Uefa ramps up digital presence in Champions League final run-up

The football organisation hopes to extend its reach by pushing its Champions Festival with live streaming and Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter and Android app activity.

The Uefa Champions Festival is currently being hosted at Munich's Olympiapark to offer a free celebration of this weekend’' Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea, which is also taking place in Munich.

Those who can't attend the festival in person will be able to download the Android app to access unique content from the festival.

Uefa is also hoping to extend its reach by live-streaming the Ultimate Champions match, which involves football legends such as Cafu, Fabio Cannavaro, Patrick Vieira, Samuel Eto'o, Gianfranco Zola, and Roy Makaay. The match will take place on at midday, local time on Saturday.

The Foursquare campaign will allow fans to "check in" anywhere they are watching the Champions League final, by using the phrase "Uefa Champions League" as a tag that unlocks the official Foursquare UEFA Champions League final badge.

Alexandre Fourtoy, Uefa 's director of communications, said: "This is going to be a true digital festival. Our goal is to engage fans in Munich, as well as those around the world, in the Uefa Champions League final festivities by using a range of digital platforms that are easy to use and interact with.

"We hope that the new Foursquare activation coupled with Google+ hangouts will bring the finals of the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Women’s Champions League to life for those fans who can't attend the event."

Uefa has partnered with Google+ for a number of initiatives during the festival, including giant photos with a direct link to Google+ that allows fans to share photos with their friends.

Ex-Chelsea FC defenders Graeme Le Saux and Celestine Babayaro will both host Google+ hangouts, as well as retired women's footballer Steffi Jones, who will focus on the Uefa Women's Champions League final.

The Android app will feature interactive maps and schedules and will allow users to queue-jump to have their photo taken with the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Women’s Champions League trophies.

Uefa is also running a live social stream of the festival with daily updates and pictures from Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

A Champions Festival Facebook tab has been launched to host videos featuring interviews with stars that have been posted on YouTube.

On Twitter there will be a Q&A session via an #Ask hashtag with former Bayern Munich footballers Willy Sagnol and Giovane Elber.

Steve McManaman and Christian Karembeu, both European football champions with Real Madrid, will also be taking part in the session.

Follow Matthew Chapman at @mattchapmanUK

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk