Real Manager – How do you do social for fantasy?

From the official social page of the Dream League, the most special, colorful, and advanced football page in Israel – with the answer to the question of how to do sports social media right.

client

Real Manager – Israel’s Official Fantasy League

Year

2020-2023

Services

Video

Templates

Strategy

Social

Content

background

“Real Manager” was the official operator of the Israeli Fantasy League between 2020-23. Fantasy League is a virtual game that combines reality, where the player builds a team from a selection of league players. Based on their real-life actions, players accumulate points and compete in various ranking competitions.

Over time, in addition to things related to the Fantasy League (such as Player of the Week or the top 10 coaches of the round), the page gained momentum. Besides daily interaction with the Israeli fanbase, graphics were added, becoming viral, collaborations with players, clubs, fan pages, and more.

Football, Fantasy League, and everything in between

Working on the social media of the Fantasy League is a daily task – with important game updates but primarily focusing on high-quality fantasy content. This includes player recommendations, praise for successful coaches, statistics, award-winning themes, and more. In order to add extra value beyond fantasy, we had to think about how to take the social and audience interaction to the next level.

Collaborating with fan pages

Collaborating with fan pages and large fan groups of all the teams in the country, we gradually built close relationships to increase the exposure of the page. These fan pages have a large following of loyal fans, but often lack engaging graphics and interactive content for their followers. This is where the social media management of Real Manager comes into play.

Through collaboration, we create high-quality, unique, and interesting content for fans. This content not only exposes the page and Real Manager’s activities but also promotes the Dream League game in an organic and engaging manner.

Collaborating with fan pages

Being the official operator of the Dream League, Real Manager not only had the opportunity to use the official photos of the league players in the game but also built relationships that helped promote its activities directly from the league teams.

As with the fan club cases, we created high-quality, personalized content for each team so they could promote the Dream League specifically to their audience. Over time, as success grew, clubs themselves began to seek collaboration and unique graphics exclusively for them.

The hot cucumber season is boiling in Real Manager

If the breaks between seasons are usually a ‘dead time’ for football content creators, Real Manager is the opposite. There are endless reports about players who are rumored to move to a team, sometimes reporting on deals even before the media. Players react to reports on our platform (like Stipe Perica joining Hapoel Tel Aviv), and even agents who request to create graphics for their players for a specific team to promote an agenda. Real Manager has become an active and significant player in the Israeli transfer market.

Becoming a Name in Israeli Football

A high-quality page that talks football 24/7 and creates consistent interaction with its audience gains momentum and gradually expands its sphere of influence. For example, one can see examples of the importance the page has gained in the football discourse in Israel by the fact that many players have shared their nominations or awards for outstanding achievements of the season on our page.

Prominent players like Maor Buzaglo and Bibars Natcho asked us to create special graphics for their retirement (or retirement from the national team). Each such graphic reaches an audience of hundreds of thousands, as these are very popular players with an incredible number of loyal followers.

Results

Organic followers
0 k
Involvement in posts in the last 90 days
0 k
Exposure in Israel in the last 90 days
0 m

Sporta was selected to brand and execute the Women's State Cup Final event for the 2022/2023 season. The State Cup in football is one of the oldest and most beloved competitions among fans in Israel, with a long and prestigious history. The goal was to visually convey the significance of the competition through graphic language, celebratory elements, and vibrant colors that evoke a sense of grandeur.

client

The Israel Football Association

Year

2023

Services

Branding

Strategy

Digital

Rebuilding

Templates

Video

background

"Out of difficulties grow miracles" – Jean de La Bruyère wrote, or at least that's what ChatGPT told us he wrote.

In the digital sports marketing space, too, wonderful things can grow from difficulties. While haters may emphasize the shortcomings of your customer and mock them, there are cases where you can actually highlight these shortcomings (whether they are outdated beliefs, half-truths, or a distorted view of things), and by skillfully using them, emphasize your distinct advantages, shift the narrative, and create credibility that will eventually lead to conversion.

A different final promo

We were asked to produce a video for the Women's State Cup final in the 22/23 season; our client, the Israel Football Association, invests heavily in promoting the event, and we were tasked with creating a promo to encourage fans to attend the match.

Our team took on the challenge, developed the concept, and after receiving approval and budget confirmation, we teamed up with a film crew at the venue where the game would take place. There, prominent players from both teams awaited us for the shoot, as they were set to compete in the final.

Who cares, what is this promo, are we Real against City?

Lee Falkon

Star Born

We immediately distinguished that Li Falkon, ASA Tel Aviv's striker, is a true star (beyond being a football star) as she takes on the lead role and steals the show. The video opens with a banal, boring, and exaggerated football game: a tough football game with a ball passing quickly between the players and generic rhythmic music. Suddenly, the video is cut, and you hear Li Falkon shouting "Yalla." The music stops abruptly, and Falkon continues, "Who cares about this promo? Are we Real against City?"

At this stage, after a few more hints, Falkon breaks the fourth wall and directly addresses the audience: "What do you think, that they didn't tell us all these things?" while she lists stereotypes about women's football, thus building credibility that adds to the interest and surprise created earlier.

At this point, viewers are already hooked on Falkon, and as she finishes listing the drawbacks, she challenges with a teasing rhetorical question: "But tell me, have you ever come to see us play? Sit in the stands? Experience something else for a change?"

The camera then shifts to the demonstrating players on the field, as Falkon builds up the players, showcases them, and talks about each one's skills. Falkon concludes with a personal invitation to the audience while turning to the child star Dylan Dror (who speaks while the players spin him on the field), pointing out all the reasons to come to the game (except for Dylan Dror): Fanzone, free entry, excellent football...

Turning off the lights

Towards the end of the filming of the video, unexpectedly, the lights on the field go out. Falco does not get confused and directly addresses the camera, saying, 'Look, they turned off the lights on us, always turning off the lights on us. Alright, I'm leaving.' This unplanned comedic moment, somewhat sad and a bit annoying, concludes the video with a smile.

We are pleased to say that the considerable number of spectators who attended the game is a result of our video. However, if you've come to know us, we measure ourselves in numbers, not feelings. While we cannot prove that the video brought all the fans to the game, what we do know is that the video went viral with over 58,000 views, a record for women's football. Even if it didn't bring all the fans to the game, its reach and the messages conveyed served the broader agenda of the client. Among these were breaking existing stigmas and attempting to provide an opportunity for women's football, as well as exposing the digital activities of women's football to many other potential clients.

https://youtu.be/6GbWf_aMs4c

The results speak for themselves:

+ 0 k Views on the promo of the cup final + 0 % Interactions with content + 0 % Accounts exposed to the content + 0 % Engaged accounts

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