Research: Advertisers celebrate Bellingham goal
July 3, 2024
England fans are still waiting for the team to kick into gear at Euro 2024. Many have been disillusioned by sluggish performances to date and the knockout game against Slovakia on June 30th followed the trend – until Jude Bellingham’s spectacular equaliser in the 95th minute. Viewing stats from Yospace, the dynamic ad insertion company, and gathered from broadcaster customers across four continents, show a massive boost in streaming audiences and advertising in the final, dramatic moments of the match.
Immediately after Bellingham’s overhead kick in the 95th minute, audiences leaped up – with people hearing about the heroics and switching on. The majority logged on from their mobiles wherever they were at the time. Within seconds, the referee blew the final whistle, which was followed immediately afterwards by an ad break. Suddenly, this ad break became by far the most watched and most valuable of all, delivering millions of extra, unscheduled ad spots to a highly engaged audience. Ads stitched for mobile were almost double those during the half-time ad breaks.
England captain Harry Kane’s header, which proved to be the winning goal, at the beginning of extra time also drove a spike in viewers – again mainly driven by mobile – suggesting that such sporting events have the power to pull in viewers for key moments and drive extra advertising value on top of the usual audiences for the full 90, or in this case, 120 minutes.
Commenting on the viewing trends, Tim Sewell, CEO at Yospace said: ”England’s performance so far demonstrates the unpredictable nature of live-streaming sports. Major events like Euro 2024 are defined by huge moments that capture the attention of viewers everywhere, on top of the high concurrent audiences you normally see for high-profile sports. As knockout tensions rise during the tournament, advertisers and broadcasters will need to be able to scale up their capabilities at a moment’s notice and be prepared for the brilliance of Bellingham’s 95th-minute equaliser.”
To date, Yospace has monetised five Olympic Games, five FIFA World Cups, and thirty-five Grand Slam tennis tournaments. Euro 2024 is the third edition of the pan-European men’s football tournament to be monetised by the company.
England will next face Switzerland in the quarter-finals on July 6th.