El Clásico generates winning media value

Both on and off the pitch, Barcelona was the victor in last month’s El Clásico match against Real Madrid, the latest chapter in a storied rivalry between Spain’s two most famous football teams and cities.

According to Nielsen, interest in the match has far expanded beyond Spain’s local La Liga fans — today El Clásico is consumed on smartphones, tablets, computers and televisions in more than 90 countries around the world.

Unsurprisingly, the stakes for brands sponsoring a game are significant. Stats aren’t yet available for the 23 April match, which saw the losing Real Madrid host Barcelona at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, but the previous match-up generated more than $42.5 million in media value for sponsors across platforms and screens.

“While many sports fans love to tune in live so they don’t miss a second, just under half of the total sponsorship media value from the La Liga game came from the live TV broadcast (43%, or $18.5 million),” the measurement giant noted.

“Other devices are also playing a big role in how these fans connect with the game, highlighting why sponsors need a multiplatform view of their media returns. Social media, for example, delivered the same amount of media value ($5.1 million) as Spain’s TV news coverage of the match.”

For that particular El Clásico, Barcelona was the home team, and generated 87% ($37.4 million) of the game’s total media value, with partner brands appearing throughout Camp Nou stadium. Comparatively, 13% ($5.1 million) was generated for Real Madrid’s partners.

For the away team, social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube) accounted for almost half (41%) of all Real Madrid’s total media value from the last El Clásico, generating $1.7 million for sponsors.

For the home team, the most valuable social media post on Barcelona’s Facebook Live page was watched by over 4.3 million viewers and generated over $186,000 for sponsoring brands.

“When we measure social media value in context, we can see with accuracy its growing worth. In today’s fragmented media market, brands and rights owners are grappling to understand the value of their partnerships, and El Clásico offers the perfect example of why unified measurement is so important,” said Max Barnett, head of digital for Nielsen Sports.

“The analysis also highlights the importance of social media for an away team as a tool to generate value for partners when there is no possibility for exposure through traditional in-stadium advertising inventory.”

Video was a key driver of social media value for this match as well. More than 64% of media value came from video, which compares with European football's average of 44% from this season to date. Facebook Live was also leveraged extremely effectively in the build-up, during and after this match, driving 27 million views from over five hours of content broadcast by the two teams.

Barcelona’s director of digital, Russell Stopford, noted: "Being able to see the value our content gives fans and partners is essential to FC Barcelona, and social media is a key part of that. Understanding what that value is and, importantly, which media channels it comes from is also vital and becoming more and more important for us as our global reach continues to grow."