Does the value of professional athletes go beyond their athletic talent? FC Barcelona sees Neymar Jr as a strategic signing.

In today’s digital era, people in the spotlight are involved in much more than just one outlet for exposure and success. For example, professional athletes are no longer known solely for their athletic talent. Athletes are becoming immensely valuable to teams, brands, and agencies due to the rapid rise of social media. Athletes, such as Neymar Jr, are now social media influencers and have created a massive following on their platforms.

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On July 1, 2019, MARCA, Spanish national daily sports newspaper, released an article about Neymar’s potential signing with Barça with social media data collected by Primetag.

When asked about Neymar’s dual-value to a team through social media and athleticism, CEO and Co-Founder Manuel Albuquerque said:

Neymar’s profile on instagram would be an amplifier for the Barça brand, allowing it to reach millions of people globally. Surpassing the national territory, through the player’s networks, the club manages to convey its own messages and boost its business.

Manuel Albuquerque, Primetag CEO and Co-Founder

The Brazilian has brand deals and media advertising with over 30 companies, Nike being the most prevalent across his Instagram account.  Neymar has 121 million followers and over six million people engaging with his posts. This makes him even more valuable in the influencing and athletic world because he has a variety of audiences and a large outlet for visibility. Bottom line, the Brazilian adds more than just his magical athletic skills. He takes the Barcelona brand to another level, making his signing a strategic move.

Albuquerque gave more input on this [supposedly] ‘strategic signing’. He explained, “With the potential trade of Neymar, Barça would expect not only sports value but a return from the media and economic point of view: T-shirt sales, tickets for matches, transmission rights, and sponsors’ fees. These are some of the sources of income that are affected when a popular athlete is hired, and social phenomena like him are used to catapult online sales.”

His power goes beyond his offensive performance. Neymar Jr. is a strategic signing. Other brands and professional teams should take notes from Barça and Neymar’s potential deal if they want to stay competitive in an ever-evolving social media world. The power behind Influencer Marketing continues to grow with great success and continuous transformation.

MARCA sport newspaper

If you’re interested in knowing more about the importance of social media in professional’s athletes career, you can download Primetag’s 2018 World Cup Social Influence Report. You can also read Forbes take on the subject.

The post More Than Just a Soccer Deal: Neymar Jr’s Strategic Signing with Barça appeared first on Primetag Blog.

What exactly is IGTV and what do you need to know, one year after its launch? 

Instagram Television, nicknamed IGTV, is a new application, separate from the Instagram app that allows user to post videos that are up to one hour long. 

However, users can access IGTV from their own Instagram and watch the variety of channels provided. IGTV channels range from those created by the accounts followed and also through recommendations based on user’s interest. 

This new application heavily rivals Youtube and places Instagram into a new category of content creation. 

What you need to know?

If Instagrammers are looking to increase their variety of content and channel of communication then IGTV can be a very useful tool. IGTV encourages influencers not to limit the length of their content and to gain more visibility. This allows influencers to be more authentic and creative.

Now and in the continuing future, brands and agencies are able to use IGTV for influence marketing and brand campaigns. It seems as if IGTV and the expansion of Live Content is just getting started. 

IGTV is officially one year old and its success is only increasing. In the past five years, statistics have shown that the younger generations watch 1/3 less television from the television screen (source). Nowadays, people are doing away with cable and diving into a world of social media and streaming services. 

However, there are still issues to be worked out with Instagram Television.

Currently, IGTV is ad free. This comes with both positives and negatives for a content creator. On the upside, this allows them more freedom to create their own content and to increase their authenticity. However, this also makes it harder for influencers to monetize their content.

An Instagram spokesperson told Recode: “We are committed to helping [creators] build their careers and make a living doing this work. We’ll be exploring and testing ways to help creators monetize.” So, influencers needs are being heard and there may be changes for the future.

At the moment, how can brands and creators maximize their ROI? 

“IGTV’s longer video format means more opportunity to engage users, more creative license and more potential to embed brands into the content. This could add another dimension to a brand’s recognition and messaging, beyond lead generation. Brands may also want to consider repurposing or reposting Facebook or YouTube videos with high production values on IGTV, in order to maximize reach and engage new segments of their social following in a budget-effective way” (source). 

Innovative ways to share content, such as IGTV, continue to be explored and used in the world of entertainment. Therefore the influence marketing industry must recognize this transformation and adapt their resources. 

If you’re into video content creation, we suggest “Vine to Youtube: The Constant Rise of Youtube Influencers“.

The post The Rise of Instagram Television appeared first on Primetag Blog.

The Vine days are over. A look into the transition from Vine to Youtube.   

Nowadays, the ways to create video content are limitless. There are a multitude of social media sites that just keep growing, however none have been as successful as Youtube. In 2005, Youtube was created to allow people to share videos with the rest of the world. Youtube had great success with the launch of their platform. However, they gained even more users when, video content application, Vine closed their platform. 

Vine was a video social media platform launched in June 2012 that grew spectacularly. Users loved to use it to create and to watch the famous six-seconds videos.

Our original beta had something like 10 or 15 people on it, and even with that small group we started to see experimentation pretty early on.”

Dom Hofmann

By October 2012, Twitter acquired Vine. It officially released its free application in January of 2013. It became a wild success and allowed content creators to gain popularity and have a presence in popular culture.  It’s video sharing tool gave immense visibility to the platform.

Creators envisioned Vine to be an everyday video sharing platform. However, within weeks, they realized this was not the direction the application was taking. ‘Vine culture’ quickly became one of creativity and experimentation. Content creators, nicknamed ‘Viners’ quickly gained a large following on all platforms, allowing them to step into influencer marketing. 

In October 2016, Twitter announced that Vine would be shutting down within the next months. While the application had wild success, it “failed to keep pace as competitors added features” (source). 

In a crisis to find a new platform, many ‘viners’ made the transition to Youtube. Youtube allowed these artists to still create content, but they had to make adjustments. For instance, content creators could no long rely on a six second, witty skit to gain them followers.  Youtube allows artists to create longer, more personal videos that require talented creativity and originality. 

If you’re into video platforms, you can read about “The Rise of Instagram TV“.

The post Vine to Youtube: The Constant Rise of Youtube Influencers appeared first on Primetag Blog.