Here at FanWide (www.FanWide.com), we connect sports fans near and far. One of our primary ways to bring these digital communities together in the real world are through in-person game watch parties at sports bars. On December 16th, 2018, FanWide hosted a celebrity watch party with Seattle Seahawks football legend Cliff Avril.
FanWide is the world’s largest fan club network, promoting over half a million game watch parties every year for almost 13,000 pro and college fan clubs nationwide. Visit www.FanWide.com to find a local sports meetup for any team, wherever you live or travel. Make sure you join now to get access to exclusive celebrity game watch party events.
Our main goal with these events is to promote FanWide while supporting the community. We did this by raising money for Cliff Avril’s charity, the Cliff Avril Family Foundation. The event was a big success with over 100 fans showing up to the event and many of them have now joined our platform. We also have now raised over $1000 for the Cliff Avril Family Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to increase the awareness of Type 2 diabetes in youth and to encourage healthy living through nutrition and exercise. As well as provide educational support and opportunities to youth in Haiti, along with various community-based organizations in Jacksonville, Seattle and Charlotte.
The event took place at Seattle bar and restaurant, Art Marble 21 in South Lake Union. This location matched our requirements to hold a celebrity watch party. First, the advertising team at Art Marble was very helpful in promoting the event through their own channels. We greatly appreciated their cooperation when spreading the word about our watch party. The upstairs area at the venue was private to our event, giving a sense of exclusivity, but also community, once upstairs. With a large event with many avid fans, it was nice to see that the staff was friendly and the service was fast.
Once we confirmed that Art Marble would be the host, FanWide’s started its own marketing efforts which consisted of graphic design, social media promotion, and posting to event sites. We branded the event “Watch With Cliff” and used the hashtag #WatchWithCliff in all of our social media posts relating to the event. Here are a few examples of the various graphics and posts that were used throughout the event promotion:
With everything falling into place, the day of the event went smoothly. Our team came to the venue about half an hour beforehand to set up the booth, handouts, and signage. Cliff arrived a few minutes before kickoff and greeted fans, took pictures with them, and signed a few autographs. He also did a video shout out to a military member serving overseas!
As kickoff started, fans began sitting at their respective tables. Cliff also joined several of the tables and settled in just like another fan. At halftime, we did a short intro on what FanWide is about and then passed the mic over to Cliff to talk about his charity, the Cliff Avril Family. Then we started our halftime raffle and charity auction, giving away autographed footballs signed by Cliff.
With the Seahawks and 49ers making a close and exciting game, everyone at the event was cheering and having a great time. The game eventually went into overtime, but Cliff and all the fans stayed through until the end of the game. We repeated the raffle and charity auction after the game with autographed Avril #56 jerseys and brought our total to over $1000 raised for the foundation. If you are an athlete or influencer looking to raise money or engage with fans at a local event, please send a message to talent@fanwide.com.
