More direct. More shocking. More immersive. Innovations in graphics and sound, among other effects, manage to catch the youngest viewer, accustomed to a new language. Generation Z no longer watches football, but consumes it well beyond the 90 minutes a game lasts. At the gates of ElClásico, LaLiga has found in social networks the best ally to connect with this new fan who finds much more than a result on his mobile.
A reality that, however, does not prevent Roger Freixa (21 years old) from having the company of his grandfather for the expected show. “I like to see a game with my grandfather that we almost always enjoy together since I was six years old,” explains this journalism student. Seeing ElClásico on ‘TV’ (Movistar +) and with his grandfather is the exception, since Roger normally watches football alone and later comments on it on WhatsApp with friends.
@viniciusjunior ♬ original sound – Vinicius junior
“When the game is over, we send each other whatever the other might not have seen.” During the meeting, yes, the networks go into the background: “I try not to look at my mobile too much because I feel that if I do I will miss any detail, no matter how irrelevant it may be.” However, this young man, passionate about football and the culture that surrounds him (he is a trainee at Panenka magazine), is aware of how the networks have imposed new rules and new stars.
“Social networks have caused us to focus more on aspects of the game that were not so relevant before,” he values. That includes new non-sports perspectives as well. “Most like to see the human face of footballers and not think of them as mere professionals behind the ball. In this respect Courtois seems to me to be handled naturally. He is an active type in the networks, he interacts with people outside football and participates in different games of video games, ”he highlights.
What the eye does not see, the mobile sees
Martí Domínguez is 20 years old, he studies the Higher Degree in Sports and his passion, in addition to soccer, is the Olympic shooting. Like Roger, he began to follow LaLiga when he was very young, just four years old, accompanied by his grandfather and father. Sometimes at home, sometimes in a bar. ElClásico on Saturday will see him at home with his father. From the corner of his eye, yes, the mobile in his hand, although without commenting on the networks, where he does follow Ansu Fati and Riqui Puig.
@riqui_puig ## espagnã ## foryou ## fcbarcelona ## barcafankerala
♬ Savage – Megan Thee Stallion
The multitasking that new viewers practice is another of their signs. Dídac Alonso is a 19-year-old young man who, although he follows the competition with his father, it is not uncommon for him to combine viewing with other tasks. “I usually see pieces or do other things at the same time,” he acknowledges. But it is not the only thing that has changed. “We have many more sources of information and opinion. Besides that the footballers can communicate more with the fans ”, he values.
Multitasking viewing
Where he will see the next FC Barcelona-Real Madrid is still a mystery, but one thing is clear: “I usually enjoy important matches with my friends, whether at someone’s house, by video call or in a bar,” he explains. If the friends are far away, then he will comment on it through his group. “I usually look at people’s opinions on Twitter or Instagram and sometimes I keep doing other things in parallel,” he adds. In his feed, there are many profiles of footballers that he follows: Messi, Piqué, Ansu Fati, Riqui Puig and Dembélé, among others.
At the other end of multitasking viewing, we find David Rey. “During the game I don’t usually look at my mobile (except if they send me a message) or Instagram or Twitter,” he shares. The only application that queries is FlashScore. He watches the games from the television or the computer, sometimes alone or sometimes accompanied and although he does not use TikTok, he does follow the entire FC Barcelona squad. “Also to Joaquín from Real Betis Balompié and Igbekeme from Real Zaragoza”, he adds.
@laliga KB9 ???? FC Barcelona ## LaLiga ## LaLigaSantander ## ElClásicoEnCasa ## fyp ## ElClásico ## tiktoksports ## foryou ## fútbol ## soccer
♬ original sound – LaLiga
Zidane’s last game with the Real Madrid shirt is the first memory of La Liga Santander of Jose Borgo, a mathematics student born in 1998. He was barely five years old at the time. He currently lives in Germany, in Aachen, from where he follows the games through Movistar +. He sees them alone, but enjoys them with his friends through a group call if he is not at someone’s house or at the bar.
Stars off the field
Languages that connect these new fans with players who are, in fact, the same age. Dances, challenges, plays, jokes … New units of meaning surround football to attract the impatient gaze of the spectator before, during and after the game. Contents that, far from what happens in the stadium, have as protagonists young people who speak the same language. Vini Jr., Rodrygo and Riqui Puig know it and speak it fluently.
In the Real Madrid dressing room, Brazilians function on TikTok as they do on the pitch. Vinícius, especially, shakes the platform with each new dance. At FC Barcelona it is Riqui Puig who is making the difference. He masters the language and shares tastes and preferences with the generation that follows him and that, like him, thrives on ephemeral content designed to entertain and which, precisely for that reason, is highly viral.
@fcbarcelona ???? Tunnel vision ft. Griezmann ???? ##fcbarcelona ##campnou
♬ original sound – fcbarcelona
Short videos (no more than 15 seconds) in which creativity, music, humor, filters, imitations and repetitions of plays have matched that generation that they themselves represent. A new content ecosystem led, in fact, by both teams: FC Barcelona (6 million followers) and Real Madrid (3.9 million followers) are the football clubs with the most followers in the world on this platform that already has more than 1,000 million users.
Football to come
That content platforms such as TikTok have been key to connecting with the youngest is known by Alfredo Bermejo, director of Digital Strategy at LaLiga. “Gen Z consumes content differently. Everything is more direct, more impactful and evolves at the speed at which trends change. On many occasions, the first contact of these users with the world of football has not been with a 90-minute televised game, but with videos of highlights and music on TikTok ”, Bermejo values.
In this context, the mobile phone has helped extend the game beyond 90 minutes. Soccer is not something that happens at one point in time. It is ‘consumed’ practically ‘on demand’. “We work to be able to generate adapted content in order to conquer the fan and give us space in their entertainment time,” they explain from LaLiga. The key is to “get to know it better to identify new content verticals related to targets that relate to football and LaLiga in a different way.”
@realmadrid © ️✨ @sergioramos skills! ???? Captain skills! ## misquad ## ramos ## halamadrid ## skills ## fyp ## realmadrid ## foryoupage
♬ Stay True (Full Mix) – David Das
LaLiga, on TikTok since April 2019, is about to reach 2 million followers on this platform: “We were the first European league to open a profile and we have also created two of the most massive soccer challenges in the history of TikTok, each of them with more than 50 million views ”. The next challenge? A special challenge called # ElClásicoEnCasa, created so that fans feel that they are close to the pitch.
