Not all soccer clubs have TikTok accounts. Slowly they realize the importance of creating an official account here. Statistics as the most downloaded application in 2020 are too difficult to just ignore. TikTok with its characteristics, presents an opportunity for football clubs to develop brands in order to target certain segments.
Barcelona, including clubs that are quick to realize these opportunities. Blaugrana realized TikTok is suitable for reaching fans from millennial demographics (born 1981-1996) and generation z (1997-2010). In just two months (July-September 2019), El Barca became the first football team to touch one million followers in Tiktok.
“Fun and entertainment, involving the players, are the two reasons Barcelona is successful on this channel. The best way to connect and involve participation with our audience is through new communication channels, “wrote an official Barca statement.
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Another club that first reached one million followers, namely Liverpool. Although in a longer time span (May-November 2019), the Reds also have an awareness that this medium is effective in bringing them closer to a new audience, especially Gen Z.
“We are an industry that needs to take advantage of technology to ensure we don’t miss a whole generation of young people who are growing up without having a love of football,” Liverpool Chief Executive Peter Moore told Arabian Business magazine.
Influencer Marketing Hub data alert in November 2019, Barcelona has the potential to be able to achieve an average profit of 671 paun for each promotional shipment in their TikTok account. Meanwhile, Liverpool almost half with an estimated 398 paun.
Everything might increase many times if you see new data in 2020. Barcelona can touch the number four million followers. Real Madrid then overtake Liverpool. While the Reds are still the most popular English club with 2.4 million followers and 22 million likes.
Like the world of technology, everything is rolling extremely fast. In a broader context, Charli D’Amelio became the Tiktok user with the most followers until May 2020. In fact, at the beginning of January 2020 he was not in the top 10 at all.
Drastic improvement occurred after he was involved in the NBA All Stars in mid-February. Also of course other content, like #DistanceDance which is viral. Twenty million followers he seized only in the period March-April 2020. This 15-year-old girl shifts the names that had been established since the musical.ly era (the predecessor of TikTok). With 57 million followers and 4 billion likes, Charli’s estimated revenue reaches 48,000 dollars for each monetized short video post.
Dynamic is not only seen in the motion of the video TikTok dance. In just four years, TikTok was able to win attention in the social media landscape. Initially, the technology company ByteDance made Douyin for the Chinese market in September 2016. Only in 2017, the application was named TikTok for international segmentation.
One important moment when they merged with musical.ly in 2018. This crucial acquisition increased the youth user base on this digital service. Then the ‘wah’ statistics as the most non-downloaded app were downloaded in 2020 on the App Store and Playstore 1.5 billion times. So far TikTok has 800 million active users worldwide.
Football clubs or footballers may not earn as much as Charli from TikTok. Because, their main income remains from the industrial business round leather. Includes television broadcasting rights, match tickets, merchandise sales, sponsorship contracts in uniforms, exclusive contracts with international brands, etc.
But ignoring the potential of TikTok is clearly naive as well. One club that can be highlighted, namely Manchester United. As with other social media, MU is among the top clubs who are always slow to create official social media accounts.
Until the half of the 2011-12 Premier League season, only the Red Devils and promotion team, Swansea City, did not have an official Twitter account. Even though other clubs have started to catch the trend of the blue bird in the period 2008-2010.
Likewise the official Youtube account. MU just launched it at the end of 2017. How to TikTok? Of course only those among Big Six have not registered.
Of course, as an English club that has 137 million fans worldwide, MU is legitimately having its own considerations in a social media strategy looking at profit and loss. Even though the list is late, in a short time the Red Devils usually race immediately.
Whatever the reason, TikTok has good potential in developing the football club’s brand. Able to reach the segmentation of fans aged 25 years and under who are the user base of this application. Who is quick to optimize, it is very possible to affect financial profits which in the long run can be significant.
At a simple level, Manchester United fans might just be disappointed not to find his favorite club TikTok account. But when United’s achievements dried up for a long time, while Manchester City was able to develop the club’s image on and off the pitch, it was not impossible in the coming years to be a shift in strength.
Something that, although heavy, is recognized, but since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, the indications are quite visible.
Then how to elaborate football content with TikTok?
New media expert Marshall McLuhan is famous for his theory that says, “Medium is the message itself.” He developed a concept that previously separated ‘messages’ from ‘media’.
For McLuhan, the media chosen to deliver the message is as important or even more important than the message itself. It is not ‘messages’ that shape awareness to change behavior, but rather the medium that influences the subconscious of the person receiving the message. The chosen medium is precisely what forms the message.
The argument feels right. Case in point, even though social media is the same, but the approaches to using one another must be different.
Departing from this McLuhan theory, the informal communication style of Bundesliga clubs and AS Roma’s Twitter accounts feels like it might be applied and imitated. Because Twitter with a limited number of characters tends to be used to chat certain topics that are light and not merely comprehensive.
Meanwhile, Instagram as a media for sharing images clearly enables photos and graphics to be the main force for forming messages. While the official club website is commonly used to convey formal information from organizations, such as complete information on the inauguration of the transfer, full transcript of the interview, and other exclusive content.
