St Patrick’s Athletic Football Club

The objective

Establishing a TikTok presence at local and global level

In the heart of Dublin, amidst the vibrant energy of Irish football, lies a tale of resilience, passion, and unwavering dedication. This is the story of St. Patrick’s Athletic Football Club, founded in 1929, St. Patrick’s Athletic also known as the ‘Saints’, are an Irish professional football team based in Inchicore Dublin 8.

Playing in the Premier Division of the SSE Airtricity League, the much beloved team embodies the essence of Dublin's footballing heritage and are a dominant force in Irish football, capturing numerous league titles and domestic cups throughout their history.

Initially, St. Patrick's Athletic had been using TikTok, under the handle @stpatricksathleticfc , as an organic channel to create engaging content that encapsulated the thrill of their games. However, In the ever-evolving landscape of football, St. Patrick’s recognized the importance of not only excelling on the pitch but also making significant strides in the digital realm.

Halfway through the 2023 season, the ‘Saints’ were invited to take part in the inaugural TikTok ADvance program, which was designed as an accelerator course for businesses in Ireland to help them in harnessing TikTok ad solutions for their growth and outreach strategies.

The solution

Using Spark Ads, with clever Audience Targeting, to score a wave of new followers

St. Patrick's primary objective was to establish a presence on TikTok and to build a following both locally and globally. Using TikTok’s Community Interaction and emphasizing the creation of engaging content. St Patrick’s kicked off their campaign targeting the UK/IE market. To ensure precise targeting, St Patrick's tailored their strategies based on specific interests, behaviours, and relevant hashtags.

To maintain campaign effectiveness, St Patrick’s closely monitored campaign performance and refreshed ad creatives weekly. After a successful campaign launch in the UK and Ireland markets, St Patrick’s subsequently expanded their reach to Australia, New Zealand, Poland, and eventually to the USA and Canada, ensuring a strategic and sequential approach to their global expansion on TikTok.

In response to on-field success and reaching the FAI Cup final, the strategy evolved with the introduction of Interactive Add-ons to their ads, such as countdown sticker and super likes. Budget allocation shifted strategically, focusing on pre-final and subsequent FAI cup winners' campaigns.

Tailored content capturing the cup final journey was strategically launched before the record attendance FAI cup final day in the Aviva Stadium, followed by a second campaign post-win that conveyed the raw emotion of the momentous day.

Upon the conclusion of their reach campaigns, St Patrick’s focused their attention back to expanding their global presence on TikTok. Leveraging insights from prior campaigns, St Patrick’s created leveraged Custom Audiences derived from users that interacted with their ads and followed their TikTok account. Further refining their targeting precision, they utilized Lookalike Audiences. These targeting tactics played a pivotal role in significantly enhancing campaign effectiveness. The content strategy blended established material with new content inspired by the recent final victory.

Notably, follower growth in the USA coincided with St. Patrick’s thrilling plans to visit Minnesota on St. Patrick’s Day for a historic first ever international friendly match against Minnesota United FC. This event marks a ground-breaking moment, as it was the first time a League of Ireland club had travelled to played an MLS team in-season since the inception of the MLS in 1996.

The results

Scoring on and off the pitch with thousands of new followers and millions of impressions gained

In addition to their triumphs on the pitch, St. Patrick’s Athletic Football Club achieved notable success with their TikTok campaigns. They experienced a remarkable 68% increase in followers with a cost per follow that surpassed industry benchmarks.

They garnered over 1.5 million impressions across their content and reached a total audience of 460,000 users. The club witnessed record season ticket and jersey sales thanks to their advertising campaigns.

Notably, 34% of their new followers were a direct result from their global expansion initiatives, spanning regions like the US, Australia, and Canada. This served as a testament to the universal allure of their content, showcasing its ability to connect with audiences worldwide.

Ultimately, as a direct result of their participation in the ADvance Programme and owing to their willingness to opportunistically pivot strategy at any given time, St. Patrick’s FC were able to establish themselves on TikTok and open up a new avenue for marketing and engagement for the club and its fans.

We were very happy to be asked to take part in the inaugural TikTok ADvance programme and found it very beneficial both from a brand & learning point of view. Our aim was to increase our followers and engagements on our content, and to get the widest reach possible, and we were very happy with the results. We worked closely with the TikTok Ad Specialists who supported us in learning about the different aspects of TikTok for Business which will help us moving forward. A huge number of our new supporters in recent years are using TikTok, so to be able to reach them in the right ways has been a big plus for us, I would highly TikTok for Business.

Jamie Moore, Head of Media

St. Patrick's Athletic Football Club