A year in to Spotify’s partnership with FC Barcelona and the music streamer and leading European soccer club are now focused on evolving the sponsorship deal to create “cultural moments” through sports and music collaboration.
“One year ago, we said this would be more than a partnership because we like to say that Barça is more than a club and that’s important because it’s our motto but also important when it comes to partnerships,” says Sergi Ricart, chief marketing and revenue officer, FC Barcelona. “It’s been a pioneer strategic partnership. The engagement of new audiences with the club and the engagement that the content we created has seen, it’s been massive.”
The deal — touted as a new way for the streaming giant to amplify artists across the globe — spans four seasons for team shirts and three seasons for training shirts. It will also rebrand FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium as Spotify Camp Nou, following an extensive redevelopment project that’s scheduled to be ready for the 2024-2025 season. The partnership kicked off with two major artist campaigns featuring Drake‘s OVO and Rosalía‘s Motomami logos, respectively, on the Blaugrana team jerseys. Rosalía’s logo was the first to be featured on both the men’s and women’s teams home kits as part of the partnership.
Following the unveiling of Rosalía’s match kit on March 15, searches for “Rosalía” and “Motomami” on Spotify increased by over 100% globally and by nearly 200% in Spain (compared to searches on March 14), according to the streaming company. Moreover, in the hour after the El Clásico match ended on March 19, global streams of Rosalía tracks climbed on Spotify in multiple markets globally, including Egypt where the tracks saw a more than 220% boost, 170% in Morocco and almost 70% in Nigeria.
“Rosalía’s El Clásico match kit drove streams and awareness because that match has two or three times more global eyeballs than the Super Bowl. These artists are getting fully integrated campaigns and it’s stuff that is enormous in marketing value,” explains Marc Hazan, vp partnerships, Spotify.
Now, with the partnership in its second year, artists such as Anitta and Fuerza Regida have visited the training facilities for the making of the Barça on Tour summer playlist . And, during the team’s stop in L.A. on July 26 for their match against Arsenal, Daddy Yankee toured the Spotify studio with Barcelona players in tow where he showed them a behind-the-scenes-look at his recording process. Additionally, the partnership will support artists on the LED boards during the Barcelona matches while on the U.S. tour.
“We’re creating a cultural moment and for the club it’s so important,” adds Ricart. “We humbly think that we’re the biggest global sports brand but how can we move into a cultural brand and with the support of this partnership we are moving that way.”
Following its more than 20 global activations during the 2022-2023 season, Hazan is looking to tap into different markets immersing in different genres. “This is a long partnership for Spotify, we’re very invested,” he says. “It’s fair to say that football and music are two great passions, so to combine the two is something pretty unique and when you have Barcelona, arguably one of the biggest clubs with a massive following, you’re in a position where they want to partner heavily and there’s a full set of music rights available, that doesn’t come up every day.”
