We all like a nice festive campaign as we gear up for the annual shopping frenzy and enjoy more football than you can ever imagine (in the UK anyway – no winter breaks here).

Everton, a club that I don’t think has been highlighted on here for its social media prowess before, has come up with a great campaign to get fans involved in many different ways.  Often we showcase purely social media campaigns but this pulls in a bit from everywhere, including social, to ensure anyone can take part.

The club are looking to turn the city of Liverpool blue this Christmas, news that will not go down well with the red half of the city!  They’ve created a virtual map of the city which will turn more and more blue everytime a fan ‘does their bit’ on http://www.evertonfc.com/bluecrimbo

Fans can help turn the city blue in any one of six different ways;

1. Tweeting a message containing #BlueCrimbo
2. Buying match tickets online
3. Shopping online
4. Uploading a picture – for example if a fan is swapping their stocking on the fireplace to a blue one or added Everton baubles to the office Christmas tree
5. Opened a window on the club online advent calendar
6. Fill their stocking – this is an online game to win up to £200 worth of Everton gifts

The campaign launched on 27th November and has been ticking along nicely as we approach the festive period.  The #BlueCrimbo hashtag has been used everyday and been peaking at almost 250 mentions a day.

Each day the club will be picking out lucky fans and rewarding them with prizes to help keep the initiative going.  These include signed merchandise, DVD’s, games and much more.

As I said at the start, it’s not just about a quirky social media effort but one which includes all different elements of the clubs online presence (including e-commerce).  It’s basically gamifying the website for a period of time and getting fans involved in some more than just buying presents or tickets or playing odd, fun games.

This has potential benefits which will last past the holiday period and could help a club that, though isn’t seen as one of the ‘elite’ (aka Man United, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal), one that has a very strong devoted following.  It will be very interesting to see what the pick up by fans will be and if the club will benefit financially from extra ticket and merchandise sales.

Hopefully we will find out….. If anyone from Everton reads this, do get in touch 🙂

Here are some images showing the different elements of the campaign from the site.  You can take part at www.evertonfc.com/bluecrimbo

Tweets

Buy Tickets

Christmas Gifts

Pictures

Advent Calendar

Filled Stockings Game