Global Fútbol

As more and more entertainment offerings emerge around the world, all competing for the precious time and attention of consumers, it is essential that the football industry continues to innovate and offer better and more engaging content for fans. This has been a key priority at LaLiga for several years, with the competition continually producing more compelling match broadcasts and more attractive beyond-the-match content too.

Roger Brosel, the head of content and programming at LaLiga, discussed the competition’s strategy in greater detail at the recent SportBiz Europe conference held in Barcelona, during the talk titled ‘Behind the scenes: Winning over your audience’.

On the importance of both live and non-live content, he stated: “People have a limited amount of time for their entertainment and we want them to focus on LaLiga. The matches are what people watch the most and we can monetise this through rights. Apart from those 90 minutes that are played during the weekend, throughout the week we also produce all sorts of different genres for our broadcasters worldwide, from interviews to a programme full of bloopers to documentaries.”

How technology and storytelling take match broadcasts to the next level

With the first of these two areas, technology has been key to the continual improvement of LaLiga’s live match broadcasts, such as with augmented reality for in-game graphics. This is used to improve the storytelling within a game, since this builds a deeper connection with the viewer.

As Brosel explained: “We wanted to introduce storytelling into live games through the use of data, the use of graphics and the use of a variety of angles and special cameras. This can tell the many little stories that happen inside a game. Adding value for us means being able to tell the story in a better way. So, if adding virtual augmented reality graphics to the live broadcast means a fan can in five seconds tell where a team is attacking the most, for example through a heatmap, then it's working and it's great. We use it a lot because it tells a better story and it helps fans, who want to be informed and entertained with all the different layers of enjoyment of watching a football game.”

The director made clear to the SportBiz Europe audience that winning over the audience has to be the ultimate purpose to any new match broadcast enhancement. As Brosel put it: “We at LaLiga are trying all different technologies. But, we use technology not just for the sake of it. We use it to transmit emotion and information and to help people be entertained by our product. Technology for the sake of technology is just a rat race going nowhere.”

Offering content beyond the 90 minutes

Brosel also explained just how important it is for a competition like LaLiga to engage with fans all week long and not just during the 90 minutes of a match. Providing some background, he said: “Typically, our games are played on the weekends and you used to have all the eyeballs on you during the weekend and then the rest of the week there was nothing. Social media has opened two opportunities that are massive. Firstly, LaLiga can still be relevant for fans on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and there is the opportunity to tell different stories apart from the live games. Secondly, sports properties and governing bodies have huge fanbases that are not actually our customers, since they're typically the customers of telecom or OTT platforms. We’re a B2B not a B2C business, but social media, combined with our very wide digital ecosystem at LaLiga, means we can now get to know our fanbase, whether they're customers of a telecom partner or just casual fans. It opens a wide window for us to talk directly to people who, in the past, we couldn't reach.”

He continued: “We try to expand the LaLiga brand to any person who might be interested in football and who has a screen, which is basically everyone. We need to focus on all audiences. We should not only focus on one specific demographic. We have what we call the believers, which are people who follow a club of LaLiga no matter what, while we also try to focus on those fans who may like football but not know a lot about LaLiga. We want them to first know about LaLiga, the stories and the people. Then, we hope they end up engaging with our games and our content.”

Brosel also highlighted the importance of speaking to these different audiences in the most effective way. That means tailoring the messages based on the language or culture, something that is at the heart of the content and programming department’s mission.

As the SportBiz Europe attendees heard: “We have a ‘glocal’ approach, with which we speak to people in their language, as we have 18 different languages on social media. We don't just share a post that is one size fits all, because one size does not fit all on social media. We need to target specific countries, specific languages and specific social media platforms for certain posts.”

Compelling storytelling is again key to this content. Brosel continued: “We want all the clubs to be known. We want to tell the stories of those clubs that do not have or have not had the international presence that FC Barcelona and Real Madrid have had.”

This is done in various formats, such as interviews, reports and documentaries, while these insights are brought to the audience through different storytellers. That includes the players themselves, but also local journalists, expert presenters and popular influencers from each region. This ensures that, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, there is always a piece of LaLiga content for football fans around the world to be tuning in to and entertained by.