RTÉ and Twitter partnership to bring Irish football fans to the sidelines of World Cup 2022

RTÉ and Twitter have announced a new content partnership in Ireland, which will bring clips and highlights from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ to the platform, amplifying the event’s digital coverage to Irish football fans.

Twitter is where football fans go to stay close to the action, and this is an opportunity for brands to place themselves at the heart of the World Cup conversation in Ireland. Throughout the tournament (November 21 – December 18) the partnership will bring 250 near-live highlights, pre-match build-up clips, and post-match analyses and moments from the RTÉ studio straight to the platform.

Through Twitter Amplify, advertisers will be able to align their ads with premium video content and utilise the most engaging moments from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, posted directly from @RTESport, enabling them to run branded pre-roll video during the world’s biggest sporting tournament.

The roar of the stadium is on Twitter, and recently revealed research from Twitter on the World Cup conversation offered new insights into the vibrant football fandom: Twitter is where highlights hit first, and people use it to stay close to the action. Nearly one third of Irish Twitter users cite watching and following sports as their primary reason for using social media, with 32% of Irish Twitter users having watched sports highlights and clips on the platform in the past week.

Globally, 62% of Twitter users find sports highlights clips appealing, and 64% of World Cup fans on Twitter say that they can find content on Twitter that isn’t available on any other platform (Twitter + GWI World Cup Study, Ireland, Q1 2022). 75% of Twitter users identify as fans of the World Cup versus 49% of Non-Twitter users (Twitter + GWI World Cup Study, Ireland, Q1 2022).

RTÉ will broadcast all 64 games of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ live across RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player with almost 200 of hours of coverage in total. Coverage includes four matches per day for the first 12 days with 16 consecutive days of live games from November 21 to December 6. The tournament reaches a climax with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ Final on December 18.

Geraldine O’Leary, Commercial Director, RTÉ said, “At RTÉ Commercial we continually strive to offer new, unique opportunities to our advertisers that deliver impact and cut-through. We are therefore delighted to announce our partnership with Twitter Amplify, just as excitement for one of the world’s biggest sporting tournaments starts to build. The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ will no doubt be one of the television highlights of the year, and we are excited that advertisers will be able to leverage the online conversation around this huge event. The combination of expert coverage and analysis from the RTÉ Sport team and Twitter’s advanced targeting tools, will allow advertisers to reach and engage sports fans on an even greater scale than ever before.” 

“Both Twitter and RTÉ are at the heart of so many football conversations across the country, so being able to bring moments from the biggest international sporting event to users on an even greater scale is incredibly exciting.” said Theo Luke, Senior Director, Global Content Partnerships at Twitter. “This is our first official partnership with Ireland’s national broadcaster and when it comes to sports coverage, we’ve always been impressed with the creativity of their editorial teams, the breadth of coverage dedicated to international football tournaments as well as the high calibre punditry on display. We’re really excited and looking forward to establishing a strong rapport with their commercial and sales teams. Through Twitter Amplify, advertisers will have even more opportunities to engage with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ in even more impactful ways.” 

Find out more about the partnership on the RTÉ Media Sales website here.