The most famous football game in the world was played this weekend, the so-called El Clasico – Real Madrid versus FC Barcelona.
Even if the match was very one-sided with the away side emerging 4-0 victors at Real Madrid’s “fortress” Santiago Bernabeu, the event proved to be a great opportunity for both football clubs to engage with its fans across several social media platforms.
A profile picture filter for Facebook
In the same vain as the idea behind the French national flag filter on Facebook, the platform created special filters for users profile pictures.
A couple of days before the game, Facebook users were given the chance to choose their side between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid with one click.
Special emojis on Twitter
Last Summer, Premier League clubs were the first to have their own emoji crest on Twitter as part of the launch of the season.
Three days before El Clasico, Twitter did the same for both Spanish teams. In addition, the platform added the same emoji to join both clubs slogans; #MesqueunClub for Barcelona and #HalaMadrid for Madrid.
Then, to further fans’ engagement with the hype around the game, a classic football ball emoji was introduced to accompany the hashtag #ElClasico.
A great Snapchat Story
One of the most important social media innovations around El Clasico was the roll out of a Snapchat Story dedicated to the event.
Actually, this content was created as part of the newly formed partnership between Real Madrid and Snapchat. However the story, available for all Snapchat users 24 hours following the game, allowed users access to the best snaps and videos from Real and Barca fans at the stadium.
From the atmosphere around the stadium to the game’s goals, fans can re-live and enjoy the event via their smartphone.
#ElClasico channel on Snapchat. Niceee pic.twitter.com/L74yDyQyw2
— Aysha Ridzuan (@ayshardzn) November 21, 2015
FC Barcelona didn’t waste it’s time following Real Madrid announcement that they’d formed a partnership with Snapchat, opening an account one day before El Clasico.
FC Barcelona opens @Snapchat account: #FCBSnap https://t.co/YNmPV2z4fG pic.twitter.com/d8SCArOaaX
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) November 20, 2015
Streaming content
Periscope is another great social media innovation that clubs are starting to pick up on and FC Barcelona is no different, streaming their last training session before the game on a big screen in Barcelona.
El @FCBarcelona retransmite por #Periscope y por la pantalla Fuencarral el entrenamiento antes de #ElClasico #FCB pic.twitter.com/Zz42QQwF8W
— Kike Levy (@KikeLevy) November 20, 2015
With the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Periscope creating special content for the game simultaneously, this season’s El Clasico was definitely one of the most celebrated sports games on social media. Tweets about the match generated approxmately 831 million impressions across the web.
Get ready for the second leg on 3rd April 2016.
What a photo.#ElClasico#UCL pic.twitter.com/1W0YloK5zn
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) November 22, 2015
