Customer Solution Story

Real Madrid brings the stadium “We can create a one-to-one relationship with fans around the planet with the Microsoft solution, closer to 450 million fans around connecting this huge community of people and the globe, with the Microsoft Cloud making the experience of being a supporter of Real Madrid much better.”

José Ángel Sánchez, CEO, Real Madrid C.F.

As the leading sports franchise in the world, Real Madrid has a lot to brag about, including more than 100 championships and a passionate fan base. But what the football club didn’t have was a way to directly engage with its 450 million global supporters. That changed when it implemented a comprehensive technology solution based on the Microsoft Cloud platform. Now, Real Madrid is able to connect more closely with its fans and give them a better overall experience, while analyzing social media data and other information to customize marketing campaigns and boost revenues. In the world of sports, it doesn’t get any Embarking on a digital transformation bigger than Real Madrid. The world’s #1 initiative sports franchise, the Spanish football club Because Real Madrid knew it wanted boasts more than 450 million fans across to use state-of-the-art technologies the globe and is known for its domination to achieve its goals, the club chose to on the field. Since its founding in 1902, enhance its already strong partnership with Real Madrid has won 116 official trophies, Microsoft, which started when the Real 10 European Cups, and a FIFA Club World Madrid Foundation and Microsoft began Cup. It was recognized as the best football working together on social projects for “The Azure platform will club of the 20th century by FIFA. Latin American youth around the world. help us provide the services we want to offer because it Passion is the hallmark of Real Madrid. The Real Madrid engaged a Microsoft Services gives us the scalability we club’s global fans are fiercely loyal to the team to develop a new technology solution need whenever we need it.” club, whether they’re cheering on the team that would provide a cohesive structure at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium or watching to support innovative digital services to Enrique Uriel, CIO, Real Madrid C.F. a match on television. “It’s impossible to serve the club’s global fans. Real Madrid change football club loyalty. Fans never also wanted to use the solution to collect change clubs,” says José Ángel Sánchez, and analyze data on fans. Microsoft CEO of Real Madrid. That kind of passionate Services worked with Real Madrid to build support is true for all Real Madrid fans, a comprehensive platform-as-a-service whether they’re in Spain, the US, or Asia. solution, based on the Microsoft Cloud and Office 365 platform. “Our core business is But even with all its on-field success and football, so having a technology partner ardent support, Real Madrid was still manage the technology infrastructure missing one thing: the ability to connect is important,” says Enrique Uriel, CIO, more closely with its fans. “We wanted to Real Madrid. “The Azure platform will connect with all the people who support help us provide the services we want to Real Madrid in the world,” says Sánchez. offer because it gives us the scalability “It is critical for us to understand and learn we need whenever we need it.” from them, because in the end, the club belongs to them.” By engaging with its fans The solution includes the in more personal ways, Real Madrid wanted following components: to increase revenue, customize marketing Fan Engagement Platform. The marketing initiatives, and reinforce the club’s leadership back-office engine of the solution, the position in the worldwide sports industry. platform captures and stores every

