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What’s the Story?
No, no. That is a real thing. Really.
Over the past month, Real Madrid and Barcelona were engaged in an ongoing battle to see which of the two clubs would be the first to the milestone of 100 million likes of Facebook. Madrid reached there first, an hour or so before their great rivals, and in doing so became the first sporting entity to reach the 100 million likes milestone.
In case you didn’t know
Here’s how each club celebrated, making their cover pics/profile pics about that. While you’ve seen Real Madrid’s... Barcelona were a little more profuse in their gratitude:
The heart of the matter
This whole thing was started off when Barcelona pulled off one of the game’s greatest comebacks to defeat Paris Saint-Germain 6-5 on aggregate (6-1 on the day). Using the epic Lionel Messi pose (the one resembling the Superman poster from Dawn of Justice), they went on an aggressive paid campaign that saw the photo become the most widely shared on facebook over that fortnight and even the next. Neymar’s exploits were also, erm, exploited and even sent followers private messages in order to be the first to 100 million
This would surely have been the last word in social media marketing were it not for what Real Madrid did.
Seeing how Barcelona were gaining traction, Real Madrid set off an incredibly aggressive campaign of their own – getting Rafael Nadal to share it on his page as well as using David Beckham to promote the club’s page. The coup de grace, though? Getting this out into the world –
People will do anything for a signed Real Madrid shirt from the great Cristiano Ronaldo – what’s a ‘like’ for a gift like that. If you notice, at the time I took the above screenshot around 11 PM IST yesterday, Madrid were still more than half a million away – but in just over 12 overs... BOOM! or SIUUUU (apparently)
What’s Next
I presume the next battle is for 200 million... seriously, when will this end?
Author’s Take
FC Barcelona and Real Madrid are well-respected football clubs with a sporting pedigree that is nigh unparalleled. Increasingly, though, they’ve been taking the battle off the pitch. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram or in terms of attracting more and more sponsors, both clubs have embraced the advent of technology and the tendency (well established by the likes of Manchester United) to get someone sponsor anything and everything they can get their hands on.
While this is great commercially for the clubs, as it builds a revenue stream away from the traditional gate collections, but it has to be said this is all just a grimace-inducing distraction. Hopefully, April 23rd (1.15 AM on 24th, if you are in India) will remedy all this with some actual footballing action.
