MLS DELIVER 24 HOUR FIFA 20 CHARITY STREAM LIVE ON TWITCH

eMLS gamers streamed 24 hours of EA SPORTS™ FIFA 20 live on Twitch, raising funds for the Children’s Oncology Group Foundation

Major League Soccer (MLS) teamed up with eMLS, the league’s competitive gaming property, to hold their first-ever 24-hour charity live-stream on Twitch. Featuring 19 MLS clubs and their eMLS professional FIFA players competing on FIFA20. The stream was in aid of the month-long “Kick Childhood Cancer” campaign in September 2019 with MLS WORKS, the league’s social responsibility platform.

With over 2000 posts using the campaign hashtag for MLS “Kick Childhood Cancer” campaign on social media the stream was successful in raising awareness for the charity. Twitch used its extension partner Tiltify as the donation platform. As well as awareness, the stream provided fans with an opportunity to watch some of their team’s eMLS stars compete against each other.

The broadcast was targeted towards younger fans who are typically more digitally native. Every hour of the broadcast the eMLS gamers would complete different challenges to encourage donations, whilst maintaining an entertaining viewing experience for the fans. Using Grabyo, dynamic graphics, and picture-in-picture streaming the viewer experience was bolstered to encourage high engagement levels.

Maybe @FIFA_Abe should have used whipped cream and not shaving cream? 🤔

Ah well. It’s for the kids.#KickChildhoodCancer pic.twitter.com/73gNDNincX
— 🎮 Major League Soccer (@eMLS) September 25, 2019

MLS used a fan-first digital activation, achieving the difficult balance of bringing fans closer to their favorite stars and aligning this with a worthy cause. By adapting the strategy to target slightly younger audiences, high engagement levels were achieved both on the Twitch stream and social channels. Supplementary content was clipped and distributed on social channels so fans could re-live their favorite moments from the stream. It also ensured that none of the best bits from the entire 24 hours were missed.

Using Grabyo, MLS was able to integrate player perspectives, live stats, and customized graphics into the broadcast. The high-quality viewing experience was tailored to its audience, MLS was able to increase its reach, drive donations, and raise the profile of its “Kick Childhood Cancer” campaign. Engine Shop was the eMLS production agency that executed the broadcast leveraging Grabyo.