FanSection Blog

Super Bowl XLIII is upon us this Sunday and it will mark the culmination of a fantastic NFL season for us here at FanSection and Watercooler.  Our NFL fan applications have been on a tear this season and I’ll post a full recap once the season is officially over.  But since the Super Bowl is only a few days away, I thought it would be a great time to take a look at the top FanSection moments over the last few weeks.

Top FanSection Moments Leading Up to the Super Bowl

1. Arizona Cardinals fans come out of hiding
Gary Vaynerchuk had a great post on his blog last week - Stop crying, think, wipe your tears, and crush it - and that got me to thinking about the Arizona Cardinals chances in Super Bowl XLIII. On paper, there’s no way the Cardinals should be in this game or think they have a chance against the Pittsburgh Steelers defense.  But Cardinals fans aren’t letting that get them down ad evidenced by their support of their team on Facebook.  Below is a graph that shows the growth in active fans on the Cardinals application in the last 30 days:

That is an astronomical growth rate of 6100% in 30 days. Crazy.

2. Pittsburgh Steelers fans drive their community to #1
It’s official - the Pittsburgh Steelers fan application is now our largest NFL community.  Steelers fans have ridden their playoff wave to over 460,000 fans which blew by the New England Patriots at 410,000.  While the Steelers growth hasn’t been as pronounced as the Cardinals since they already had a huge base to work with, the community has added 255,000 monthly active users since January 1 for a growth rate of almost 300%.  Below is the Steelers graph from AppData.

3. Some serious smack-talk
Super Bowl XLIII has brought out the smack-talker in even the most laid back fan.  The Game Day Central section within FanSection apps always get a lot of action, but it has been hyper-charged between the Steelers and Cardinals over the last few weeks.  There have been almost 2,200 posts on that wall so far - 80% by Steelers fans.

4. Props for FanSection and Watercooler
I have to step back and pat ourselves on the back for a minute.  The FanSection communities keep getting better and better and most of that is due to the die-hard fans that visit every day.  But we also have a great staff here at Watercooler and it’s always fun to be noticed.  Below is a video of our CEO, Kevin Chou, in a recent interview with Bambi Francisco of Vator.tv.

5. Catching a Super Bowl wave
Fan waves are a very important part of FanSection communities for a few reasons: 1) they’re a very public display of team support, 2) they’re the primary component of Fan Points, and 3) they’re the primary method of friend invitations.   We use Fan Points to develop the Fan Rankings which essentiallys ranks the various  communities against each other while leading to lots of interaction between fans.  The Super Bowl has created a huge volume in waves with the Steelers leading the way by passing on almost 100K Super Bowl waves compared to the Cardinals’ 25K.  All said and done, the game has led to the most Fan Points of all time with the Steelers accumulating over 5 million and the Cardinals driving almost 2 million.

6. Cardinals fans vote for a Redskins cheerleader in their Biggest Fan Competition

Sorry, but this is just too funny to pass up.  We ran a Biggest Fan contest for the teams in the NFL playoffs and each community voted on a winner.  Cardinals fans chose the photo on the right, which is actually a Redskins cheerleader.

7. A Steel House for a steel curtain
Steelers fans on the other hand know a big fan when they see one.  The house on the left, decked out in black and gold, was the winner in the Steelers community.

8. Guest blog by a Cardinals Fan
In our first ever attempt at inviting guest bloggers, we have two great posts from fans. The first one is from Zach Colick from the Phoenix area.

9. Guest blog by a Steelers Fan
Not to be outdone, Erin McDowell gave us her take on the game from a Steelers perspective.

10. Super bowl squares
As with most offices and Super Bowl parties, we have a pool here at Watercooler.  I don’t think I’ve ever won a Super Bowl and based on my numbers this year, I’m not going to break that streak any time soon.  But I needed a 10th item for the blog post with my numbers are mocking me from the white board in the office, I figured it would be a good wrap-up to a great Super Bowl week.

Good luck in your respective pools, enjoy the game, and see you next week when I turn my attention to basketball.