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Research: Mobile, crucial to reach the Latin American soccer fan at the World Cup

The 2014 FIFA World Cup has already started. Soccer apps accounted for 59 per cent of impressions from sports applications according to Millenial Media . Android devices account for 73 per cent of impressions in Brazil, while 19 per cent are from iOS devices.

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What: Mobile engament in Latin American countries is changing how advertisers are approaching soccer fans, Especially now that watching a game on television is simply one of the many ways fans can follow their favourite teams.
Why it matters: 72 per cent of the region’s population uses a mobile phone. Overall mobile phone users are  growing at a rate of  three per cent annualy,while  smartphone users are expected to grow at seven times that rate, according to eMarketer. Out of that percentage , Android devices account for 72 per cent of growth in impressions and iOS for 22 per cent.

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fifa-world-cup-2014-theme-uccw-189355-1-s-307x512The 2014 FIFA World Cup has already started. 32 teams are competing in Brazil until crowning a new champion on July 13th in Rio de Janeiro.

Zac Pinkham, Managing Director EMEA at mobile advertising firm Millennial Media, spoke about his expectations on how mobile will change the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Unlike any other event in the world, the 2014 FIFA World Cup gathers people around televisions at home, in bars, and out in the streets at all hours of the day to watch their favorite teams play. Pinkham says that as we now live in a mobile-first world, watching a game in real-time on television is just one of many ways fans can follow their favourite teams.

Not to mention, that soccer apps accounted for 59 per cent of impressions from sports applications according to Millenial Media 2013 Q3 Mobile Mix report.

World cup host Brazil accounts for 19 per cent of all impressions in sports apps in Latin America, and this is likely to increase as the World Cup develops. These top ten countries impressions come mainly from both Android and iOS devices.

Aware of this, FIFA has created the Global Stadium section of its website to aggregate real-time content for each of the 64 games in the tournament for mobile fans.

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Latin America mobile trends and engagement

According to eMarketer, 72 per cent of the region’s population uses a mobile phone. While mobile phone users are estimated to grow at a rate of three per cent, smart phone users are expected to grow at seven times that rate choosing mostly:

  • Android devices, which account for 72 per cent of impressions
  • Followed by iOS at 22 per cent.

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The top three countries for smart phone impressions are Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, while Mexico, Brazil and Colombia are the top three in tablet impression. In all, smartphones account for 77 per cent of Latin American impressions and tablets account for 15 per cent.

Pinkhma says there is a correlation between population size and total impressions, although some smaller countries have high mobile engagement rates.

  • Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic are in Millenial media´s top ten impression list, while they do not belong to the top 10 countries ranked by population.
  • Guatemala and Cuba are in the top ten for population, but not impressions.
  • Mexico accounts for 28 per cent of all Latin American impressions
  • Mexico is followed by Brazil at 25 per cent. Interestingly Brazil’s population (202 million) is almost twice the size of Mexico’s (120 million).

World Cup Focus Millennial Media 2

Android devices account for 73 per cent of impressions in Brazil, while 19 per cent are from iOS devices. BlackBerry has a five per cent market share in Latin America (down from a nine per cent in Q1 2013), and Windows only one per cent. Colombia leads the region in impressions from BlackBerry devices (30 per cent), as opposed to Chile, which sees the fewest BlackBerry impressions. In this country, 78 per cent of impressions come from Android and 20 per cent come from iOS, combining for 98 per cent of market.

Still, nothing is certain about the way soccer fans engage with mobile. A Millennial Media infographic on the 2013 UEFA Champions League Final showed peaks in mobile usage before (24 per cent) and after (49 per cent) games, but not during the actual playing time.

Millennial Media suggest smart advertisers should focus on determining how they can engage and interact with fans. The Mexico vs Brazil match, scheduled on June 17th, is the perfect opportunity to put a tactic in practice as these countries are heavyweights in Latin American mobile traffic.

Source: Millennial Media

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