The Messi Effect

Last week, the football world was left shocked with the announcement that Lionel Messi would no longer continue with F.C. Barcelona. Almost immediately, it became apparent that Messi would head to Paris to join Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). In the days following the official announcement, there was an unprecedented amount of social media movement and content surrounding the transfer. Below, we’ll take a look at three main areas; engagement, followers, and sponsorship exposure.

Messi Transfer + Social Media Engagement

In the span of a week, PSG’s engagement numbers are absolutely surreal! Nearly 4x greater than Chelsea FC and almost double Messi’s former club, Barcelona:

Messi Transfer + Social Media Followers

Next, we’ll take a look at followers and what better way to compare one transcendental athlete joining a new club than to look at some figures from others, Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James. Both superstars joined Juventus and the Los Angeles Lakers in July of 2018, so we looked at follower numbers for their respective teams a week after the signing announcements. While new followers flocked to Juventus in large numbers, looking at the impact of PSG compared to the Lakers’, the significance is telling.

Most Engaging Posts from Players and PSG

Lastly, and certainly most importantly, Messi’s unveiling provided an unparalleled opportunity for PSG’s commercial sponsors. Accor Hotels, PSG’s front-of-jersey partner, received over 300 million engagements in a week from a combination of the team’s owned and operated channels as well as players, media companies, and other entities channels. You read that number right, over 300 million. Here are some of the most engaged with posts.

Messi joining PSG

Mbappe welcoming Messi

PSG announcing the signing of Messi

433 highlighting Messi’s medical check