The management of marketing actions by LigaF footballers on the TikTok social network
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v63.105184Keywords:
sports marketing, personal branding, social media, TikTok, footballAbstract
Introduction: football is a global sport, with millions of people around the world playing it. The women's game has made impressive progress in recent years compared to other disciplines. Professional female footballers have become brands of great projection and interest for society and the media, and inspire people with their values. The social network TikTok is one of the most interesting tools for the development of marketing and communication strategies in the world of football.
Objective: this study focused on understanding what type of messages are posted by professional female football players in Liga F on the social network TikTok.
Methodology: in order to achieve this objective, the research techniques of observation and content analysis were used. The research sample contains 228 publications from the opening date of each of the 10 official accounts analysed until 15 February 2024.
Results: the results show that the emotional factor is very important in connecting with audiences.
Conclusions: marketing actions are one of the most outstanding resources, although there is still a lot of room for improvement on the part of those in charge of managing the official accounts on the TikTok social network of the football players.
References
playbook (2021). Digitalización, la nueva partida para el deporte. 2playbookpapers. https://shre.ink/rlTB (consultado el 29/02/2024)
Abuín-Penas, J., Martínez-Patiño, M. J., & Míguez-González, M. I. (2019). Spanish Winter Olympic ath-lete’s communication on Instagram. Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 14(4), 780-791.
Achen, R. M., Lebel, K., & Clavio, G. (2017). What customers want: Defining engagement on social me-dia in sport. Global Sport Business Journal, 5(3), 1-21.
Alberico Chaves, R. (2019) Torcedores do Futuro? As motivações que Levam Jovens Brasileiros a se Envolverem como ‘Torcedores’ de Clubes de Futebol da Europa Fans of the Future? The Moti-vations that Lead Brazilians Young People to be Involved as' Fans' of European Football Clubs. Revista de Gestão e Negócios do Esporte.
Alonso Meneses, G. y Avalos González, J. (2013). La investigación del fútbol y sus nexos con los estu-dios de comunicación. Aproximaciones y ejemplos. Nueva Época, 20 (julio-diciembre), 33-64.
Arias Montesinos, S., Zamora Saborit, F. J., & Sanahuja Peris, G. (2023). Deporte y TikTok: tipología de contenidos de los deportistas españoles en los Juegos Olímpicos de Tokio 2020. Ámbitos: Revis-ta Internacional de Comunicación, 60, 33-51.
Brown, K. A., Jackson, J. R., Quick, M., & Harrison, V. R. (2024). The Role of Gender in Evaluating Ath-letes’ Endorsements of Corporate Social Advocacy Initiatives. Communication & Sport
Calahorro-López, A., & Ratkai, M. (2024). Los clubes de fútbol europeos y sus finanzas. Una revisión sistemática de la literatura: European football clubs and their finances. A systematic literature review. Revista de Contabilidad-Spanish Accounting Review, 27(1), 75-91.
Cano Tenorio, R. y Rostoll Ariza, J. (2023). Desarrollo de la marca personal en el mundo del fútbol. En A. Rodríguez de Austria, M. L. López Raya y D. Gómez-Carmona (Eds). ¿Y ahora qué? Diseño y desarrollo de la marca personal y corporativa (pp. 41-48). Dykinson.
Castro-Martínez, A., & Torres-Martín, J. L. (2024). La gestión del machismo en el ámbito deportivo. La crisis de la RFEF con las campeonas del mundial de fútbol y su impacto en la Marca Espa-ña. adComunica, 255-260.
Colle, R. (2011). El análisis de contenido de las comunicaciones 3. Ejemplos de aplicaciones. Colección Cuadernos Artesanos de Latina. La Laguna, Tenerife.
Constantinescu, M. (2016). The Brand of an Athlete–Reconsidering Its Dimensions. Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management, 1(1), 354-363.
Cortsen, K. (2013). Annika Sörenstam–a hybrid personal sports brand. Sport, Business and Manage-ment: An International Journal. 37-62
Coutinho, E., & Luzzi, A. (2017). Sports Marketing Plan: An Alternative Framework for Sports Club. International Journal of Marketing Studies; 9(4), 15-28. http://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v9n4p15.
Fernández Souto, A. B., Puentes Rivera, I., & Vázquez Gestal, M. (2019). Gestión de la comunicación en las competiciones deportivas regulares: Fútbol sala, voleibol, baloncesto y balonmano en Es-paña (Management of communication in the main sports leagues: Indoor soccer, volleyball, basketball, and handball in Spain). Retos, 36, 9–16. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v36i36.66658
Fathi Hussien Alafandi, A. (2014). Ambush Marketing in Egypt’s Sports Sponsorship: Preliminary In-vestigations. Assiut Journal of Sport Science and Arts, 2014(1), 235-251.