Overview Customer Profile Customer: Real Madrid C.F. Real Madrid, a professional football club based Customer Website: www.realmadrid.com/en in Madrid, Spain, is one of the most successful Customer Size: 200 employees and widely supported sports organizations in the Country or Region: Spain world. Industry: Sports interaction with a fan, including mobile can search data on all the club’s players, check-ins at the club’s stadium, online fan past and present, while also exploring profile updates on the club’s official website, detailed statistics from specific games. and online merchandise purchases. It is hosted on Microsoft Office 365 based on For user authentication and profile storage, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Dynamics the solution uses a preview version of Marketing, and Power BI. The solution the Azure Active Directory Business to also takes advantage of Microsoft Social Consumer (B2C) identity service. Fans get Engagement to collect club mentions and simplified registration and login through other data from Twitter, Facebook, and use of social accounts like Facebook, other social media sites. An innovative or they can use traditional username/ “Using the Microsoft Cloud, solution built on Azure aggregated such passwords for a seamless experience we are building a way of data into social segmentation of the across mobile applications on any understanding who our fans individual fan. The highest volumes of data platform. Using a standard service built are, where they are, and reside in Azure Table Storage and Azure on the established Azure Active Directory what they want from us.” DocumentDB, which is used to enable platform significantly reduced custom high-performance queries for analysis. code while giving Real Madrid customized José Ángel Sánchez, CEO, branding and alleviating concerns about Real Madrid C.F. Extended Video Platform. Hosted on Azure security, data breaches, and scalability. Media Services, it contains both new and historical video content, including previous Telemetry and Data Analysis. All Real Madrid matches. The platform uses aspects of the solution, including the Azure App Service to integrate the apps cross-platform mobile applications and to Azure Media Services. The solution supporting web services, take advantage also uses Azure Media Player to present of Visual Studio Application Insights to the content to fans and Azure Search provide rich telemetry on application as the search engine, so fans can filter usage by fans along with in-depth searches to view specific games using technical and operational insight across criteria such as games where the club the entire infrastructure spanning scored a certain number of goals. mobile devices and Microsoft Azure. “Using the Microsoft Cloud, we are building a way of understanding who our fans are, The majority of this telemetry data is where they are, and what they want from us.” automatically collected with no added José Ángel Sánchez, CEO, Real Madrid. code, which significantly simplified the solution and reduced operational Consumer App. This mobile interactive complexity. This telemetry is also surfaced app, designed for iOS, Android, and through Power BI, giving Real Madrid Windows platforms, was created using the ability to analyze fan engagement. the .NET Framework with Microsoft Visual Studio 2013. Fans access the app on their Engaging one-on-one with millions mobile phones, tablets, or wearable devices of fans to have the Real Madrid brand as part of Previously, Real Madrid only had a one-way their experience wherever they are. They can communication method for broadcasting use the app to virtually access the stadium information and news to its fans, without before, during, or after each game, and they the ability to get any feedback from fans. With its new solution, Real Madrid now has the app to use it. Or, by capturing social a tool to capture detailed information about media information such as a fan’s favorite its hundreds of millions of fans, which it can player, Real Madrid can send personalized use to engage with them more deeply. For emails to that fan showing how to find example, the club can capture and discover statistics on that particular player inside personal preferences for providing more the app. “Using the Microsoft cloud, we are relevant content to that fan through the new building a way of understanding who our mobile app. Or when fans use the app to fans are, where they are, and what they want “The club will be in a very check in at the stadium for a live match, the from us,” says Sánchez. “We can find out if good position because of fan engagement platform can automatically they want products or content, as well as the sophistication of the provision a personal QR code for a loyalty whether they want to have an influence in developments we have in-stadium offer, or even a simple message decisions. This is an old dream of ours now made with Microsoft. By that thanks the fan for investing time made real with the Microsoft solution.” and money in seeing this live match. partnering with Microsoft, The club hopes to use insights we have tools to enable “We can create a one-to-one relationship gained through the solution to plan, mobility, efficiency, and with fans around the planet with the create, and optimize its marketing productivity. With our new Microsoft solution, connecting this huge campaigns to drive the best possible platform, we are going to community of people and making the engagements with its global fan base. make a big jump into the experience of being a supporter of Real future.” Madrid much better,” says Sánchez. “Our Using data to analyze app usage and goal is to profile all our supporters, to fan behavior Enrique Uriel, CIO, Real Madrid C.F. understand who they are, and to give them Real Madrid is also able to use the solution what they want from us, such as exclusive to analyze specific user behavior. The content, and bring them closer to the club.” digital platform records all information related to user actions, such as winning Creating near-real-time marketing an external challenge, checking in at campaigns specific places, or updating profiles. Real Madrid is also able to take all the fan The process of collecting and analyzing information gathered and stored in the fan the data is based in Azure Data Factory, engagement platform through fan actions which extracts, loads, and transforms the to generate a detailed user profile of each information and stores it in Azure HDInsight fan. As a result, Real Madrid marketers can for querying. The data is then published offer more targeted, customized marketing to Azure SQL Database and consumed initiatives that could ultimately help the by Excel and Power BI. Additionally, Real club increase revenues. For instance, Madrid can perform queries to extract the club’s fan engagement platform can specific information from large data sets. aggregate social media post volume for each fan registered through the Real From its telemetry information, the club Madrid website or the new mobile app. can see how users interact with the app, including how they open the app, if they By analyzing these social media signals with click on advertisements proposed by Microsoft Social Engagement, Real Madrid the app, or use third-party applications can customize its marketing and advertising integrated in the app to access specific or encourage fans who have downloaded areas. Using Visual Studio Application Insights, Real Madrid can see which users Transforming the business also understand that in the next five years, have executed specific actions. The club can As it expands its solution to add new everything that is going to be transformed use this information for better monitoring, features and engage with fans in new ways, in this business will happen through operations, and forensic insights. Real Madrid will continue to completely technology,” says Sánchez. “The club will transform its business. “The Microsoft be in a very good position because of the With all the data it collects and analyzes, Azure platform is helping us rebuild and sophistication of the developments we Real Madrid has a process to clean, reinterpret our business in a way that have made with Microsoft.” Adds Uriel, categorize, and group the information makes it possible for us and our fans to do “By partnering with Microsoft, we have into reports that show how users are things that used to be impossible,” says tools to enable mobility, efficiency, and participating in the app, the number of Sánchez. “It is really a complete disruption productivity. With our new platform, we are users interacting with the system, and of the business model that football has going to make a big jump into the future.” the specific actions inside the app. had over the past 15 to 20 years.”

Looking ahead, Real Madrid plans to With its comprehensive new solution in use Azure Machine Learning to work place, Real Madrid believes it will be ready directly with coaches and players to find for the future. “It was our dream to connect out the status of players and also predict with all our fans in the world, and we are the price of seats during the season. doing that with our new technologies. We

Software and Services

Microsoft Azure platform Microsoft Dynamics Microsoft Office Microsoft Social Engagement • Microsoft Azure • Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online • Microsoft Power BI • Microsoft Azure App Service • Microsoft Dynamics Marketing • Microsoft Azure Cloud Services • Microsoft Azure Active Directory B2C • Microsoft Azure DocumentDB • Microsoft Azure Media Player • Microsoft Azure Media Services • Microsoft Azure Search • Microsoft Azure Storage • Microsoft Visual Studio Application Insights