The Women’s EHF EURO 2020 was the most engaging online in the tournament’s history, celebrating a 56 percent increase in social media engagements and 166 percent growth in followers after the European Handball Federation and Infront, a Wanda Sports Group company, successfully delivered a full scope digital strategy.

Videos published on the EHF’s social channels during the event were viewed over 33m times – a 66 percent increase on the previous tournament in 2018 – whilst posts received almost 1.5m engagements, including a viral video on the EHF’s official TikTok channel.

The achievement allowed the tournament’s record seven partners – Bauhaus, Bring, Engelbert Strauss, Gjensidige, Grundfos, Intersport and Unibet – to fully leverage handball content and gain more exposure than ever among the sport’s fans. Branded videos shared on the EHF social channels received a total of over 340,000 engagements and almost 1.8m views.

In addition, a content creator network of handball influencers was used to further the tournament’s online footprint whilst the newly introduced (Un)Informed Handball Hour podcast recorded over 42,000 downloads during the duration of the event, while over 14,000 fans downloaded the tournament’s official mobile game.

Audiences on television were also on the up with an overall broadcast time rising by 16 per cent, while significant market shares were recorded in Denmark (67 million cumulative audience) and Norway (34 m) contributing to a total cumulative audience of 574 million.

Martin Hausleitner, EHF Secretary General, said: “The Women’s EHF EURO 2020 will live long in the memory as a wonderful reminder of how we all pulled together to showcase handball and promote our sport in the midst of a global pandemic. We overcame various challenges, none more so with the remarkable and innovative ways we reached existing and new audiences.

“From excellent TV figures, especially across Scandinavia, to the boom in online digital reach, we can be proud of efforts and believe this approach can be of huge benefit and a template for our work at future tournaments.”

Antonio Dominguez, Head of Handball at Infront, said: “This edition of the Women’s EHF EURO saw a huge increase in how sponsors use digital activation and it is now clear to these brands just how powerful this platform can be. We have seen the online impact of EHF events grow over the last few years and the result of this is that it is benefitting our partners in a way they could never previously imagine.”

This enhanced digital strategy leverages projects introduced by iX.co, Infront’s digital arm as well as Infront Lab, the Group’s strategic initiative to identify new monetisation avenues from evolving technology.