Wednesday 24 February 2016 11:04, UK
The Football League is to give fans of Liverpool and Manchester City an instant digital personalised club shirt in return for them backing their team ahead of this weekend's Capital One Cup Final at Wembley.
The campaign is part of a range of innovative social media activity that will also see fans able to receive instant pictures via Twitter of the two club's dugouts during the game, and marks the first time sports fans in this country will have received instant personalised responses on Twitter specific to the team they support.
The #ShirtOfSupport campaign will see Liverpool and Manchester City fans who tweet their club's Twitter handle alongside either #RedsAtWembley or #CityAtWembley receive an instant response containing their club's shirt personalised with the fan's Twitter handle on the back, as well as a thank you message from the Football League and a fan number.
Throughout the week, The Football League will be tracking the number of fans that register their support for both clubs, with fans able to get an instant update on which of Liverpool or Manchester City has registered the most supporters ahead of the Final by tweeting their club's final hashtag to @CapitalOne_Cup.
Each club's digital support will also be given a visible presence at Wembley Stadium on matchday, with the Twitter profile pictures of fans registering for #ShirtOfSupport being used to create a mosaic image to be displayed at the match.
The combined physical audience of 90,000 fans at the match and the digital 'crowd' represented through the Twitter profile picture mosaic will mean the Capital One Cup Final 2016 will be the 'most attended' final ever.
On match day, for the #FinalCam part of the campaign, fans can tweet @CapitalOne_Cup using the hashtag #WembleyWay to trigger an instant photo reply from a camera positioned to show the famous sight of fans making the way to the stadium along 'Wembley Way'.
With two high-profile managers in charge of both teams, all eyes will be on the two dugouts as Jurgen Klopp and Manuel Pellegrini aim to guide their team towards the first silverware of the season. And, for the first time ever, fans anywhere will be given the opportunity see how the two benches react as the game progresses.
At any point during the 90 minutes, plus extra-time and penalties if they should be needed, supporters will be able to simply send a tweet to receive an 'on demand' instant photo of their team's dugout, taken by special cameras placed next to the technical area.
To receive a photo of the Liverpool bench, fans just have to send a tweet to @CapitalOne_Cup using #LFCBench, while supporters of Manchester City just have to use #MCFCBench in their tweet to @CapitalOne_Cup.
To round off the campaign, The Football League will be sending a congratulations tweet after the final whistle to fans of the winning team who registered for their #ShirtOfSupport. The Tweet will include a photo of the winning team lifting the trophy.
Commenting on the activity, Drew Barrand, Marketing Director at The Football League said: "The Football League is always looking at innovative ways to engage our fan base around our major events. This year's Capital One Cup Final activity once again breaks new ground by bringing a unique first to Twitter for the UK sport industry.
"We look forward to both sets of fans backing their team and receiving their #ShirtOfSupport, as well as for the first time ever, providing supporters with exclusive images of their team's bench during the match through our unique #FinalCam activity."
The Capital One Cup Final kicks off at 4.30pm on Sunday and is exclusively live in the UK on Sky Sports 1 with coverage from 3pm, with extensive coverage in countries around the world.
