Football star Cristiano Ronaldo has taken Forbes’ title of the highest-paid athlete in 2016 and 2017, and the most famous athlete by ESPN in 4 years in a row. And let’s not forget the numerous league titles and records that he broke. After signing an exclusive deal with Shopee, an online shopping platform in Asia, Ronaldo was revealed as their new brand ambassador. People took to social media to express their anticipation and excitement. Ronaldo also became a trending hashtag after an ad campaign surfaced. So, we decided to build a social media campaign report to follow the trend.
What did it mean to score Cristiano Ronaldo as Shopee’s new ambassador?
Before the ad campaign, Shopee published sneak peeks of the campaign and announced Ronaldo as their newest brand ambassador.
Using our social media campaign report tool, we noticed a peak in how many posts mentioned Ronaldo and Shopee together. Turns out, much more than the usual – almost 7000 posts just within one day!
We followed over to see just how many people had the campaign announcement reached — a stunning 19 million. The campaign had done a great job putting the word out. But, what made the campaign so successful? And how exactly did people react after seeing the ad campaign?
Who are the people behind Cristiano Ronaldo?
In another one of our social media campaign reports, we noticed that the majority of Ronaldo’s fan base demographic fell within the age range of 18 to 35 years old.
Ronaldo also had a substantial female following compared to other football players. 22% of his fans were female compared to a lower percentage for other football players. The median age in Asia is also 30.7 years old, according to Worldmeter, a population tracking website, which falls within his fan base demographic.
With all the information we gathered about Ronaldo’s fan base, we decided to use our campaign analysis tools to find out if the numbers matched up.
We noticed the most engagement levels from 18-35 years old, surpassing any other age demographic. It also aligns with Ronaldo’s fan base, 43% of whom are in the 18-24 years old range, and 29% in 24-35 years old range. Compared to our bar chart, the similarity in his fan demographic and the real-time engagement level is uncanny.
Diving deeper, our social media campaign report tool also narrowed downed which gender responded the most. Surprisingly, 62% of the engagement came from females, although only 22% of Ronaldo’s fan base are females. This tells us that female social media users are highly responsive to campaigns featuring Ronaldo, even if they aren’t necessarily football fans.
By looking at all the information, Shopee’s decision to make Ronaldo a brand ambassador made sense. Although less male fans respond than expected, the engagement based on the age demographic perfectly matched with Ronaldo’s fan base. Even the head of Shopee Singapore, Zhou Junjie, believe that Ronaldo, “is a household name and a unifying figure for the region.”
What are people saying about the campaign?
Following the release of the ad campaign, fans of Ronaldo and Shopee took to social media to share their opinions. Some called it “a marketing case study” because of how the ad had become such a hot topic.
While others were dumbfounded and called it hilarious, and they “can’t even.”
Critics called it the “worst advert ever” and asked Ronaldo “What have you done?”
Because there were so many mixed reactions, we decided to dive deeper and explore how the campaign affected Ronaldo and Shopee’s brand image.
How did the campaign affect the brand image?
Using our social media campaign report tool, we noticed that there was a change in sentiment between just Shopee alone and Shopee combined with Ronaldo.
After Shopee’s ad campaign starring Ronaldo, things changed. Shopee’s negative sentiments dropped from 3.55% to just 1.90%. Although their positive sentiments also received a hit, it seems the positives outweigh the negatives.
Using the share of voice widget our social media campaign report provides, we found that more than 80% of the share of voice was about the ad campaign. Which shows that Ronaldo’s new campaign did take home the lion’s share of the conversations. Perhaps, this made the investment Shopee poured into the campaign worthwhile. After all, it did gather everyone’s attention and started a conversation.
Was it an effective campaign?
Based on our social media campaign report findings, Ronaldo was the perfect fit for the brand. First of all, Ronaldo’s presence attracted attention – big-time. On top of that, it drove down the negative sentiments that Shopee had previously. With our analysis tools, we found real-time results that measured the sentiments, brand image, and return on investment. Find out more information about how you can use our analysis tools to monitor your campaign here.
