World Cup Edition: Mexico wins on the pitch and on social

The completion of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Group Stage Thursday saw the field of 32 teams turn into 16 teams, as the quadrennial sporting event heads into its knockout stage.

Highlights on the pitch from the last two weeks of World Cup play included Ronaldo‘s hat trick in Portugal versus Spain; Argentina‘s late-game winning goal versus Nigeria; Toni Kroo‘s free kick ricocheting off the cross bar in Germany‘s 1-0 loss to Mexico; Senegal becoming the first team ever in World Cup play to be eliminated by the fair play rule; and 2014 World Cup Champion Germany’s dramatic exit.

While we’ve been watching as much World Cup as possible between our Chicago and Valencia offices, we’ve also been tracking the official accounts of the FIFA World Cup, 32 teams, and players and their exposure to FIFA’s 12 World Cup sponsors. From social media analysis, engagements, brand exposure, and earned media, here are some insights on Mexico’s great run so far.

Mexico’s wild ride
Since Mexico’s exciting first match victory over Germany, the team increased its social media followers by 832,000. The day Mexico defeated the reigning World Cup champs, the team earned 232,000 followers – making up more than a quarter of the total number of followers gained during the Cup so far. On Instagram, Mexico has gained more than 453,000 followers since the start of the World Cup on June 14, as shown in the chart below.

In terms of daily social media engagement, Mexico earned 3.2 million engagements on 167 social posts during Group Stage play against Germany; 2.9 million engagements on 154 posts in a victory over South Korea; and 1.2 million engagements on 120 posts in a loss to Sweden.

Two of Mexico’s most engaging posts were Instagram from their memorable World victories against South Korea and Germany.

vs South Korea

vs Germany

With knockout play starting Saturday, we’ll be watching intently to see more impressive play, comebacks, exciting goals as well as following Mexico and the 15 other teams social media and brand exposure.