THE CANADIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE AND TWITTER CANADA TEAM UP TO ENHANCE THE #GREYCUP EXPERIENCE FOR FOOTBALL FANS EVERYWHERE

Monday, November 20, 2017 — OTTAWA - The Canadian Football League (CFL) and Twitter Canada will be teaming up in Ottawa this week for the 105th Grey Cup (#GreyCup), presented by Shaw.

From exclusive live-streaming video content to “made in Canada” emojis to immersive in-stadium experiences, football fans from Canada and around the world will be flocking to Twitter to find out what’s happening during #GreyCup Week.

“The CFL’s relationship with our great partners at Twitter deepened even further this year,” says Christina Litz, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Content at the CFL. “I’m proud to say that we share a fan-first philosophy and have worked closely together to bring sports' most passionate fans new ways of interacting and engaging with our players, team, League and now the Grey Cup.”

This past June, #CFLThisWeek debuted on Twitter as the first Canadian original weekly live-streaming show on the platform. Hosted by the CFL’s Brodie Lawson and three-time Grey Cup champion Davis Sanchez with guest appearances by CFL’s Max Rosenberg, the program has attracted thousands of viewers each week and big name guests from the worlds of sports, media and entertainment.

More than 1 million football fans from across the planet tuned into #CFLThisWeek during its first season with an average per-episode audience of more than 44,000 viewers. The Week 11 episode of #CFLThisWeek (featuring a guest appearance by TSN’s Derek Taylor) was the most viewed of this season with more than 118,000 people watching on Twitter.

The #CFLThisWeek crew will be out in full force during #GreyCup Week with a number of special live stream broadcasts scheduled to showcase what’s happening live from Ottawa.

Here is the full programming schedule, streaming live on Twitter from the official @CFL Twitter account:

• Thursday, November 23 10:00am ET  - Live with the Toronto Argonauts

• Thursday, November 23 3:30pm ET - Live with the Calgary Stampeders

• Friday, November 24 7:00pm ET - Live from the CFL #GCTweetUp

• Saturday, November 25 10:00am ET - Pre-#GreyCup behind-the-scenes walkthrough

• Sunday, November 26 10:00am ET - Live from the Commissioner's Brunch

“#CFLThisWeek was the first live-streaming program globally to be filmed weekly at a Twitter office and we’re thrilled to once again be teaming with the CFL on a new batch of live video content for #GreyCup Week,” says Christopher Doyle, Head of Sports, Twitter Canada. “Having partnered with the CFL for years on a wide range of #GreyCup activities, we’re excited to be upsizing the league’s live-streaming experience in 2017 with this action-packed video content.”

In other CFL Twitter news, the #GCTweetUp fan event, presented by Shaw, will be coming to Ottawa on Friday, November 24. A staple of #GreyCup Week, the event will feature a variety of Twitter-powered activations plus opportunities to interact with top-name CFL players, personalities and the #GreyCup itself.

CFL will also be able to engage with Twitter during the #GreyCup game on a variety of in-game activations:

• CFL team emojis. Tweet #ArgosFootball to unlock a Toronto Argonauts emoji and #GoStampsGo for a Calgary Stampeders emoji. Tweeting #GreyCup will also unlock a custom emoji.

• In-stadium signage. For fans attending the big game, live #GreyCup Tweets will be shown on the concourse and on-field digital display boards at TD Place Stadium. Fans can also Tweet their good luck wishes to the #GreyCup finalists in the lead-up to the game, to be displayed in the player tunnels during entrances.

• Real-time content. Follow the @CFL, @TwitterSportsCA and @TwitterCanada accounts on Twitter for the latest game highlights, conversations and behind-the-scenes content, including exclusive photos and video content from the Twitter Mirror.

Heading into the #GreyCup, Twitter conversations about both teams are heating up. There were 3.1x more Twitter mentions about the Argonauts during the week of the East Final compared to weekly mentions during the CFL regular season. For the Stampeders, there were 2.3x more weekly Twitter mentions during the week of the West Final. The Stampeders’ most mentioned player on Twitter this season was their starting quarterback, Bo Levi Mitchell. The most mentioned Argonaut on Twitter was their quarterback, Ricky Ray. 

Keep tabs on Twitter throughout #GreyCup Week for the latest CFL video content, team details and real-time reactions from CFL players and fans.