@KCChiefs fans are #LoudandProud for record-breaking roar of the crowd

On October 13, the buzz on Twitter reached decibel levels.

Kansas City Chiefs fans at Arrowhead Stadium set the Guinness World Record for “loudest crowd at a sporting event” — and used Twitter to help accomplish the feat. After a week’s worth of promotion on Twitter with videos, giveaways and a nifty hashtag, as well as some timely encouraging Tweets on game day, the @KCChiefs put their fans on the cusp of history.

The drive to break the world decibel record began organically as a fan initiative because a group of fans wanted to create a Guinness World Record at Arrowhead Stadium, long considered one of the loudest stadiums.

The Chiefs embraced the cause, using Twitter to promote the event and engage even more fans. #LoudAndProud was chosen as the campaign hashtag.

Just a month earlier, the Seattle @Seahawks fan roars at CenturyLink Field broke the record, which gave Chiefs’ fans a new number to beat: 136.6 decibels. The Chiefs fans coordinated with the team, promoting the contest for the Chiefs’ October 13 game against NFC West rival Oakland @RAIDERS.

Promotion

Throughout the week leading up to the game, the Chiefs spread the word on Twitter. They tweeted out an assortment of videos, ranging from an account of Arrowhead Stadium’s great tradition of deafening crowd noise to this special message from comedian Rob Riggle:

The Chiefs even gave fans the opportunity to win free tickets by following @KCChiefs and retweeting this…

…though this fan didn’t need a ticket to get in on the action:

The day before the game, the Chiefs reminded fans about the forthcoming event and encouraged them to tweet a picture from their cheering section.

Game day

Before kickoff, the Chiefs tweeted one last call to action to break the record:

During the game, the stadium video board exhorted the crowd to be #LoudAndProud. The Chiefs tweeted updates, encouraging just a little more noise:

Finally, history was made: the fans hit 137.5 decibels, and the Chiefs quickly tweeted the news out in what would become the day’s most-retweeted Tweet.

Meanwhile, fans tweeted pictures of the Jumbotron announcement.

Post-game analysis

The Chiefs and their fans were not just #LoudAndProud at Arrowhead Stadium. As a result of campaign on Twitter, the @KCChiefs saw a bump in engagement and follower growth: @KCChiefs gained 6x more followers than usual, and had 15x more Retweets and favorites.

The hashtag #LoudAndProud also turned out to be a big win, and Tweets using #LoudAndProud proved to be much more engaging than those about the campaign without it.

Even after the game ended, the conversation on Twitter was still going strong. The Seahawks took to Twitter to congratulate the Chiefs, which led to some playful jabs between the teams:

Perhaps most important to Kansas City fans, the Chiefs won.

 Do you know of any more innovative uses of Twitter? Contact us at [email protected].