Dutch Player Heitinga Launches EURO2012 App

With the EURO2012 in Poland & Ukrain coming up, many brands are starting up their advertising campaigns, trying to make the most out of the opportunities this high profile sport event offers.

Many football sponsors are shouting louder each tournament, using big campaigns to realise value of their sponsorship money. It’s interesting to see that also football players are trying to make the most of Euro2012, like Dutch defender John Heitinga, who plays in the Premiership for Everton.

Heitinga has launched an iPhone in both Dutch and English, which helps you to be completely up-to-date about what occurs during the tournament. The app offers live updates about matches, scores, game schedules and the most important news about the EURO2012. It also has an overview of all countries playing during the tournament, supplemented by extensive information about the teams and their players. Users can rate players and watch real-time statistics about the performance of the teams and players.

Besides facts the app also has some fun to offer: a football quiz, which includes a range of different questions about the European Championships from the past and the upcoming tournament. The questions are about players, football shirts, clubs of the internationals, goals, yellow and red cards, player numbers, notable events and more.

Heitinga is not the first football player with an app. Portugal striker Cristian Ronaldo released an iPhone and Android based app which offers Ronaldo news, tweets, pictures and videos. United players Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen have similar apps. Wesley Sneijder was the first Dutch national player with an app, which offers similar content like the Ferdinand, Owen and Ronaldo app.

Heitinga’s app goes beyond these apps, by offering content with different kind of content like game and player statistics and the football quiz. Seems like this football player understands that advertising needs to move more from push to pull! What’s your opinion on this approach? And do you know more football players or athletes from other sports with apps as well?

You can download the Heitinga app here.

 Source: John Heitinga Tweet