Football may have halted due to the coronavirus pandemic but we have not stopped providing engaging content and giving back to our fans and wider Adelaide United community.
Although no matches are currently taking place, we have tried our best to be by your side and put a smile on your faces during these challenging and uncertain times through our various channels. We have still been very active across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. The importance of creating content that is both innovative and appealing is seemingly more imperative than ever before, given the current situation.
Our commitment over the past couple of weeks has been to relive some of the best moments in the Club’s history and give back to our fans where possible. This has been in the form of showing classic matches as well as brilliant goals, in addition to chatting to former Reds players among other initiatives, while crucially supporting and leveraging our valued commercial partners.
Here are some of the things we have been up to.
Flinders University Isolation Icon
At the beginning of April we launched our Flinders University ‘Isolation Icon’, which pitted 32 of our best former players against each other in a knockout style tournament. Each day fans were given the opportunity to cast their vote on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram where the winner would progress to the next round until a winner was decided. We aligned our Premier Partner, Flinders University, with this initiative and the reach and engagement these posts have had were significantly high with an average of 4,000 aggregate votes per match-up from across each of the three polls. Eugene Galekovic was crowned Flinders University Isolation Icon after beating Craig Goodwin in the final.
IT'S ALL OVER!
Eugene Galekovic is your @Flinders Isolation Icon! 🐐#AUFC #MoreThanFootball pic.twitter.com/o0OjVPVsQD
— Adelaide United (@AdelaideUnited) May 5, 2020
Starfish Developments Star Moments
In late March, we started the concept of showing highlights from iconic matches and incredible goals and got our Platinum Partner, Starfish Developments to be associated with this idea. Some of these moments have also been combined into #OnThisDay posts, marking the anniversary of the event, while others merely look back at tremendous moments of the past and shared accordingly. So far on Twitter, the Starfish Developments Star Moment video with the highest impressions (9,886) and engagement (2,882) was our 4-1 semi-final win over Melbourne City in 2016. However, on Instagram it was the 4-1 victory against the same opponent but a year earlier, which included Tarek Elrich’s individual goal with over 4,000 views.
🗓️ #OnThisDay in 2016 we marched into the Grand Final defeating Melbourne City 4-1 in a helluva @starfish_dev Star Moment ⭐ #AUFCArchives
🎥: @FOXFOOTBALL pic.twitter.com/6Ia66yZP0g
— Adelaide United (@AdelaideUnited) April 21, 2020
The Pitch at Home, brought to you by RAA
Six episodes of The Pitch at Home have so far been released, thanks to Platinum Partner, RAA. Host Jarrod Walsh touches base with former players, discussing a range of topics, which are recorded via Zoom and later aired on our social channels. The episodes range from 15 to 20 minutes and have been well-received by our fans with hundreds of views on YouTube and thousands of views on Facebook and Instagram. Jarrod also of course gets the players to reminisce on their time at the Club and has already spoken to the likes of Travis Dodd, Isaías, Pablo Sánchez, Angelo Costanzo, Michael Valkanis, Jimmy Jeggo, and John McKain.
Sports Power Zorich Group’s Play at Home Challenge
In early April, the #PlayAtHomeChallenge was formed thanks to Sports Power Zorich Group. Former Reds midfielder Marcelo Carrusca demonstrated how to improve your skills in the comfort of your own backyard. The Argentine provided a number of techniques from dribbling around cones, and passing to juggling and tricks to master your first touch. The videos fared well on Twitter with an average of more than 3,000 impressions and over 150 engagements per tweet.
Hyundai A-League 2015/16 Grand Final Replay
To mark the four-year anniversary of our famous Grand Final win over Western Sydney Wanderers we streamed the full game on our Facebook page for your Friday night entertainment. More than 12,000 people tuned in to watch and our social media team covered the game as if it was live with updates of the action posted to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. There was an average of 6,000 impressions and 400 engagements per tweet across the coverage on Twitter. Instagram averaged 3,000 views from the highlights posted, while the median reach on Facebook was around 15,000.
https://twitter.com/AdelaideUnited/status/1256181589530165248?s=20
A few days earlier we also encouraged fans to ‘paint’ themselves and their houses red and sharing the photos of them wearing United apparel. Reliving the contest certainly brought back the memories and was certainly an ideal opportunity to spread some cheer during this tough time by reliving our most successful day in the Club’s history.
Reminiscing @AdelaideUnited @BDjite @BILLIE_JEAN_74 pic.twitter.com/aYawgnYI6J
— Sonia (@Capless) May 1, 2020
McDelivery Membership packs
In April staff including Chairman, Piet van der Pol, CEO Nathan Kosmina, and Director of Football, Bruce Djite, as well as Reds defender Michael Marrone personally delivered supporter packs to some of our members. It was an incredibly welcomed initiative and we will continue distributing packs over the forthcoming weeks.
Following our initial thank you with Michael Marrone, our Chairman, CEO, Director of Football and several staff delivered packs to another 100 of our longest serving and committed members for Easter! ❤️ #AUFC #MoreThanFootball #UnitedApart pic.twitter.com/nNagI51pC9
— Adelaide United (@AdelaideUnited) April 12, 2020
.@MickMarrone helped us put together a few packages for some of our longest serving members. 🙌 Might have a few more stops to make this week… 😏 #AUFC #MoreThanFootball pic.twitter.com/im22nfdYXv
— Adelaide United (@AdelaideUnited) April 8, 2020
Free balls
In late March we placed boxes of footballs at four locations across Adelaide, thanks in large to Starfish Developments and the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure in South Australia. The four locations included our home, Coopers Stadium, in addition to three new suburban establishments by Starfish Developments: Hamptons at Moana, Hamilton Hill, and Dock One at Port Adelaide. The miniature THINK balls and official Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League match balls were gone within minutes once it was announced on our digital channels. With restrictions easing slightly across the state, stay on your toes because another a chance to collect a free football will occur in the coming weeks.
AUFC Club Store
The online AUFC Club Store also has plenty of discounts on merchandise to gifts and accessories. Keep a look out for our weekly discounts and specials. Visit the AUFC Club Store here.
We are on TikTok!
In case you didn’t know we are on TikTok! We have created some hilarious and wacky content in the last couple of weeks as our account continues to grow. Be sure to check it out: www.tiktok.com/@adelaideunitedofficial