Munich week a global digital success

The 2012 UEFA Champions League final was delivered to millions of fans worldwide across various platforms thanks to UEFA's cutting-edge digital strategy.

The 19 May showpiece between FC Bayern München and Chelsea FC had a global live reach of over 300 million people watching on television, with supporters also able to receive digital content throughout the week leading up to the game and during the final itself.

During the free four-day UEFA Champions Festival prior to the decider, UEFA used key digital platforms such as Google+, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Foursquare, as well as a free Android smartphone application, to share unique content with fans.

UEFA communications director Alexandre Fourtoy said: "The success of the various social media platforms covering the UEFA Champions League final and related activities shows fans are at the core of UEFA's approach. UEFA is proud to develop this direct bond with fans through its digital communications strategy, as fans make European football what it is."

UEFA tracked traffic and engagement across all media channels used in the build-up to the UEFA Champions League final. Key figures include:

• A 12% increase on UEFA.com compared to the same period last year.

• More than 300,000 viewers of the Ultimate Champions match, streamed live for the first time on UEFA.com, YouTube and Google+.

• 4.8 million tweets with reference to the final, the teams and the players.

• 52,000 new Facebook likes, bringing the total of fans on the UEFA Champions League page to nearly 2.5 million.

• Over 103,000 new Google+ circles were created on the new UEFA.com Google+ page, which played host to six hangouts during the UEFA Champions Festival.

• Over 20,000 UEFA Champions League Foursquare badges featuring the UEFA Champions League trophy were unlocked on the day of the final.

Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA's marketing director, said: "We are delighted with the incredible global viewing figures. The successful digital strategy helped us increase global interest in a brilliant week of football culminating in a thrilling final."

Olympic star Usain Bolt made a special guest appearance at the Ultimate Champions match and subsequently attended a UEFA.com Google+ hangout to answer questions from fans worldwide. Also taking part were former Chelsea players Ruud Gullit, Graeme Le Saux and Celestine Babayaro, as well as Steffi Jones, the official ambassador for the 2012 UEFA Women's Champions League final.

Meanwhile, UEFA's ground-breaking global Foursquare campaign enabled fans to check in anywhere they were watching the final by using the phrase 'UEFA Champions League' as a shout.

There were 215,000 fans using #ChampionsLeague, with all Twitter data gathered using TweetReach, which tracked all references to the UEFA Champions League throughout the week. The real-time monitoring reflected the exciting climax of the game, with more than 100,000 tweets sent in the minute after Didier Drogba's equaliser.

A new Android app dedicated to the festival and the 2012 UEFA Women's Champions League final allowed fans to interact with events on the ground. The app featured interactive maps and schedules and also included an option for users to queue-jump to have their photo taken with the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Women's Champions League trophies.

Fans not attending the festival were able to follow the live social stream with daily updates and pictures from Twitter, Facebook and Google+, as well as create a souvenir photo to share with friends.