What does it take to turn AFCON 2025 into a defining tourism moment?
The Moroccan National Tourism Office (MNTO) transformed Africa's biggest sports event into a powerful global showcase, positioning Morocco as a world-class football and travel destination.
More than a tournament
The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) marks the 35th edition of Africa's premier football competition, organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). Hosted by Morocco, the tournament brings together the continent's top national teams and millions of fans from across Africa and the world.
AFCON 2025 goes far beyond sport. For Morocco, it is a strategic moment to reveal to the world the richness of our culture, the diversity of our landscapes, our legendary hospitality, and our world-class tourism infrastructure. This edition is set to be the greatest Africa Cup of Nations ever organized in every dimension, from infrastructure and innovation to atmosphere and fan experience. Through this extraordinary momentum, we proudly affirm Morocco as the true Land of Football, said Hicham Guessous, Head of Digital at Platform5.
More than a championship, AFCON 2025 is a continental celebration and a defining moment for Morocco on the international stage.
Driving global impact through collaboration
Committed to opening Morocco to the world, the Moroccan National Tourism Office (MNTO) drives tourism growth through strategic alliances and market-led initiatives that strengthen the country’s global brand image, with a clear goal of promoting Morocco as a leading international destination.
In the lead-up to AFCON 2025, MNTO launched the "Morocco, Kingdom of Football" campaign to position the Kingdom as a world-class center for football and tourism. Designed as a multi-channel activation, the campaign combined powerful football storytelling with the promotion of the tournament's six host cities, while digital played a central role in expanding its international reach.
The campaign's success was driven by a strong collaboration between MNTO, Platform5, and Eskimi.
Platform5, a communications agency operating across the MENA region and in Morocco under the Middle East Communications Network (MCN), part of the Omnicom Group, provided strategic direction and regional expertise to ensure consistent and impactful messaging across markets.
Eskimi powered the multi-market programmatic activation, delivering immersive Rich Media formats across 13 countries and amplifying reach and engagement at scale.
The Making of "Morocco, Kingdom of Football"
The campaign brought together rich media, animated formats, and multi-market targeting to deliver a powerful and cohesive digital activation. Leveraging Pixel Pages, 3D Cubes, and animated banners, it created interactive touchpoints that immersed audiences in Morocco's football passion, where football and the sun shine as one.
Guided by the agency's strategic vision and executed in close coordination with Eskimi's operational teams, multiple creative assets were deployed in synergy to maximize engagement across all markets, shared Mohammed Amine Mabchor, Digital Media Manager at Platform5.
This integrated approach resulted in a 266% increase in click-through performance compared to animated banners alone. With 78% of placements on sports-focused sites and 48.6% of placements above the fold, the campaign effectively captured audiences during peak football moments. With 74% of impressions delivered on smartphones and 64.5% reaching the 18–30 demographic, the campaign effectively engaged a mobile-first audience highly receptive to travel inspiration.
The campaign achieved outstanding scale, generating 35.3 million impressions and reaching 12.6 million unique users across Morocco, Europe, MENA, and Africa, significantly expanding visibility in key strategic markets. In total, 127,103 clicks were driven, resulting in a strong 0.36% CTR, reflecting effective creative execution and precise cross-device targeting.
Performance consistently outpaced industry standards, with all markets exceeding the overall CTR benchmark, delivering uplifts ranging from +92% to +490%, demonstrating broad and sustained overperformance across regions.
Beyond the numbers
The multi-market activation delivered strong results across Europe, MENA, and Africa. Europe served as the primary scale driver, contributing the majority of impressions while consistently outperforming benchmarks, particularly in Belgium, the UK, and France.
Africa emerged as the strongest-performing region overall, led by exceptional results in Senegal. At the same time, Morocco demonstrated strong domestic engagement, reinforcing national pride and building momentum around AFCON 2025 in the host market.
MENA delivered stable and efficient performance, exceeding industry benchmarks across all markets and supporting the campaign's cross-continental success.
Beyond performance metrics, the campaign strengthened Morocco's positioning as a modern, connected, and football-driven destination.
With global recognition rising, Morocco is not just growing as a destination, it is confidently shaping its place among the world's tourism leaders.