Likewise with Tiktok. The character is specific as a video in under one minute that contains entertainment content such as lipsync, dance, comedy sketches, memes, and vlogs. So it is different from video services such as Youtube and IGTV, because the duration and how to play the algorithm are not the same.
Not that there is an absolute superior, but specificity allows product differentiation. Important factor in marketing.
Carlo de Marchis, editor of Sport: The Digital (r) evolution describes an important element of TikTok’s differentiator for sports team brands. Because the targeted audience segmentation is teenagers (something that is always crucial for sports clubs), Tiktok is challenging to always join the unique trends and challenges involving the audience.
The range of ideas includes: Specific expertise content, such as ball juggling. Unique challenges, such as kicking the goalpost or executing a penalty with your eyes closed. The video recreates the iconic action of the gridiron. As well as lipsync famous commentator may also be tried.
What De Marchis described turned out to be right. Footballers began to fight, when the #ToiletPaperChallenge appeared, the challenge of kicking a tissue without falling in order to build awareness of hygienic life during the pandemic.
Marcelo did this as his first video. Obviously unique, because it requires special skills that footballers usually show in training sessions.
Alphonso Davies went viral when he mimicked the goal of the attackers. Not just imitating their cool styles, but he has humor by tucking in celebration of Thomas Mueller’s comical goals that only minimal minimal aesthetic. Davies applied De Marchis’ third point about recreating iconic actions on the gridiron.
De Marchis stressed, even though the format was video, Tiktok was not the right medium to display match highlights or player interviews. Keep differentiating the video formats for Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok. Trends in Tiktok usually make people tend to be active, because it involves the display of expertise or acting.
Maybe everyone seems to understand. However, the application is not all accurate. Inter Milan, the first elite club to register Tiktok (first video: December 15, 2018), so far not in the top 10 teams with the most followers or likes. In fact there are only three of dozens of content that penetrate millions of viewers.
Why so? Apparently, La Beneamata does not involve their star players. Evidently, just showing the video of Lautaro Martinez walking giving costumes after the match, it was able to penetrate the six-digit viewers.
Then the video Romelu Lukaku just laughed at the Inter museum and Christian Eriksen who greeted supporters from the balcony also almost penetrated millions of spectators. However, none of their star videos performed certain challenges. Instead, the “Christmast Dance Challenge” content was carried out by the Inter social media crew. It managed to become one of the most videos that got views plus likes.
In contrast to Barcelona. From the very beginning the Blaugrana took advantage of the hype of the recruitment of Antoine Griezmann, a summer tour in Japan and the United States, and highlighted the superstar Lionel Messi in the UEFA award ceremony. Likewise Liverpool who use the momentum of 2019-20 Champions League champions in the early days of Tiktok content creation.
Undeniably, the best sports club branding still departs from the results on the field. Barcelona is undergoing a golden period for the club with Lionel Messi. Liverpool began to rise again in the Juergen Klopp era. Likewise, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich consistently dominate. They are still a major force in the European Champions League for a long time.
Then from there spread out of the field. Starting from the ranking of Delloite Money League, Forbes reports every year, including popularity on social media. In the context of Tiktok, they continue the good trend of other report cards to this potential new application.
Indeed, not all can match certain social media characters. Lionel Messi has until now decided that Twitter is not the best medium for delivering messages. Cristiano Ronaldo probably has become the most popular person on Instagram. One size does not mean it is suitable for everyone.
Tiktok is indeed sexy to reach Gen Z whose habits are still being researched. It’s also difficult to deny the potential of the coffers. With its distinctive character and algorithm, Tiktok presents ample scope for exploration. However the development, it is necessary to continue to look at social media marketing practitioners.
At least, Tiktok has become a sanctuary for boredom during the corona quarantine. Tucked as happy news in 2020 that has not run half but a lot of sorrow. Applications that can be underestimated, because alay or whatever, in fact are able to provide a collective similarity between countries.
A role usually played by sports tournaments. Unfortunately, the European Cup and the Olympics have to be delayed by one year. So don’t be shy to fight.
List of Clubs with the most TikTok Followers
Barcelona – @fcbarcelona – 4.3 million,
Real Madrid – realmadrid – 2.7 million,
Liverpool – @lfc – 2.4 million,
Bayern Munich – @fcbayern – 1.7 million,
Manchester City – @mancity – 958 thousand,
Dortmund – @bvb – 937 thousand,
PSG – @psg – 890 thousand,
Atletico Madrid (827 thousand)
Ajax Amsterdam (795 thousand)
Chelsea (793 thousand)
List of Clubs with the Most TikTok Likes
Barcelona – @fcbarcelona – 34.3 million,
Liverpool – @lfc – 22.5 million,
Real Madrid – @realmadrid – 19.4 million,
Bayern Munich – @ fcbayern – 15.8 million,
Ajax Amsterdam – @afcajax – 10.3 million,
Dortmund – @bvb – 950 thousand,
Atletico Madrid – @atleticodemadrid – 660 thousand,
Manchester City – @mancity – 590 thousand,
Chelsea – @chelseafc – 560 thousand,
PSG – @psg – 480 thousand.
ASL
