According to Ibope Repucom, the volume of new subscribers on the clubs’ social networks in the first half of 2022 was 31% higher than in the first half of 2021
In 1976, the CBF decided that Football Day would be celebrated on July 19. The date refers to the day when the oldest Brazilian team was created, Sport Clube Rio Grande.
A lot has changed in the 46 years since the date was created. Many teams were created, many rules were changed, championships were born, VAR was implemented… But perhaps the biggest change in these almost half a century is the way fans are informed about their favorite team.
If people used to find out about signings, game dates and board elections on the radio and in the newspapers, today social networks are in charge. More and more Brazilian clubs have invested and seen social networks as a way to get closer and communicate with fans.
Amir Somoggi, sports marketing specialist and managing partner of Sports Value, explained that social media has always been important for clubs, both national and international, but the coronavirus pandemic has made its use intensify.
“Until the pandemic was a reality, and after it, another. There was a very large development of Instagram, for example, and today it is the main social network of Brazilian clubs and, in some cases, represents up to 70% of interactions”, he explained. The specialist.
In addition to Instagram, Somoggi also highlighted YouTube as one of the main social networks used by clubs.
“Youtube is consolidated as a non-traditional network because the clubs’ content production ends up impacting low-income fans, who do not have access to pay TV, streaming, etc. from SportsValue.
The latest edition of Ibope Repucom, published in July 2022, highlighted the performance of the first half of 2022 in terms of the volume of new subscribers in the official networks of the 50 Brazilian football clubs, the highest in the entire historical series since 2017.
According to the survey, the volume of new subscribers on the clubs’ official platforms in the first half of 2022 was 31% higher than in the first half of 2021, which shows a possible reflection of the resumption of the regular competition calendar. From January to June of this year, 15.6 million new registrations were registered in the clubs’ official profiles.
From field to bank account
In addition to information about games and signings, social networks have proved to be great allies in converting fans into club members, which according to the study “Finanças TOP 20 Brazilian clubs 2021” by Sport Value, are the fourth source of income for clubs. Palmeiras, for example, registered more than 70% increase in the fan base in the first six months of 2022 and currently has more than 77,000 avanti members.
Like Palmeiras, Santos created an account only for the club’s fan members, which, in this case, is called Sócio Rei, in honor of Pelé.
“It is through the social network that members stay on top of all the club’s news, such as promotions, contests, experiences and any other action that is intended for the Partner Rei. The social network is so important to retain old members and win new members , that Partner Rei himself has an official page dedicated exclusively to this content”, explained Ricardo Cardoso, social media coordinator at Santos FC.
The São Paulo FC Fan Partner program also has its own channels and profiles on the networks.
“[Essas contas] speak directly with fans who are already part of the program and seek to increase the base of fans who choose to join the ST. These channels are fundamental for the growth of the fan base”, said José Eduardo Martins, Executive Director of Communication at São Paulo.
In addition to members, social networks have also provided clubs with another way to earn money: the advertising market, as brands increasingly seek social networks to reach other audiences.
“The fans are an audience desired by brands from different segments and the more protagonists we are in social networks, the more we enter the radar of the advertising market. “, highlighted Vasco da Gama’s social media team.
In order for the work to reach a larger audience, clubs began to invest in teams to produce this content.
In the case of Palmeiras, the club stated that the media work is carried out jointly by the Palmeiras Communication Department, which brings together advisors, editors, historians, photographers, videographers, designers and social media professionals who are responsible for following trends. and outline posting strategies based on specific data from each of the official channels. In addition, the club stated that it currently has commercial partners focused on digital content.
In the São Paulo tricolor team, the Communication department, together with Marketing, is responsible for the production and curation of the content of the networks.
The same thing happens in the Rio team. The club’s social media management process involves planning, producing and distributing content.
At Santos, there is also a team exclusively dedicated to managing these types of content, which interacts directly with the Marketing and Communication sectors of the club, but with a division of focus for each theme, such as professional football, youth football, women’s football, partners and sponsors, and also by social network.
The social media coordinator of the Santos team also pointed out that the club’s social networks have already brought financial advantages to the club.
“In addition to its own monetized content, Santos also has partnerships with platforms and content paid for by sponsors and partners. In every negotiation involving brands, the social network is added as part of the business. It is common to see numerous publications from partner brands on our social networks . This means visibility for the company and it means profit for the club”, stated Ricardo.
