#POGBACK v #ZlatanTime : comparing the short social video impact of Manchester United’s superstar signings
The signings of José Mourinho as manager, the irrepressible Zlatan Ibrahimović and enigmatic Paul Pogba have made headlines and made Manchester United the most talked about club on social media this summer. Ahead of the Premier League season opener this afternoon, we’ve analysed the fan engagement impact to see which signing created the most social brand value to the Red Devils.
José Mourinho
José is a renowned for his media press conference soundbites, so it was surprising to see the first story of his arrival be the confirmation that he had joined Instagram. The special one has posted 47 times during the pre-season, including five videos, that have generated 2.2 million views to date. His first post generated the most comments, without him saying a word.
Zlatan Ibrahimović
After months of speculation, the free transfer signing of Manchester United’s new number 9 has already paid off as a social media asset. In just six weeks, the most liked Instagram and Twitter videos — across every Premier League club and every single short social video ever posted — became Manchester United videos featuring some #ZlatanTime.
Paul Pogba
By announcing the signing of Paul Pogba to the world through a ten second Twitter teaser video, Manchester United changed the game forever. They were the first club to use short social video as the platform to break the news to a global audience, timing the broadcast at 12:20 in Manchester, while it was the evening in New York and the early morning in Tokyo and Beijing.
#POGBACK v #ZlatanTime
We analysed the short social videos posted by Manchester United during the first 48 hours, here’s the pitch time for both players. While the platform priority remained the same, the Pogba signing came with more video assets.
With more video, you would naturally expect more post engagement. So we then looked at average interactions per video and it was clear that Paul Pogba is the new star attraction of this team, and Manchester United’s new level of social media brand, and therefore commercial, value.
So how was the Pogba content able to generate the levels of video post engagement it did? we think that on top of his star power, some brilliant social strategy came into play. By making the announcement during prime time American and Asian active social media hours, Manchester United (and adidas) were breaking the news to fans who usually aren’t the first to find out, or experience newsworthy social content. Here are some stats that back up this theory:
- Manchester United shared 15 Pogba related social video posts across Twitter, Instagram and Vine between 12.20am GMT and 5pm GMT on 9th August. 10 of the videos were posted while most UK fans were still sleep
- The initial Manchester United announcement on Twitter, ‘Are you ready? #POGBACK’, achieved 95% of likes and 83% of retweets before 9.30am BST on morning of Tuesday 9th August
- Across the 10 videos posted in the early hours (BST), the engagement metrics accrued were consistently between 84–89%:
- Twitter Retweets (89%)
- Twitter Likes (84%)
- Instagram Likes (85%)
- Instagram Comments (86%)
- Interestingly, we found that Instagram views before 10am 9th August represented 65% of total views (up to 10am 10th August GMT). This suggests that video viewership has a longer tail than consumers are willing to wait to put their social engagement seal of approval on it
Pogba’s move to Manchester United has also greatly benefited adidas, who represent both assets. Shortly after the first United teaser video was posted, adidasuk and adidasfootball posted this video:
Comparing the performance of the same video, posted by the adidasuk and manchesterunited Instagram social accounts, reveals the additional brand exposure adidas received from teaming up with their club for their social video distribution strategy.
This will go down as a case study for all major sports announcements in how to tease interest and work closely with your sponsorship brand partners and player assets. Welcome #POGBACK.
