Wednesday 2 July 2014

Chewy Luis in the news: Why the soap opera is more important than the sport

SPORT is big business on social media, and big events get loads of coverage - but it's not always the matches themselves that people want to talk about.
Bit off more than he could chew: Luis Suarez after chomping on Chiellini

 Three of the biggest stories we've ever had on social at The Sun revolved around football stars Luis Suarez and Cristiano Ronaldo - and boxing champion Carl Froch. None of them really had very much to do with sport.

The first was a story about Froch proposing to his girlfriend in the ring in front of thousands of people, immediately after knocking out rival George Groves. 


We posted some amazing pictures of a battle-weary Froch getting down on one knee, which our followers on Facebook loved. The tweet about the same story (above) also did very well.

Second is a story about Cristiano Ronaldo getting a zig zag haircut during the World Cup. The star got his new look in tribute to a boy whose £50,000 brain surgery he paid for. It's a real feel-good tale that was incredibly popular with readers. 

Cristiano the redeemer: Ronaldo's hair was a tribute to ill fan
The story had a magic combination of three things: the most popular sportsman on social media (Ronaldo has over 27 million followers on Twitter), the most popular sporting event in the world and, crucially, a brilliant human interest angle.

The third of our big hitters is a story that has dominated the news agenda ever since it happened - Luis Suarez biting opponent Giorgio Chiellini on the shoulder. You'd have to have been living under a rock to have missed this one. 

So what do these three stories have in common?

They are all very famous sportsmen at the top of their game, on a global stage, doing something which is NOT sport. The stories show us that it is often what the big stars do outside of the game that people are interested in.

There is a kind of public fascination with the fact that these revered, almost god-like, sporting heroes are just real people with real emotions that do real, everyday things. Like giving to the needy, proposing to their partners - or stupidly lashing out when they are angry.
The moment of madness: Suarez gets his teeth into rival Chiellini

 The sport itself is just a platform for a much broader dramatic narrative about fearless heroes, pantomime villains and ancient, unappeasable rivalries.

The games and the goals are just a part of that. A very important part, of course, but not the full package. The press conferences, interviews and ad campaigns all have their roles to play. And so does social media. 

Suarez's bite on Chiellini was generating a staggering 107,000 tweets per minute during the game - including this gem from former boxer Evander Holyfield...


Mentions of Suarez (@Luis16Suarez) on the day also went up from 100k before the bite, to about TWO MILLION after. 

 A few days later, when he apologised on Twitter, the post was re-tweeted over 70,000 times and will have been seen by millions of people.

I should mention here that there are hundreds of millions of tweets posted about the matches themselves, which are incredibly exciting in their own right.

 But the point I'm trying to make is that social messages achieve huge success when there is that potent mix of both a massive sporting occasion AND some other kind of drama, which combine to create a bigger picture.

 And, of course, social media managers like me are happy, because it means we get a chance to hop on photoshop and have some fun.

 Once Suarez had been handed a four-month ban for the bite, we came up with this idea: 



As you can see, I've given Luis an extra finger. Or, rather, extended his ring finger out. His celebration usually has just his thumb and two fingers raised, which most fans will know. The third finger was added for comic effect, so Luis could gleefully demonstrate how many months he'll be banned from football for.

 To create the extra digit, I had to cut out his middle finger and move it across. I then blended it in using the clone stamp and blur tool.

 To finish up, here's some other Suarez-related funnies that caught my eye...








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