The European Handball Federation (EHF) and it’s media and marketing partners, DAZN Group and Infront, celebrated a significant milestone in its digital strategy at the Men’s EHF EURO 2022, with both reach and engagement setting new benchmarks for future events.
There were almost 20m engagements across the EHF’s social channels, marking an increase of more than two thirds on the 2020 edition. In addition, the event reached almost 420m people, an increase of more than 82% from the previous tournament.
The change reflects the increase in content published – which was also up by 22% – as well as the ongoing efforts of both the EHF and its commercial partners to bring handball to new audiences. This is further mirrored in the number of new followers surpassing 155,000, a growth of 112%.
Efforts to reach new markets were also reflected elsewhere. Broadcast time grew by over 40% to 5,150 hours whilst the event was more widely shown in Asia for the first time. There was also significant increase within Europe. Eventual champions Sweden saw its domestic live audience increase by more than 30% to 28m whilst runners-up Spain increased by 75% to just under 12m.
Martin Hausleitner, Secretary General of the European Handball Federation, said: “It is our goal to create and curate content for all our fans and stakeholders on digital and social media to grow audiences, engage and entertain them beyond the 60 minutes of the game and lay the foundation for the long-term growth of handball. The numbers underline that the Men’s EHF EURO has been another milestone on this path.”
Stewart Walker, EVP Global Rights Partnerships, DAZN Group: “These figures show how our digital approach is engaging handball fans, boosting audience numbers and making EHF’s competitions more accessible than ever before. Together with Infront, our progressive digital marketing and content strategy is driving commercial growth and helping handball reach new fans worldwide.”
Julien Ternisien, Senior Vice President Summer Sports, said: “Since work began on this updated digital strategy we have seen continued growth at every subsequent event. The audience for handball is growing year-on-year and the sport is expanding into new markets in a way it has never done before.”
The Men’s EHF EURO 2022 took place in Hungary and Slovakia from 13 to 30 January 2022. The 65 matches were screened in 114 countries and territories around the world.
Source: EHF
Frederick Marfo is a sportswriter and social worker well known for his advocacy for equal chances and rights for all athletes, especially those with disabilities.
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