Enjoy a behind the scenes look at the work that goes on to capture and turnaround the Matchday Live content across the Club’s online channels, which has accompanied the live iFollow match stream for U’s supporters this season.
On a typical home and selected away matchdays, the Club’s media team work to turnaround a 8-10 min pre-match show, capture the players arrival for action at the Abbey, team news, pre and post-match interviews with Head Coach Mark Bonner and speak to the player voted by supporters as the man of the match.
The aim of all of this content is to provide the Football Club’s supporters, who due to the pandemic are still unable to attend matches at the Abbey, with an ongoing flavour of matchday during the 2020/21 season before and after watching each fixture remotely live on iFollow.
The Matchday Live pre-match show amongst Cambridge United’s wider communications towards keeping supporters engaged this season, was recently highlighted as a successful case study by the EFL in a meeting with all Clubs.
What does all that work collectively equate to:
- 13,420 match passes purchased in addition to season ticket holders receiving home fixtures for free
- 44,715 visits to the Club’s iFollow platform
- Over £62,000 generated in iFollow revenue by supporters from League games alone
Cambridge United Head of Communications, Tom Stewart commented: "In the summer, the Football Club were presented with the very real prospect of the new season starting without supporters at fixtures, and that unfortunately being the case for a sustained period of time.
“Our focus very quickly became about how we could, first and foremost, keep our fantastic fans engaged and right at the very heart of matchdays. It was equally important we created a solution that would also allow us to maximise our fans’ support through the iFollow platform, as well as offer our commercial partners value for their ongoing sponsorship of the Football Club, in spite of the restrictions.
“The contribution of Oli Kane, Ben Phillips and Dave Vant towards supporting the Club in the development of our full catalogue of Matchday Live content - from the early stages of planning through to the now weekly production process - has been outstanding. Each of them have entirely bought into the Club’s aspirations and are passionate about delivering a show that ensures our fans can be a part of this exciting season with us, and that Cambridge United continues to grow its online presence. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank each of them, as well as Simon Lankester for his dedication over a number of years too.
“Our biggest thanks though are extended to the fanbase for their sheer loyalty towards Cambridge United, as they continue to purchase their match passes week in, week out to get behind the first team. It really does have an impact on and off the field, and we are pleased our Matchday Live content has been able play to a small part in keeping them close during their time away from the Abbey.”