Rotterdam entered the world stage in May 2021 by hosting the Eurovision Song Contest. Host City Rotterdam (comprising the city of Rotterdam, Rotterdam Festivals, Rotterdam Ahoy and Rotterdam Partners) was looking for a bold and appealing social media rollout in the run-up to and during the event. With restrictions on the number of visitors in the city, the online experience was more important than ever. Somention was awarded this assignment in collaboration with creative agency 0to9.
We launched the Open up to Rotterdam platform with a compelling and spectacular social media strategy on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat. With this, we targeted both the national and international audience of the Song Contest. The goal was to put Rotterdam on the map as the creative and innovative city of the future, which ensures that Rotterdam is top of mind for potential visitors. The content created for this purpose left a visible impression. Both before, during and after the Song Contest.
Content was produced using a specially developed social toolkit and style guide. With five unique social content formats, including continuous interviews, quizzes, Instagram takeovers, contests and a week of event & backstage reporting by our creative team on location, we were able to deliver original content continuously. The content of partners was also successfully distributed to the target group, who felt completely immersed in the festival atmosphere from their seats at home. Fans were able to use the Instagram sticker set and the exclusive Eurovision make-up AR filter for both Instagram and Snapchat.
In a period of three months, we reached people from 149 countries with the content and advertising for Open up to Rotterdam. By generating a highly engaged audience, the Instagram account achieved an engagement rate of 12% with 7.5M unique account impressions. On Facebook, there were even more than 9M unique page impressions. The AR make-up filter was shared extensively on social and achieved 3.2M impressions. Over 2 million of those impressions were achieved through Snapchat ads, which also accounted for nearly 300,000 sharing actions of the filter.
In short, we introduced Rotterdam to the international Eurovision Song Contest fans with lively content. Through creative formats and unique behind the scenes content we created a positive online buzz, which led to a feeling of togetherness and pride. We’ve put Rotterdam on the map for the fans, both internationally and nationally. Not just the people of Rotterdam, but the whole of the Netherlands became proud of the city.
Do you also want to make an impact with social content? Please contact us via info@somention.com or +31 85 876 95 50.