Engaging your community through Broadcast Channels: the example of the Kings League in France.

The King's League arrived in France this year!

A large-scale event, a large-scale device. The King's League spaces are on fire and all means are good to engage an already very lively community (149,000 followers on Instagram)

And she chose to launch her broadcast channel for the occasion.

This tool, launched in 2023, did not have the success expected at the launch, and yet, in some cases, it is not to be overlooked in order to get fans on board.

So we decided to explore in a bit more detail how the King's League got hold of this device.

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But what exactly is the Kings League? (for connoisseurs, go to the next paragraph)

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The Kings League is a soccer competition created by former soccer player Gerard Piqué in 2022, who seeks to revolutionize the traditional format of the game.

By 2024, the competition expanded globally and the Kings World Cup generated over 2.6 billion impressions and over 66 million commitments over the duration of the competition.

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The matches are shorter (20 minutes of play per period against 45) and punctuated by evolving rules, unlimited substitutions or even advantages for certain teams that are determined following a roll of the die, applicable to the next matches. The teams are composed of 8 players: current or former soccer stars, gaming influencers and many others!

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Unlike traditional sports competitions, all matches are broadcast live on social networks and not simply on television. It is a fun way to give football fans this experience, who at the same time receive exclusive information and privileged access to the backstage of the competition via the Instagram broadcast channel “Le Vestiaire des Rois”.

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The Broadcast Channel: a direct channel... but not a passive one.

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Launched in 2023 on Instagram, these distribution channels allow creators to communicate in a privileged way with their subscribers who have joined their discussion space. Invitation links are sent to subscribers and when this is not the case, they can simply join the channel using the link in the account biography.

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Even though posting messages to the channel is initially reserved for administrators, they can enable the option for subscribers to respond to messages, in addition to being able to react with emojis and vote on polls. This creates a sense of near exclusivity with the creator, as opposed to commenting on a public post.

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In the case of events like the Kings League, subscribers expect exclusive information and exclusive preview images of the event such as player interviews, excerpts from behind the scenes that will reinforce the feeling of belonging among fans.

The Broadcast Channel is therefore not “just” an announcement channel: it invites interaction through polls, question and answer sessions or the possibility of commenting on the event, during live broadcasts on Twitch and Youtube for example.

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A well-established “Fan Engagement” strategy

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The Kings League has opted for an exclusive engagement strategy and is playing the insider's game by sharing exclusive information and content reserved for its most engaged fans on the channel. The emphasis is on the exclusive aspect, as if to create a “VIP community”.

This type of event and, more generally, brands have every interest in adopting this strategy, which allows them to retain an already engaged or highly interested audience; to create a rarity effect because exclusivity makes it possible to value the subscriber; but also to better know their community by collecting valuable insights on the preferences of the core target and to quantify them. It has become a real strategic lever that should not be overlooked.

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Observed results: an ultra-active community

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• More than 4,500 members have joined the broadcast and the commitment is very high: in one of the latest surveys, the participation rate in the votes is around 40%. This is well above the average of the rates observed on social networks (between 5 and 10% on a survey of this type)
• Even though the event brings together many fans on social networks, the content published on other platforms is less engaging than the channel itself: the last post on X garnered less than 1.2K commitments while the channel's latest poll had over 1.6K votes.

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We can observe that the engagement of channel members is more natural and spontaneous, since they have chosen to join it themselves, while on the publications, we know that some users automatically like certain publications in their news feed and do not really engage.

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A wider trend in sport?

Several sports clubs have already adopted the broadcast channel trend and have been able to strengthen the commitment of their fans, such as Paris Saint-Germain with its “Youth Teams” channel, which brings together 277,200 members, in which they publish their news in real time, before publishing content (signatures, scores, programs, behind the scenes, etc.)

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The Kings League model is a pioneer in its category since to date, no sports competition of this magnitude has been broadcast live on social networks, but the use of broadcast channels is commonplace in the football world, where fans are very active under publications and within channels.

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In conclusion, Broadcast Channels are more than just a way to communicate with fans — they fully participate in the participatory DNA of large-scale events such as the Kings League and, more broadly, creators or public figures.

This new way of communicating does not only concern the sports world but affects all areas such as music, influence, fashion,... Or more simply, all passions!

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