We are the Uk Faithful
How it started….
Niner Empire UK was originally created in 2010 to provide a central online location to bring together UK based fans of the San Francisco 49ers.
2010 was the first time the 49ers had played a competitive game in the UK, and it was this event that prompted a call to action amongst the Faithful.
The evolution of the group was reasonably quick as an affiliation to The Niner Empire was made in early 2011, and was to last through to the end of 2012, before stepping away due to a split in the Niner Empire.
With the 49ers due to play a second game in London in 2013, a decision was made to apply for official booster club status with the San Francisco 49ers, this was accompanied by a re-brand of the group to align with the 49ers view of the fanbase, “The Faithful”.
Between 2013 & 2015 the group continued to grow with members across Europe and the United States contributing to the weekly in-season gameday threads and daily discussion posts.
October 2015 saw a change in leadership as the original founding members decided to step away to pursue other activities.
At this time the group had approximately 2000 members, but only had an engagement rate of 15%.
The new leadership team set about reviewing what success looked like and mapping a path accordingly. The approach of centralising all UK based 49ers fans was abandoned and a new approach of creating a community of members that shared a vision of what being a member of the Faithful meant to them.
The first job was to manually remove a glut of fake and deactivated accounts to allow better reporting on engagement levels, this dropped the membership to approx 800.
How it’s going….
Since the change in 2015, the group has increased membership to 3000 members, but more importantly has an average engagement rate of 83%, a significant rise and one that is evident on a daily basis. The admin team has steadily increased with members providing many different skillsets that compliment each other and allow the group to continue growing.
Before the change in 2015, we were already engaged with the 49ers due to the booster club status, but this correspondence was few and far between. Closer ties to the organisation was going to be necessary to allow the group to further grow in the right direction and with the support of the 49ers.
Social media was always going to be the platform of choice to reach future fans, and to allow communication to as many people as possible.
After a two year hiatus, the 49er Faithful UK Show podcast returned for a new season and provided the group with game previews and reviews. Whilst growth was slow initially, it steadily improved as the hosts took onboard the suggestions from listeners, and in 2019 a core group of 4 hosts embedded into the show, and immediately started too pay dividends as show downloads increased.
To compliment the podcast, the group setup a YouTube channel, improved the Twitter engagement and also created an Instagram account to expand the choices available to fans.
The 49ers organisation was granted UK marketing rights at the end of 2021, which meant along with 6 other teams they were able to access the UK NFL market to increase their fanbase starting 2022.
At the start of April the 49er Faithful UK was approached by the organisation and asked if they would be willing to send two members across to Las Vegas to represent the UK fanbase at the 2022 NFL Draft. The 49ers provided invite-only tickets for the front row in days 2 & 3 of the draft; they also asked one of the members to announce the teams 5th round draft pick.
The ties with the 49ers have been solidified throughout 2022, with the 49er Faithful UK instrumental in the planning of the first official NFL watch party in the UK, and also sending across 10 members for the playoffs as guests in the Gold Mine section.
Talk to us
Have any questions? We are always open to talk about 49ers, and how we can help you.