For the first time in history, Facebook is all set to broadcast live on Friday(19:45 BST), the opening game of the FA Cup between non-league sides Ascot United and Wembley FC. The fixture which normally attract about 90 spectators will be now made available to a potential global audience of 750 million people.
FA Cup which was started 140 years ago is the world’s oldest soccer knockout competition. Budweiser, the new sponsors of FA Cup will be funding the 90-minute stream. The match will be made available only to over 18 years and users must have ‘liked’ the Budweiser page to gain access.
Ascot United chairman Mike Harrison said: “To be part of a world first and have our match broadcast to a massive global audience is fantastic for our club”, “naturally this is the biggest thing that has ever happened to the club”.
“This is the first time a FA Cup tournament fixture has been broadcast live on the social network, which is great news for football fans and clubs alike”. According to an FA spokesman, more matches in the early stage of competition are also expected to be screened on Facebook.
Last Saturday, Budweiser launched a campaign on Facebook , requesting Facebook users to help them decide which commercial will be shown on the Big Game. Ad Age, a magazine that delivers news, analyses, and data about marketing and media, said that Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) is the game’s biggest advertiser: It purchased 5 minutes of the game’s ad airtime.
To choose the commercial for the Big Game, all the users have to do is go to the “Game Day Pick” tab to get a preview of the three commercials and choose their favorite. However, this is only open to fans of the beer’s page. (Don’t worry it is so easy to become a fan: it only needs one click.) Once the users become fans, they can view the three commercials: “Payment” is about situations where it is appropriate for men to pay their friends with Bud; “Attention” is about different ways of getting the evasive bartender’s attention; and “Fence” is about the friendship of a bull and a Bud Clydesdale, and the fence that separates them. Although the tally isn’t shown on the page, the comments at the bottom of the page indicate that the Bud Clydesdale has a strong following.
Many of Super Bowl viewers were shocked when Anheuser-Busch announced that the beloved Clydesdales were not going to be shown in the Bud commercials. The horses have been in the beer’s Super Bowl commercials for more than a decade. This is the perfect chance for fans to bring the much-loved horses back.
So, have you decided on the commercial that you like?
