The global use of social media as a second screen was put on display like never before during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the single most talked about social media event ever. From controversial plays to major injuries and, of course, incredible goals, the World Cup simply dominated Twitter and Facebook discussions for the last six weeks.
Using uberVU via Hootsuite’s powerful social media analytics, we tracked the top social media moments of the World Cup 2014. Here’s what had people pulling out their phones before, after and right in the middle of the world’s biggest football games.
The Final Games
13th July—Final (Germany vs Argentina)
- 1.3 million #WorldCup hashtag mentions on gameday (5.4% of total hashtag usage during World Cup)
- 9.9 million hashflag mentions of both #GER and #ARG in the week prior to the final (5.2 million #ARG mentions and 4.7 million GER mentions)
- A total of 2.9 million #ARG mentions on gameday
- A total of 3.5 million #GER mentions on gameday
- Although Argentina lost the final, Messi won the Golden Ball award for best player of the World Cup, helping him earn 2.3 million mentions on 13th July
- The Golden Glove award for most outstanding goalkeeper went to the winning Keeper Manual Neuer helping him earn 330,000 mentions on social media.
12th July—Third-place playoff (Brazil vs. Netherlands)
- 443,000 #WorldCup hashtag mentions on gameday (1.9% of total hashtag usage during the World Cup)
- 9.4 million hashflag mentions of both #BRA and #NED in the week prior to the third-place playoff (6.5 million #BRA mentions and 2.9 million #NED mentions)
- A total of 895,000 #BRA mentions on gameday.
- A total of 670,000 #NED mentions on gameday.
- Thiago Silva fouls Arjen Robben in the box and gives away a penalty. This combined with a fairly poor defensive performance earned Silva 181,000 mentions on 12th June.
- After Netherlands won the third place medal, Van Persie seems to hand both his captain’s arm band and his third-place medal to a fan in the crowd. Social media exploded helping to earn Van Persie a total of 179,000 mentions on12th June.
Top Social Media Moments of World Cup 2014
- Brazil’s World Cup dreams ended in brutal and humiliating fashion as Germany inflicted their heaviest defeat ever—earning Germany and Brazil 3.2 million and 5.4 million mentions respectively on 8th July
- The other semi-final, Argentina vs. Netherlands was not as exciting, ending 0-0 after extra-time, forcing penalties and a 4-2 win for Argentina. Interestingly, Argentina drove significantly more conversations than Netherlands on social: 5.7 million mentions versus 334,000 respectively.
- One of the most talked about moments was when Brazil’s Neymar was kneed in the back and suffered a broken vertebra during their game against Columbia on 4th July, driving 4 million social media mentions
- In the most controversial moment of the World Cup, Luis Suarez of Uruguay earns himself a four month ban for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini and drives 2.8 million social media mentions in doing so.
- Pepe is sent off for head-butting during Portugal’s 4-0 defeat against Germany on 16th June, earning himself 1.3 million mentions of the red card
- Mexico overcome having two goals controversially ruled out to beat Cameroon, driving 1.1 million social media mentions on 13th June
#WorldCup Hashtag
- The hashtag was used a total of 24 million times during the World Cup, 99.2% of those mentions on Twitter with 68% of these tweets in English
- Top 3 countries for hashtag mentions—1) US (23% of total), 2) UK (9%), 3) Indonesia (6%)
- The conversation was majority male led (71% male, 29% female split)
- June 12th (opening day with Brazil vs. Croatia) was the most active day for hashtag mentions: 1.6 million mentions, closely followed by the closing day with 1.3 million mentions
- Brazil was most talked about country in social conversation with 13% of overall mentions, Germany next with 8% and Argentina with 7%.
- The #WorldCup was mentioned on Google+ 28,000 times
- 22,000 blog posts were created with #WorldCup hashtag included
Hashflags
- 67.5 million hashflag mentions during the World Cup
- Portugal was the most talked about team with 38 million hashflag mentions
- July 4th was the most popular day for hashflags with 4.1 million mentions (Quarter-finals—France vs Germany, Brazil vs Columbia)
Players mentioned with #WorldCup hashtag
- Lionel Messi was the most talked about player with 363,000 mentions, Brazil’s Neymar a close 2nd with 316,000 mentions
- June 24th was the most active day for player mentions with Suarez garnering 78,000 mentions (Italy vs. Uruguay in which Suarez was sent off for biting an Italian player)
Brands
The World Cup isn’t just a huge event for fans; it’s also an irresistible opportunity for brands to get in on the action and connect with tens of millions of captivated potential customers. As always, some were more successful than others.
Partners: Sony, Adidas, Hyundai, Coca-Cola, Kia, Visa, Emirates
- Sony and Adidas were the most talked about partner brands with 2.1 million mentions each
- Adidas had the most mentioned hashtag (#AllIn) with 1.1 million mentions during the World Cup
- Hyundai was the most positively received brand throughout the World Cup with 17% of total brand mentions of positive sentiment
- Adidas had the most active day of all partner brands on June 27th, with 100k brand mentions: due to their announcement that they were removing the advert of Luis Suarez on Copacabana beach after queues form to have picture taken with it .
Sponsors: Budwieser, Castrol, Continental Tires, Johnson & Johnson, McDonalds, MoyParkChicken, Diga Oi, Yingli Solar
- McDonalds was the most talked about brand during the World Cup with 2.8 million mentions, Budweiser was 2nd with 280,000 mentions.
- McDonalds had the most active day of all sponsor brands on June 24th with 169,000 brand mentions (Group D & C games being player—with Italy and England both playing on this day)
- MoyParkChicken was the most positively received brand throughout the World Cup with 31% of total brand mentions of positive sentiment.
The most retweeted tweets
- Tim Howard believes in the USA—65,000 retweets
- Rihanna supporting Brazil—32,000 retweets
- Specsavers taking the mickey out of Suarez‘s bite—29,000 retweets
- Rihanna urging Brazil on—19,000 retweets
- The Empire State Building supporting Argentina in the semi-final—14,000 retweets
Request a demo to put our powerful analytics tools to work for your business.