Barcelona use win over Chelsea to show the power of their Twitter account

March 16, 2018

Barcelona are making the most of their social media accounts, allowing partner brands the ability to sponsor regular social media posts during and after matches. During their Champions League last second leg against Chelsea, companies sponsored a variety of graphics and gifs centred around game events the club always knew were going to take place, such as pre-game lineup announcements, substitutions, the man of the match award and – perhaps in hope rather than expectation – goals.

Releasing their starting lineup on Twitter at the beginning of the game, Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer sponsored the video used on social, which used the players’ in-game likeness to announce who would be playing. The company also sponsored the goal announcements during the game using a gif created in game graphics to show the team celebrating a goal scored by the player in question. This approach allows Konami to show off features of the game through a regular social media update that fans actively search out and connect with fans during exciting, pivotal moments of the game.

The announcement of the final score and Barcelona’s win was presented with a graphic that had the score right next to a logo of shirt sponsor Rakuten. Riding high off the win, fans could then vote for their Man of the Match using Viber: a messaging app Rakuten themselves own.

Perhaps the easiest connection of sponsorship comes with injury reports sponsored by healthcare company Assistència Sanitària. Partnerships like these allow Barcelona to create new spaces for ad revenue and outside companies to get in on connecting with fans inside and outside the stadium and around the world as big moments happen for the club.

Using creative resources on their social media is a hallmark of Barcelona’s branding even when they are unsponsored, as seen by their latest post celebrating player Lionel Messi’s 100th Champions League goal. In a short gif, fans see Messi holding up his famous number 10 jersey before a zero is added to make it 100 and then the jersey is thrown behind him as a graphic rises above his head. It is this short, fun, shareable content that is boosting the FC Barcelona social media to a fan central ripe for advertising.

Clubs know that they’ll always have set-piece social media posts which happen every single game. Lineups, goals and full-time scores all show that there are multiple times every game when the club’s account is the centre of attention. Monetising this should be fairly easy, then, and Barcelona show just how well they can ensure their partner brands can be exposed in this way.

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