During the Champion’s League Final last weekend, a staggering 8,366,967 online engagements were directed at Real Madrid in total, but sentiment for the winning club actually fell, according to new research.
The data, from 4C Insights, found that Real Madrid mentions surpassed the number generated by both Liverpool (847,425) and the UEFA Champion’s League itself (3,911,649).
Sentiment towards Real Madrid, measured through online engagements across Facebook and Twitter, fell from 77% to 71%, despite winning the EUFA Champions’ League final on Saturday.
Despite the knock to Real Madrid’s sentiment, the team just managed to stay ahead of Liverpool who rounded off with a sentiment of 68%. This is a strong performance for Liverpool considering they were runner-up and have not won many international trophies in recent years.
Not just a team game
Looking at individual players, Liverpool came up trumps. By the number of engagements generated, Mohammad Salah (638,723) trumped both the man of the match, Christiano Ronaldo (359,001) and the lead goal scorer Gareth Bale (373,692).
Of course, this will have been heavily driven by the moment Salah was made to leave the game early with a shoulder injury resulting from a rough tackle by Sergio Ramos. It’s interesting to note that by association, sentiment toward Salah dropped to 59% from 72% the preceding day, raising important points for brands to note around the knock-on effect of critical live moments such as this.
Ronaldo himself experienced a decrease in sentiment of 3% from May 25 to May 26. This was potentially fueled by Ronaldo’s post- game interview comment indicating he will be on the move – “it was very nice to be in Madrid.”
Marketers’ multi-screen moment
Commenting on the findings, Kirsty Brice, marketing director EMEA at 4C Insights said, “The most dedicated football fans were likely not only glued to the TV screen but also checking stats on their phone. With that in mind, UK brands looking to jump on these moments need to be aware of the cross-screen environment and the narratives taking place not only on TV but also digitally as these two mediums converge in a powerful new era of engagement.”
Methodology
Sentiment: Compares social media interactions that were positive and not negative from Facebook and Twitter between 25th May and 26th May (day of the Champions League Final).
Engagement: Mentions, retweets, comments and posts likes from Facebook pages and Twitter handles
