The EHF Marketing GmbH, a marketing arm and subsidiary of the European Handball Federation, has tapped Kwangl Solutions to “create and deploy a system for incentivizing and rewarding handball fans across Europe.”

Kwangl put out a press release Monday regarding this partnership, allowing the EHFM and its numerous sponsors to be proactive and reward fans of the VELUX EHF Champions League and the WOMEN’S EHF Champions League. With Kwangl’s traditional advertising combined with its unique “programmable hashtags,” the EHFM and its sponsors can expect a boost in marketing techniques and an amplified reach to consumers.

“Our challenge at EHFM is how we can best proactively engage with handball fans and also offer our sponsors with new opportunities to reach them,” said David Szlezak, Managing Director of EHFM. “Kwangl will enable us to implement innovative marketing campaigns through our social media channels. We’re thrilled by this opportunity that places EHFM at the forefront in the adoption of marketing technology in sport.”

As opposed to relying on traditional advertising through just social media, Kwangl connects advertising with both social media and the second screen in order to provide instant advertising conversion. They do this through “programmable hashtags,” which allows companies to reward consumers who take part in their advertising.

A popular example of this type of innovative marketing approach came from the Super Bowl in 2014. ESurance, an American insurance company, bought the first commercial after the game ended, saving the company $1.5 million. They then ran a sweepstakes for the saved money, with consumers able to enter simply by tweeting #ESuranceSave30. About 12 hours after the advertisement aired, over two million people entered the contest, and ESurance’s Twitter follower count exploded from 8,900 to 155,000.

Kwangl’s basic approach to advertising is very similar, as they capitalize on the second screen to expand a brand’s target audience on social media. On their website, the marketing company reports 76 percent of adults used a second screen while watching a sports match in 2014. Likewise, 62 percent of consumers believed their brands do not do enough to reward them.

With Kwangl’s innovative “programmable hashtags” likely to pop up during televised handball matches, however, sponsors of the EHFM will be able to better connect with consumers while rewarding them simply for engaging with the advertisement.

“Contrary to most advertising taking place in social networks through native formats, Kwangl is a marketing solution that can help any brand, in any category, bridge the gap between traditional advertising and social amplification,” said Matthew Edgley, Chief Operating Officer of Kwangl. “The mechanics of audience self-selection inherent to the way our programmable hashtags work prevent second-guessing in terms of targeting and therefore delivers the best value for money to advertisers, and should enable EHFM and its sponsors to extract maximum effectiveness from their future campaigns.”