Real Madrid is one of the most well-known football clubs in the world. With an estimated worth of €3.34 billion (in 2015), it has been recognised as the FIFA Club of the 20th Century and currently holds the record of most Champion’s League won.

As one of the most winning teams in football history, Real has built an impressive global brand and gathered an estimated support base of more than 228 million fans.

7Windows is Real’s partner and manages several celebrities’ online presence. Together with Real, they came up with the problem on how to raise even more awareness online regarding Real Madrid’s brand and its players.

REAL MADRID’S DIGITAL PRESENCE WAS ALREADY QUITE STRONG AND THEIR WORLDWIDE FAN-BASE VERY LOYAL. WAS THERE ANY ROOM TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING NEW, THAT COULD RAISE EVEN MORE AWARENESS OF THE CLUB BUT PARTICULARLY OF ITS PLAYERS?

This is a tricky question that many major brands come up. Does it make sense to continue marketing efforts and spending when your visibility is already at the top? If so, how? Is there space for innovation and differentiation?

Having worked previously with WowSystems for a world celebrity app, 7Windows and Real Madrid reached out to us to see if we could help them solve this problem and come up with a plan.

We started by analysing their requirements and goals, translating them for what we understood they meant. Many times, clients have all sort of ideas and requirements, being our competence to filter through the noise, identify the real needs and point out the best solution. This is one of the most important steps and should never be neglected. Frequently, developers will take in all the requirements without proper thinking and planning, just with profit in mind. This translates in poor final results, bad user experiences and unsatisfied clients, as well as higher costs than predicted/budgeted due to this rush.

• After the initial work, everyone agreed on the following goals:
• Real had the need of innovating their digital actions and this should be correlated with their social media presence;
• Players are the most important asset of the club in terms of proximity with their supporters;
• The club’s online exposure is already very big but the exposure of some of the players is limited. If one raises the player’s exposure, their overall mediatic value would also rise and therefore the club’s valuation will rise;
• Regarding awareness, there is always room to do more and better.

After several ideations, WowSystems proposed the development of an iOS and Android app that whould allow fans to take selfies with their favorite players and share them. Users could edit their photos and apply several effects or Real Madrid themed frames.

In the end, the metrics of the whole action were pretty impressive and – you guessed it – Real’s online exposure increased!