In an interview, Daniel Alonso Duarte, LaLiga delegate in Brazil, talks about how Brazil has become a key country for the internationalization of the competition
Five years after arriving in Brazil, LaLiga, which brings together the 42 teams from the first and second divisions of football in Spain, analyzes the results as positive and ‘promising’. The country has registered a growth of more than 40% in the number of followers on the competition’s social networks in the last four years and today represents the largest fan base outside Spain.
It is considered a key country with more than 214 million inhabitants, according to Daniel Alonso Duarte, LaLiga delegate in Brazil. “Beyond broadcasting the games, Brazilians also like to follow the backstage and how they happen. It’s a very engaged and passionate audience”, he explains in an interview with PROPMARK.
For Duarte, brands have more and more opportunities to connect with their audiences in the context of a world with multiple platforms. LaLiga itself has been looking for a way to understand how this new reality can generate more impact and engagement.
“Another great bet that we have globally is to ally ourselves with partners with common interests, who want to be part of this digital development, such as TikTok that made the first transmission of LaLiga vertically and in 4K in April, in the game Real Sociedad x Betis, and TVM, which is at the forefront of our Metaverso creations initiative”, he adds.
LaLiga has been in Brazil for over five years. How do you analyze the work that has been developed? What are the main results?
Although LaLiga has only been operating in Brazil for 5 years, the results have been promising so far. LaLiga has a very important motto that defines its actions: It’s not just football. It’s LaLiga. This means that we seek to work beyond football and explore new ways of involving the brand as a whole with solutions and activations in technology, sports, lifestyle and gastronomy. So far, with the help of our partners, our activities in the country have been well received and we have been happy with the results and spaces we are conquering.
Among the examples that we can cite is the growth of more than 40% in the number of followers on LaLiga’s social networks in Brazil in the last 4 years, the continued increase in audiences for the games, and the partnership we have with the São Paulo Football Federation ( FPF) since 2019, a technical cooperation agreement that includes the exchange of knowledge, ideas and professionals. Recently, this collaboration resulted in the Master FPF course, exclusively for presidents and executives of clubs in Paulistão – the Master FPF is a training program for leadership and systemic football management, with workshops, in-person and distance classes, held between January and June .
How important is the Brazilian market for LaLiga in financial terms and in terms of audience?
In 2020, LaLiga recorded an increase of more than 48% in the international audience during the broadcast of the first round of the return of the competition, after the stoppage due to the coronavirus – from the 11th to the 14th of June, in which the 28th round of the tournament, the number of spectators outside Spain had a notable growth compared to the average of the 27 previous rounds, according to Nielsen Sports. Many sociologists confirm that football is indeed a national passion for Brazilians. Add that to the size of the country (more than 214M inhabitants), naturally, this becomes a key market for LaLiga. But, far beyond the transmission of the games, the Brazilian also likes to follow behind the scenes and how they happen. It is a very engaged and passionate audience.
Who is LaLiga’s audience in Brazil? Is it the same audience that consumes the Brazilian championship?
We like to define the LaLiga fan as the entertainment fan. LaLiga always wants to be the second favorite league in each country. We will never be competitors for the national championship, which stirs the passion of the club at heart of the local fan. However, the passion for football is universal in Brazil, and does not depend on social class or income. LaLiga is followed by all fan profiles. In addition, our brand goes beyond the limits of the field and takes the passion for football to different universes, such as the e-sports scene. In 2020 we launched the e-LaLiga Santander, an e-sports championship with the game Fifa. We see competitive games as a complement to traditional football and an opportunity for LaLiga, whether through competition, as a spectator or both, to offer ways for fans to enjoy football in its most diverse forms.
In the last five years, a lot has changed. New platforms have emerged or gained relevance, there are new transmission models and conversation opportunities. How has LaLiga observed these movements and what has it been doing to keep up with them?
LaLiga is the football competition with the most followers on social networks in the world, surpassing 150 million, on 17 platforms and 20 different languages, with the Brazilian public being the largest base of followers of our networks outside Spain. I confess that we are still trying to understand these movements and these new forms of connection, but what has worked so far is the identification of the public combined with the use of multiplatforms, which increases these identification rates more and more. Another great bet that we have globally is to ally ourselves with partners with common interests, who want to be part of this digital development, such as TikTok, which made the first transmission of LaLiga vertically and in 4K in April, in the game Real Sociedad x Betis, and TVM, which is at the forefront of our Metaverso creations initiative.
How can brands connect with this new moment in football, more digital and with a greater number of channels, platforms and social networks?
Brands have more and more opportunities to connect with their audiences in the context of the multi-platform world we live in. With live game broadcasting on TV, streaming – on platforms of brands that own the rights in each country or region, as is the case of StarPlus in Brazil, and also on social networks, such as the game we broadcast on TikTok -, LaLiga and our partners and sponsors closer to the most diverse audiences, enabling growth in reach and brand exposure.
What do you understand as new activation opportunities?
All those actions that connect the brand with its audience are valid opportunities for us here on this side, but we always seek to strategically look at these paths. The example I mentioned in the previous answer – taking advantage of and getting the best result from the multiplatform presence – is still a field in which we continue to invest a lot in order to grow even more.
What were the most interesting cases in the use of multiplatform strategies to connect the audience with the matches?
Definitely the broadcast of Real Sociedad’s game with Betis on TikTok is an excellent example. The numbers of this streaming prove the success of the activation: we reached more than 500 thousand unique viewers, 68 thousand comments in the chat and 1.2 million likes in what was the first transmission of LaLiga by TikTok.
We have advanced as a society on several fronts, such as combating gender-based violence and athe racism. In football, however, we continue to see regrettable scenes of racism. How has LaLiga been dealing with this type of situation, which, in addition to being criminal, can affect the safety of brands?
At LaLiga we do not tolerate any kind of prejudice. Unfortunately, we often witness cases of racism and xenophobia, for example, coming from the cheers of the fans or even between players. But, in all cases, we investigate and, when appropriate, report them to the responsible committee, since intolerance of any kind hurts the spirit of sport that was made to embrace and celebrate talents, regardless of nationality, race, sexual orientation or any another type of label.
What are LaLiga’s next steps in Brazil?
As always, our focus is to understand the Brazilian consumer in order to create new strategies aimed at football and entertainment fans. We want to open channels of conversation with our audience and bring them more and more into LaLiga. We want to innovate, bring more activation and engagement proposals and increasingly conquer this legion of LaLiga fans and lovers that we have in the country.
