Case Study: El Clásico Social

Case study about Facebook performance of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid C.F. The Study

Marketing practices of many Sport Clubs are a great example of optimal methods of communication and many brands should be aware of what these teams are doing. After all, from a marketer‘s perspective, many sports names are considered the most valuable Brand in the market. When it comes to football, without a doubt the most popular sport on this planet, it counts twice as much.

In this short case study, we decided to bring the finest of football rivalry into social – „El Clásico“ match between one of the two most reknown teams, F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid C.F. The time period chosen for this comparison was two month (September 1 – October 31), during which two clubs actually met on the football battlefield (October 7). As a platform to monitor we decided to choose Facebook, however, both teams are also active on other social networks.

The Clubs

Founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Catalan footballers, led by Joan Gamper, the club has become a symbol of Catalan culture and Catalanism, hence the motto "Més que un club" (More than a club). Unlike many other football clubs, the supporters own and operate Barcelona. It is the world's second- richest football club in terms of revenue, with an annual turnover of €398 million. They are the current Copa del Rey champions and have won several domestic as well as international trophies.

Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club and has traditionally worn a white home kit since. The word Real was bestowed to the club by King Alfonso XII in 1920 together with the royal crown in the emblem. Unlike most European football clubs, Real Madrid's members have owned and operated the club since its inception. The club is the richest football club in terms of annual revenue and the second most valuable, worth €1.8billion. Real Madrid is a team extremely succesful both domestically and internationally.

Source: Wikipedia Facebook Fans and Fan Growth

By number of fans both teams are on a very simmilar level: Barcelona with 36,339,139 fan is doing slightly better than Real Madrid with 32,633,000 fans, in both total numbers as well as in their growth. In the selected period Barcelona gained 1,590,214 new fans while Real gained „only“ 1,267,855 new fans. With 4,58% growth Barcelona was also a faster growing team.

From the Daily Fan Growth graph we can see that both teams experienced the biggest fan gains on the day of the match. On October 7 Barcelona grew by 50,432 fans and Real Madrid 41,719 fans. This means that on the El Clásico match day they were both performing approx. double their usual growth.

Facebook Engagement

Now we know which club is more successful by number of fans, but which one is actually more sucessful with engaging them? When we take a look at the Average Post Engagement Rate as well as Daily Page Engagement rate, we see that Real Madrid is doing better with a moving average of 0.1557 % compared to 0.1248 % of Barcelona.

When it comes to actual total numbers of interactions Barcelona recieved a total of 18,897,237 interactions while Real recieved 17,462,571. If we take a look at the interactions in detail we can see that Barcelona was slightly more successful with proportion of likes and shares and Real was more successful with fan comments.

Top Content

When we have a look at the top content by engagement we see that the most successful post was made by Barcelona. A photo of Lionel Messi kissing a Gold Boot Trophy recieved over 300,000 likes, 40,000 shares and 12,500 comments. The most successful post from Real was a birthday photo of Mesut Özil that attracted more than 280.000 likes, 12,500 shares and 19,000 comments.

Content Published

If we take a closer look at how often the two clubs publish and at the type of content we will see that Barcelona is more active – publishing on average 7.30 posts per day, compared to Real‘s 5.69. Both teams have a very visual style – the majority of all posts consist of photos. While a simple status is the least popular choice we can see that in case of Real Madrid is also the most engaging. Real published only 15 statuses and scored an Average Engagement Rate of 0.2445% compared to average 0,1863% for photo.

Where both teams fail

It is clear that both teams are pretty successful when it comes to attracting new fans, engaging them, as well as publishing their own content. However, what the teams are lacking is using social media for a two-way conversation. Barcelona has a closed wall so Fans can not post there at all. Real has an open wall, however, they ignore the fan posts or simply do not reply to them. There is no doubt that Pages with open walls require full time community management (and managing a 30+ million page is no joke), nonetheless, the pros of having an open dialogue with your fans outweigh the potential cons.

Interesting Facts and Takeways

» Barcelona leads in both Total Fans and Fan Growth » Although Barcelona has in total more interactions than Real, Real has a better engagement rate. » Both clubs communicate most often with a photo post » Barcelona, with its 445 posts in two months, is posting more often than Real, who posted only 347 times » The most engaging content was posted by Barcelona – a photo of Lionel Messi with the Golden Boot trophy » The most engaging content in one day was published by Real on October 7 when actual El Clásico took place. It recieved more than 1,400,000 interactions. » Barcelona does not allow fans to post on their Facebook wall » Real does allow it, however, does not respond to the fan‘s posts

We hope you enjoyed this short study on the social media performance of F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid C.F.

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