In 2020, WhatsApp made history by becoming the second media platform to reach two billion users, second only to Facebook. The need to converse and connect with the world instantly drives the numbers of the most widely used messaging app in the world year after year.
With that in mind, WhatsApp created Channels for people to follow personalities and organizations of interest. Among the world’s major international club football competitions, the CONMEBOL Libertadores is the only one that has entered this niche so far and has completed six months online with Channels in Portuguese and Spanish.
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With exclusive information and images from Media Days, game coverage and interviews, tournament stories, updated tables, graphics, the Portuguese Channel has over 2 million followers, and the Spanish version has 3.8 million.
Compared to the teams qualified for the 2024 CONMEBOL Libertadores, the Channels have more followers than all Brazilian teams combined (5.6 million) and some champions of Eternal Glory in other countries on the continent, such as River Plate-ARG (2.4 million).
“One of CONMEBOL’s strategic pillars is to focus on the fan. We seek to be where they are, through constant innovation with the aim of delivering relevant content and information at all times and places. The WhatsApp Channels are an additional gateway that opens up and gives us the opportunity to be even closer to South American football fans,” explains Cristina Benítez, Digital Communication Manager at CONMEBOL.
“The WhatsApp Channels are part of the CONMEBOL Libertadores strategy that allows us to get closer to fans, be present at key moments and in the preferred consumption format of our audience. Being the main continental club competition, the reach is enormous. CONMEBOL thinks about this in every move to reach all audiences, countries, and fans with the same excellence,” explains Aldo Arriaga, Head of Digital Marketing at FC Diez Media, the agency that serves CONMEBOL.
Since 2019, CONMEBOL has heavily invested in content and innovations on the competition’s social media platforms to get even closer to fans. Last year, in addition to WhatsApp, the institution also joined Threads with accounts in Portuguese, Spanish, and English. CONMEBOL Libertadores is also on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Spotify.
