Big data case study: FIFA World Cup 2014

Consumers are hard to win and even harder to retain. Online consumer behaviour is a whole new dimension. In this complex multi-platform environment, traditional market research can only tell you so much.

This is why SingTel combined its entire suite of analytics capabilities to give advertisers a holistic view of consumer behaviour during the recent FIFA World Cup 2014. As the exclusive *1 broadcasters of the World Cup, SingTel aimed to understand the behaviour of viewers by deducing viewing patterns across in-home, out-of-home and online. These insights benefited its advertisers by enabling them to improve the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, calculate the ROI of their advertising, activation and promotional spends on the World Cup and identify future promotional opportunities based on the behaviour of their target audience during this event.

This research was built on three pillars: real-time location-based insights provided by SingTel’s geo analytics subsidiary DataSpark; in-home TV viewership data; and ad recall and engagement insights from SingTel’s digital advisers – an online insight community.

With the World Cup being screened at community centres and cafes, clubs, restaurants and bars across the island, DataSpark was in a unique position to look at near real-time location data to understand viewer demographics and habits. By using anonymised and aggregated data it was possible to understand the profile of community club audiences by gender and ethnicity. That can be compared to audiences at bars and then mapped against time spent at either location. It’s also possible to understand what commercial interactions these viewers had during the screenings. For example, top commercial interactions at a popular community club in the east of Singapore included retail (28.3%) and banking services (25.1%) *2. For a brand planning its advertising and promotional activities, that is invaluable information.

With more than 500,000 (and growing) SingTel mio TV customers across the nation, SingTel also had a good understanding of TV viewing behaviour during the World Cup. Number of matches watched, duration of matches watched, peaks and troughs of viewing times, etc. To dig deeper into the viewing behaviour of the in-home soccer fan, SingTel’s digital advisors were invaluable. The digital advisors are a 15,000-strong online community of web-savvy SingTel consumers, spread across Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. This community will be scaled up to 45,000 by the end of 2014.

Insights from this highly engaged community found that Singaporeans don’t like watching the matches alone, despite the late viewing hours of the games. In that, they were similar to their Indonesian counterparts. In Singapore, more than a third of our respondents had watched the matches with two or five people. In Indonesia, that number rose to 52% *3.

CNN declared the 2014 World Cup as the most social sporting event ever. Singaporeans would probably attest to that. In Singapore, the World Cup was a social and multi-screen viewing experience. Forty per cent (*4) of digitally savvy Singaporeans were dual screening during matches – enhancing their TV viewing experience with digital media interactions on their phones, tablets and computers via messaging, social media updates, browsing online content and using apps related to the World Cup. This just reinforces the importance of planning for integrated multi-platform campaigns to leverage on multiple ad touch-points.

The digital advisors also provided insights on which brands succeeded in achieving strong ad recall *4. Advertising from large, global World Cup sponsors were the most memorable, likely due to the multitude of touch-points these brands had during the event. However, when prompted, ad recall for Singapore Pools/NCPG, Tiger Beer and Hublot was also quite strong, second only to global sponsor McDonald’s *5.

The digital advisors panels offer a time and cost-effective way for brands to test the effectiveness of their advertising. For example, in a study conducted online between the 16th and 17th of June, in just 12 hours, around 800 SingTel digital advisors took the survey, 44% of whom had watched at least one of the initial World Cup matches.

A true marriage of big data and small data sets, the team at SingTel and DataSpark are producing a report that explores both the quantity and quality of World Cup viewership. And, for the very first time, a complete view of the elusive consumer across in-home, out-of-home and online platforms.

Write to Melissa Gil (Melissagil@singtel.com) from Living Analytics if you want to know more.

*1 Exclusive for advertisement rights in Singapore.

*2 Demographics and footfall volume at Tampines CC on 14 June.

*3 Source: SDA/TDA/ODA panel study on the World Cup.

Base: Watched at least one World Cup match between 17-23 June. (n=489 SDA) (n=624 ODA) (n=174 TDA)

*4: Source: SDA panel study on the World Cup.

Base: Watched at least one World Cup match between 17-23 June. (n=489)

*5: Source: Among the mio TV advertisers tracked in the SDA panel study on the World Cup.