Criscione, N3XT Sports’ Director of Women’s Football, says lessons can be taken from England’s social media dominance during Euro 2022, and inform the implementation of effective direct-to-consumer (D2C) content strategies within women’s football’s emerging markets.

“On one hand, the level at which the Lionesses has inspired a nation is unsurprising, especially considering the attention English football gives to producing digital content for fans,” Criscione says. “While The Football Association (The FA) in England and its national team setup continue to inspire fans on the pitch, it is behind the scenes where the federation has taken huge strides, demonstrated by the strength and success of their social media campaigns during the Euros.

How the wider industry adopts their own digital strategy, market by market, will determine the impact of Euro 2022’s legacy on the future of the women’s game.

Arianna Criscione, N3XT Sports’ Director of Women’s Football

“Our goal is to grow women’s football all around the world, so while The FA and the England team have set the benchmark for engaging fans via social media, how the wider industry adopts their own digital strategy, market by market, will determine the impact of Euro 2022’s legacy on the future of the women’s game.”

Among the tournament’s other top social posts, Germany’s DFB.Frauen Facebook page received 27.89 million impressions and more than 90,200 engagements for a post published during their semi-final match versus France. 

Elsewhere, the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022’s communications team demonstrated how its social posts can give exposure to its partners. For example, a Facebook post featuring a video sponsored by Euro 2022’s global partner, Hisense, generated 4.91 million impressions. The video, which includes a goal highlight from England’s semi-final victory over Sweden, was viewed more than 1.3 million times. 

“This level of exposure is phenomenal for the growth of the women’s game,” Criscione continues, “yet there is more that can be achieved outside European football’s biggest markets. In order to make the women’s game more attractive to sponsors, football must learn how to maximize engagement with fans via their digital and social platforms and leverage fan data to activate lucrative brand partnerships that generate greater value for the sport.”

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