The fan as part of the team
In addition to the financial issue, social networks allowed fans to closely monitor the clubs’ actions, such as training sessions and behind-the-scenes videos, transforming the fan versus club relationship into a two-way street: in the same way that the fan “wins ” access to other content, the club has the option to communicate directly with the fan.
“Palmeiras has 20 million fans spread across different cities in Brazil and the world and many of them relate to the club through social networks”, pointed out the team from Verdão paulista.
According to Cardoso, in addition to getting closer to the fans, the networks increase the club’s relevance. “A club without a strong virtual presence is a club with less relevance. And relevance has always been and will always be something important for the institution’s growth in all segments”, pointed out the coordinator of Peixe.
“The approach of the fan is something very easy to feel, even more so for those who lived the pre-social media period. If in the past the fan only felt ‘part of the club’ when he was in the stadium supporting, today he feels inside the team, living and interacting with each content, whether to support, praise or criticize. And so the fan, even those who live thousands of kilometers away, feel, quite rightly, a crucial part of the day to day of their club”, added Cardoso. .
The point of bringing fans together was also highlighted by Vasco’s social media team. “Social networks end up shortening the distances between the fan and the club, even more when it comes to Vasco, which is a club where most of its fans are outside Rio de Janeiro”, he pointed out.
The language of networks
Along with social networks, came the memes, jokes and trends that go viral with a certain frequency and, as you can imagine, clubs also appropriated this new language to communicate through their accounts.
According to the Palmeiras media team, the club understood that social networks have their own languages and that they need to adapt to them in order to positively impact their followers. “The club has increasingly invested in the creation of arts, games and memes that value its characters and leverage the engagement of the fans”, pointed out the team.
The Vasco team also bets on memes and lighter content on their networks. “We understand that social networks are made by people for people. We aim to participate and be part of our digital community of fans”, pointed out the team.
The executive director of Communication at São Paulo explained that the club is trying to find a balance between informing and having moments for a more informal engagement in the networks.
“We are dealing with fans, and the ‘intern’ of social networks is also, by definition, a tricolor fan. The search is for this balance, understanding the moment of the team, the fan, and the football environment itself. moments for greater relaxation, but there are moments that the networks, as official channels of the club, must institutionally talk about serious matters”, said Martins.
The Santos network coordinator explained that, despite working with creative freedom and because the team is traditionally known for its good humor and daring, the team takes care so that this language does not result in something negative for the team.
“Our mission is to play to cheer our fans, but never disrespecting other institutions and human beings. the best way possible and the game that goes beyond limits and spoils this atmosphere. There is no manual that comes with these limits, so the need for common sense from content creators is paramount at these times”, said Ricardo.
He even pointed out that in the past, these humorous posts have already generated discomfort with the team’s board.
“The social network is still something very recent and this type of more relaxed approach was already largely avoided at its beginning, due to a more conservative view of old managements. I have been at the forefront of Santos’ social networks since 2015 and I have had a lot of content denied for these reasons. Over time, the social network has evolved in importance internally and, based on a lot of conversation and planning, relaxed content began to be something traditional at the club”, said the coordinator.
For the same reason, the Vasco da Gama team stated that the posts on their networks follow a fine line where subjectivity can appear, but there are no relevant cases of disagreements and internal discomforts. “We understand our role and we seek to make clear what our intentions are. If there is any content that may be sensitive, we always seek internal alignment before publishing”, pointed out the team.
In the case of the alviverde team, the media team stated that the posts never generated discomfort and that the club’s athletes themselves “have fun with the good humor of Palmeiras’ social networks”. The executive director of the São Paulo tricolor also said that the tone of the networks never generated discomfort with the board.
Streaming, NFTs, metaverso…
The internet has evolved fast and, currently, the metaverse has become a reality not only for brands and advertising, but also for Brazilian clubs.
O PROPMARK asked the teams what their next steps were in digital and, while Palmeiras stated that this matter was “strategic, therefore internal”, the Santos, Vasco and São Paulo teams pointed out which directions they are heading in the world of binary code.
The Santos coordinator pointed out, currently, the club’s focus is to increase its relevance in the networks, to take advantage of the details of the platforms and to be attentive to the news, whether of tools or new media and that, therefore, “it is impossible to deny that there is a possibility of Santos being present in the Metaverse in the future”.
Meanwhile, Vasco has already taken some steps towards these new Web 3.0 technologies, with the launch of collectible NFTs, fan tokens and blockchain-backed games.
The SPFC’s executive director of communication said that, soon, the team should launch its own streaming channel with programming dedicated to fans.
