Monday, October 28, 2013

Cristiano Ronaldo: Personal Brand In Action

There are many athletes who are using social media to engage with their own fans on Twitter and Facebook alone. Building a personal brand allows these athletes to perform well both on and off the field. Lets zone in on Cristiano Ronaldo, who is considered one of the best soccer players in the world. He currently plays for Real Madrid in Spain, and is team captain of the Portugal national team. He is the most recognized football player over Neymar, Bale and Lionel Messi, which may be a battle still, as Ronaldo and Messi brawled it out this weekend as Barcelona played Real Madrid in the first "El Clasico" this weekend. Barcelona beat Real Madrid in a match ending in 2-1.
NBC sports talks about The Battle for the Ballon d'Or, sponsored by FIFA, where top coaches and team captains vote to "award the football player who is considered to have performed the best over the course of the calendar year", NBC Sports. From 2009-2012 Lionel Messi has won the past four FIFA Ballon d'Or awards while Ronaldo has won once in 2008. 
In looking at the battle for the award, Messi has the stats in goals and assists while Ronaldo may have the popularity. Cristiano Ronaldo rocks the social media world in creating his own buzz for his personal brand by engaging with fans. 

Cristiano Ronaldo currently has about 22.2 million followers on Twitter. He creates his personal brand through tweets by sharing photos of his personal life while he also created  a competition for, targeting the younger crowd that follows him. The competition winner is going to meet Ronaldo in person in Madrid. Also in his twitter Ronaldo announces matches to motivate fans to cheer on himself and his team in the upcoming matches, he tweets photos going to dinner with friends, and shares videos to promote his new upcoming line.
His new line of Nike CR7 Boys Underwear Collection is launching in the end of October. His personal website is currently under construction, but fans are able to sign up to receive a notification as soon as the website is launched.
In viewing Ronaldo's twitter page, you may also notice a handle called @GAMEbyRonaldo. The Games is a global football competition that involves real matches, real teams, and real players from across the globe. He stresses that it is a revolutionary football competition, it is REAL, and it is HUGE...this provides an exciting outlook for football fans. The competitions marketing strategy as created a fair amount of buzz on this new competition because of photos and fan contests, and I think we are all curious on what Ronaldo actually has in store for us football fans. What other super star athletes create their own personal brand well? Share below!



2 comments:

  1. I kind of find it funny/interesting that he tweeted about Nike wear, but in the picture below its featuring Adidas!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know, it is interesting. The competition between sports brands/gear for athletic sponsors is endless....

    ReplyDelete