Welcome to the Red Card 2019 report, now in its 8th year of publication.
The report identifies the number one European Football Club, League and Player online in China according to 8 metrics. The Red Card also includes the ‘China Digital Football Awards’ voted for by a panel of independent judges.
The last 12 months have seen consistent growth in the football industry. Sports IPs no longer simply target brand awareness online, the challenge has been to balance this with digital ROI. Brands started to develop new mediums in 2018, including Mini Programs, apps, branded content, and online/offline partner activations, to generate this return.
The online landscape has become more competitive with a third tier of football clubs launching. Their focus on peak moments throughout the season has been successfully adopted to create headlines through original video production, major campaigns and new platform launches. Content producers such as COPA90 are also using their unique ‘for the fans’ approach to build a football medium fan base.
For one of the first times ever, we’ve seen an ‘East to West’ movement with Douyin’s international version ‘Tik Tok’ becoming one of the world’s most downloaded apps, providing opportunities for football IP to establish themselves with new audiences.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup was a key catalyst for Chinese fans to follow football, claiming record viewing figures and online consumption. FIFA’s newly launched digital channels brought the event to life online with a unique approach to this market.
We hope that you enjoy this report and congratulations to everyone in supporting the growth of football in China.
The full report is available for download here