Category Archives: UEFA

EC-specials: Volkskrant EC-webspecial

Of course every major newspaper website covers the European Championships. You can find news and backgrounds, beautiful photos, games and interviews almost anywhere. One who, in my view, is very special is the “Volkskrant EK webspecial”. Because of the beautiful design.

De Volkskrant has produced a real ‘online magazine’ which you can browse through. By clicking in the right bottom corner the pages are turned and you get a new page where you can find more information.

EC-specials: Oranjeshirtjes.nl: a small but nice initiative

The amount of websites that try to take advantage of the European Championships is immense. And everybody wants to earn money. And why not. Sometimes there are a couple where you automatically get a good feeling. That was the case with the website www.oranjeshirtjes.nl. Maybe it is because I have two small children myself, but the idea speaks to me.

EC Specials: Holland Casino and Heineken are merchandising

That YouTube is a good marketing tool, we had already identified. The advertisements that you can see on television are often viewed better, longer and more often than on the television itself. That’s also the case with this one by Holland Casino in cooperation with Heineken. This commercial focusses on the merchandising around the European Championships. Well found and it gives a good picture of the ‘madness’ that is hanging around the EC. The video is now viewed already almost 3000 times on YouTube…

EC Specials: upload your picture to the nufoto-EC website

In addition to all the ec-pools and footbalnews websites nu.nl has added a fun element that many users will like. Nu.nl has used its NuFoto functionality for their special EC website. On the page you can see photos which are made by "visitors". As a visitor you can upload your own photo to the site. You can also vote on photos of others. The photos are displayed in different ways.

EC Specials: Answer questions at Play Like a Champion

The summer is usually a time when there is nothing much to see on television. There is a lot Sports on though, with annual events such as Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the Tour de France. In a year like this one there are also the European Soccer Championship and the Olympic Games. That provides a lot of ‘new’ TV-shows.

One of those new shows is "play like a champion ‘ that is broadcasted daily at 19.30 on Channel 3. At the slot of ‘De wereld draait door". The program is an old-fashioned football quiz presented by Jack van Gelder. Each day (well, everything is taped on 1 day, but we get to see only 1 per day) four ‘Dutch’ celebrities join in to answer questions about the game of Football.

The TROS, responsible for the program, has a good online sequel to the action. On the website http://www.playlikeachampion.nl/ can you participate in the quiz. It is a wonderful paradise for people with a lot of knowledge about football.

If you sign in to the website you get access to all parts of the website. You can have your own distinctive profile where you can specify what your favorite line up for the Dutch team is, what your favorite club is and share even more football details about yourself. Also you get a personal avatar that you can dress in and various styles with European shirts.

On the website Jack van Gelder can give you a tour. There are several game-types available on the website. Like for example in the Vi-EK poule you can choose to play in their own groups set up, ‘clubs’. This is the’2 .0 effect’ put back into operation: You can invite your friends. You can also ‘just’ play ‘against’ strangers.

You will be divided into ‘divisions’ following your results, allowing you to play against ‘equal opponents’. You get 15 seconds to answer a multiple choice question. The quicker you answer, the more points you get. You can choose from various categories of the questions.

It is best to play with others. On your own it gets boring quickly, but against others the game element plays an important role.

The site offers a number of additional features: an online magazine with a ‘Question of the day’ and interviews with players. And here you can as well read the last news about football, provided by AD Sportwereld. And of course you can also win things: a shirt of the Dutch national team. By answering the viewers question correctly everyday you have chance at winning a shirt.

It is a wonderful site that is a good follow up to the tv-show. The nice thing is that you can also make suggestions for questions. Too bad that the question will not be used on television, because everything is already pre-recorded. That would really User Generated Content!

I did pretty good, how did you do? Let me know!