The Best of FIFA World Cup 2014 as played on Social Media
While Germany walked away with the FIFA World Cup 2014 trophy, the real laurels were won by the world of Social Media. Social Media giants such as Twitter, Facebook, Vine, Instagram etc lived and reacted to every single incident at the biggest celebration of football on the planet in Brazil.
Facebook alone saw over 280 million interactions, which includes, likes, comments and shares from almost 88 million users over the period of the tournament. Post the fine chest controlled volley by FC Bayern Munchen’s Mario Goetze of Germany, 618,725 tweets were posted within one minute on Twitter. The World Cup final, alone was a recipient of more than 32 million tweets according to the insights from Twitter.
As sports enthusiasts at #ARM Worldwide, we have wanted to bring you an encapsulation of everything that happened and what better way than to bring the memorable highlights from Brazil as they were played out on the stage of Social Media.
The Memories from Twitter
Thanks to its quick type and post nature, Twitter was the platform for the most spontaneous content during the World Cup. The two incidents went really viral on the microblogging site, the Luis Suarez bite during the game between Uruguay and Italy and Tim Howard’s world class goalkeeping. Here is a rewind of how Twitter played out the World Cup 2014.
The most retweeted tweet from the World Cup was this selfie by Lukas Podolski after the final
AHA! pic.twitter.com/iK5hbfm7Hr
— Lukas-Podolski.com (@Podolski10) July 13, 2014
Budweiser congratulating Germany
Congratulations Team Germany on your 4th World Cup title! #WorldCupFinal #GER pic.twitter.com/gtLljL59R5 — Bud Light (@budlight) July 13, 2014
Trident Chewing into Suarez’s bite
Chew Trident. Not soccer players. #ITAvsURU
— Trident Gum (@tridentgum) June 24, 2014
Major League Baseball took a swipe at football too
There’s no c̶r̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ #biting in baseball. pic.twitter.com/d4JGQhQVy1 — MLB (@MLB) June 24, 2014
Snickers loved a piece of World Cup
Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS pic.twitter.com/3RAO537HjW
— SNICKERS® (@SNICKERS) June 24, 2014
Cortana was playing the predictor game and Microsoft flaunted it
#WorldCupFinal is finally here. #Cortana predicts Germany will win! #ARG v. #GER #BingPredicts https://t.co/KVhBlGHXf0 pic.twitter.com/3crzWQWm0g
— Bing (@bing) July 13, 2014
Tim Howard was more than a mountain and ESPN did it the best
Despite the loss, Tim Howard’s record setting performance was monumental. pic.twitter.com/eaqF2Whkxq
— ESPN (@espn) July 1, 2014
Empire State Building was standing tall
Tonight, we will glow light blue, white and yellow for #ARG and their advancement to the #WorldCup final! #NEDvsARG pic.twitter.com/UvWFqPT56W
— Empire State Bldg (@EmpireStateBldg) July 9, 2014
And as the sun set on the World Cup
A perfect shot as the sun sets on this World Cup pic.twitter.com/KE7Oi4WmNo — ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 13, 2014
The Best of Facebook
As the largest playground for major advertising brands, Facebook was a very active medium during the carnival of football. We saw content that was moved us, inspired us and at times inspired us. Here are some of the gems from Facebook.
Nike’s Post just before the Netherlands played Spain in what was a repeat of the World Cup 2010 final:
Subtle, yet an amazing copywriting by Adidas congratulating Germany
Lufthansa, the national airlines of Germany with a cheeky update
Mercedes Benz with their message to the German National team, very interesting the fourth star
Visa with a beautiful creative and a touching message
The FB post of the World Cup, definitely goes to Mesut Ozil for this beautiful message after Germany thrashed Brazil 7-1 in the semis
Another example of power of social media was, when this video of a boy with Down’s syndrome went viral as he celebrated his hero Georgio Samaras scored a penalty. Samaras invited the boy to watch Greece vs Costa Rica
The Viral Vines
Nothing says viral like a gif, or a short video. Some of the hilarious vines shot during the world cup are here for your pleasure.
Sporting Play’s vine of Luiz Suarez celebrating his FIFA ban
Yet another Suarez Vine, with him redefining football
Even the Minions joined the fun
Nike Football showing how it is done
The visualization of tweets in the USA when USA scored vs Ghana
Mario Goetze does the trick for Nike too
The Memories forever on Youtube
I still remember watching the BBC ending montage of the FIFA World Cup 98 as an eight year old kid with my dad sobbing cause it made me realise how much I had fallen in love with the game in that one month. Montages or videos can have that sort of effect on us. The World Cup 98 is practically my first memory of football and since then, while seasons have come and gone, some of these montages have remained forever. Here is our pick of videos from the World Cup 2014, that will remain with us for a long long time.
The last game by Nike:
The Galaxy 11 video by Samsung:
The ending montage of the World Cup 14 by BBC:
The ending montage of the World Cup by ITV:
The Coca Cola Video inviting everybody
And just in case, you are curious, the ending montage of the World Cup 98 that still, is perhaps one of the best montages ever made:
We hope you enjoyed the cup and lived the passionate life that football brings. We hope to have you for more coverage around sports on our blog soon.
