FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium rises high above the commercial neighborhood of Les Corts in Barcelona in the same complex as Spain’s second-most popular museum (owned by the team). Across the building glare massive yellow letters that spell out the organization’s slogan: Més que un club.
The “More Than Just a Club” phrase has extensive real estate at the stadium, etched into the otherwise blue seats of the second and third levels and spanning the entire length of the field. Its prominence cannot be overlooked. This tagline that has helped fuel innovation at the not-for-profit FC Barcelona sports organization and helped Barça to amass the sports industry’s largest social media presence.
FC Barcelona is more than a club: it’s a giant entertainment company (and an innovation hub). The sports organization is currently experimenting with premium products and services for its most loyal fans and focusing on expanding in the U.S. and China, where soccer is gaining popularity.
“When we think about our global fan, we see ourselves as a global entertainment brand,” said FC Barcelona Digital Director Enric Llopart. “We want to connect with these fans globally through world-class content, products, services and digital experiences.”
Entering his sixth-month on the job, Llopart recognizes the importance of maintaining the club’s online influence. He’s been busy on the second floor of the company’s offices, located just outside the Camp Nou complex, crafting new strategies and developing new products, services and experiences that will leverage the latest technology to further engage fans.
Barça just launched a new website, and hopes to launch a new app in the coming weeks. Llopart said the app will offer a direct line to devoted fans. He’s in the process of testing new in-app experiences designed to turn that app into a second screen, which would enrich the live game experience.
“We see games as great opportunities for the app to be relevant and add value. It is probably one of the [most important] communication channels for hardcore fans around the world,” he said. “ For us, it plays a very important role in engaging hardcore fans and will obviously be a key platform for [new] products and services.”
Some of these initiatives involve more traditional content, while others may deeply integrate data. One idea is to use new data sources, such as player-tracking technology, to engage fans during the 90-minute live game. Llopart wouldn’t delve into details, citing competition and strategy, but hinted at new products, services, and experiences that are in development and that would leverage such resources.
“We can add this layer of data into the experience of the fan,” he said. “That’s one of the things we’re seeing with more potential. It can be interesting.”
FC Barcelona is experimenting with a number of what Llopart referred to as “ambitious formats” and distribution models. Last month, Barça began testing a 30-minute, in-app pre-game show and experimenting with another show in which people could add color commentary to live games from inside the app.
“We want to accompany the fan through the game—the pre, during, and post—offering the best possible Barça experience and make them feel very close to the game and what is happening,” Llopart said.
Barça’s efforts to use digital platforms and social media to appeal to its global fan base have helped it shore up a massive online audience. In 2016, while NFL teams had a combined 141 million followers on social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter), Barça had a huge 148 million alone according to a report by Forbes. It had amassed 1.45 billion interactions across social media with a media value of $25.3 million. It bested rival Real Madrid and English Premier League heavyweight Manchester United across the board, which had 141 million followers and 88.4 million followers, respectively. Barça and Real Madrid were further buoyed by the fact that their two biggest players—Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo (who now plays for Juventus)—had significant star power and two of the biggest individual followings in sports.
FC Barcelona focuses on its digital properties as a way to relate to its fans around the world, many of whom might not ever attend a game in person. In that sense, its strategy is similar to that of the NBA, which focuses on fan engagement and product innovation, spanning virtual reality to player-tracking data and an esports league, to appeal to the NBA’s large international fan base.
“We have more than 300 million fans around the world. Probably even more than that, probably more than 400 million,” Llopart said. “Most of them will never make it to Barcelona or to our stadium, so an obsession for us is how can we build these products/services, content, experiences through digital channels to make them feel connected to Barça and make them feel proud about being a Barça fan.”
In addition to exploring new premium content with storylines covering topics both on and off the field in the Barça, the organization is also focusing on expanding its international team to focus more specifically on important geographies. While China isn’t FC Barcelona’s biggest market yet, Llopart recognizes that it very well could be now that China has renewed its focus on soccer, spearheaded by China President Xi Jinping. The Barcelona digital team already has a full-time staffer in FC Barcelona’s Hong Kong office who oversees the organization’s digital efforts in the country. A similar role is expected to be added to FC Barcelona’s New York City office soon, to oversee expansion efforts in the U.S., where the sport is also gaining popularity.
While content and products will be developed that cater to key markets specifically, overall strategy and goals will continue to be driven by the Barcelona headquarters.
“The more we want to be geographically relevant, the more support we are going to have in each key market,” Llopart said.
Interlaced throughout all of these efforts, of course, is fan data. The more information FC Barcelona can collect about its fans, the more it can cater the products, services and experiences it’s developing, and create more specialized premium services to drive top-line growth and brand awareness.
“We want to know these global fans—know them as much as we can—so we can be more relevant to them,” Llopart said. “If we are able to get their data, we can refine that proposition, make it more relevant and, ultimately, sell digital products and services that they really want to buy and have.”