Feyenoord supporters have a big heart for their club. During the most exciting match of the year, we showed how the passion for a football club affects the heart We linked it to the importance of a healthy heart and the need for quick first aid. How unique would it be to measure the heartbeat of the supporters during the most exciting derby of the Netherlands, the game between Feyenoord and Ajax. How much excitement can a football fan’s heart handle? To show this we measured the heartbeat of 100 fans realtime during the Dutch Classic and made it visible for 1.2 million viewers at home.

This idea also gave us the opportunity to link to the shared mission of Opel, Feyenoord and the NHF. Many people consider a beating heart to be self-evident. But what if your heart suddenly stops beating? Will there be somebody to help?

Implementation & Timeline

Feyenoord – Ajax was scheduled on November 8 and the technological initiative was preceded by two months of extensive preparations. The preparation phase included numerous meetings with all stakeholders, in which the communication planning played a major role. Also 2 ‘test matches’ in which the heartbeat monitoring technology and broadcasting feed were tested turned out to be crucial. In the end, over 200 people working for 7 different organizations were involved in the preparations and execution.

Placement & Scale

Next to many online news articles, buzz on social media and coverage by FOX Sports, the heartbeat of the fans received additional coverage worth mentioning. After the first press release various television programmes made an item on the activation, which were broadcasted on national television. After the second press release, articles appeared on the front pages of the two biggest newspapers in the Netherlands (AD & De Telegraaf).

`Tier 1

•The level of attention for the urgency of enough volunteers raised.

•15.000 number of new volunteers registered since start campaign.

•Over 1 million impressions online and on social media

•Unprompted awareness for collaboration from 29% to 66% for Feyenoord fans and from 2% to 7% for Dutch population (17 million inhabitants).

•Prompted awareness for collaboration from 74% to 91% for Feyenoord fans and from 20% to 26% for Dutch population.

Tier3

•77 articles published online, print, national,regional media.Cumulative reach: around 10 million people.

•Media value exceeded €1,500,000. Total investments were less than €100,000.

•Five radio stations and two national TV programmes reported about the activation.

•15.000 unique visitors on opel.nl/voorhetleven, to watch the heartbeat of the fans realtime during the match.

•In the period around the heartbeat of the fans, the NHF acquired five times more volunteers with CPR skills than normal.

•Around 1.2 mio viewers FoxSports