Flores Paredes, A., & Amaru Maquera, Y. (2022). Influencias socioculturales que enfrenta la mujer futbolista en el departamento de Puno (Sociocultural influences faced by female soccer players in the department of Puno). Retos, 43, 968–978. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v43i0.8979
Gray, J. (2021)
The geopolitics of ’platforms’: the TikTok challenge. Internet Policy Review, 10(2).
Gültekin, O. (2018). Fanzine culture and sports fanzines in Turkey. International Journal of Physical Education, Sports and Health, C. V, (3), 88-94.
Konzag, H., & Sølvkær Schütz, N. (2024). Sports digitalization–realizing the potential value of tracking technologies in professional sports organizations. Proceedings of the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
Kucharska, W. (2018). Personal brand value and social media. The top football players’ case. The Top Football Players’ Case.
Llopis Goig, R. (2016). Deporte, medios de comunicación y sociedad. RICYDE. Revista Internacional de Ciencias del Deporte, 2016, 12, 44, 86-89.
Lobillo Mora, G., & Smolak Lozano, E. (2019). La relación como valor estratégico en comunicación organizacional entre los clubes de fútbol y jugadores estrella en redes sociales/The relations-hip as a strategic value in organizational communication between football clubs and star pla-yers in social net. Revista Internacional de Relaciones Públicas, 9(17), 71-96.
McClearen, J. (2017). “We Are All Fighters”: The Transmedia Marketing of Difference in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). International Journal of Communication, 11, 18.
Manoli, A. E., Lomax, C., O’Byrne, D., & Antonopoulos, G. A. (2024). Olympians’ perspectives of envi-ronmental sustainability within the Olympic games. Leisure Studies, 1-12.
Mérida Serrano, R., Panzuela García, A., Muñoz Moya, M., & González-Alfaya, M. E. (2022). Motivacio-nes y obstáculos en la práctica del fútbol femenino en Córdoba (Motivations and obstacles in the practice of female football in Córdoba (Spain)). Retos, 46, 301–308. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v46.88305 (citado en 70b)
Miranda Peña, A. C. (2021). Las redes sociales un área de oportunidad en el fútbol. Summa Humanita-tis, 11(2), 1-15.
Monserrat-Gauchi, J., Segarra-Saavedra, J., & Penalva-Cerdá, S. . (2024). Representación de las mujeres en la publicidad televisiva emitida durante la Copa Mundial Femenina de la FIFA (Francia 2019). Análisis de roles y estereotipos (Representation of women in television advertising dur-ing the FIFA Women’s World Cup (France 2019). Analysis of roles and stereotype). Retos, 51, 700–711. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v51.100600
Neuendorf, K. A. (2017). The content analysis guidebook. sage. Cleveland State University, USA. Capítulo 7. Content Analysis in the Interactive Media Age by Paul D. Skalski, Kimberly A. Neu-endorf, and Julie A. Cajigas
Niven, D. (2020). Stifling workplace activism: The consequences of anthem protests for NFL Play-ers. Social Science Quarterly, 101(2), 641-655.
Organista, N., & Mazur, Z. (2017) Sports press coverage of Polish female athletes during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro1. Studies in Sport Humanities, 22, 39- 48
Romero-Rodríguez, L. M., Torres Toukoumidis, A. y Aguaded, I. (2016). Incidencia de las aplicaciones móviles en la toma de decisiones del potencial turista: Caso Huelva capital. En: adComunica. Revista Científica de Estrategias, Tendencias e Innovación en Comunicación, 12, 45-67, http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/2174-0992.2016.12.4
Ruiz Olabuenaga, J. I. (2012). Teoría y práctica de la investigación cualitativa. Bilbao: Publicaciones de la Universidad de Deusto.
Schellewald, A. (2021). Communicative forms on TikTok: Perspectives from digital ethnogra-phy. International Journal of Communication, 15, 21.
Stoney, E., & Fletcher, T. (2020). “Are fans in the stands an afterthought?”: sports events, decision-aid technologies, and the Television Match Official in Rugby Union. Communication & Sport.
Tejedor, S., Cervi, L., & Gordon, G. (2019). Analysis of the structure and use of digital resources on the websites of the main football clubs in Europe. Future Internet, 11(5), 104.
Vannier Borges, F. (2019). Os clubes de futebol e novas formas de produzir a informação desporti-va. Mediapolis–Revista de Comunicação, Jornalismo e Espaço Público, (8), 119-133.
White, M. D., & Marsh, E. E. (2006). Content analysis: A flexible methodology. Library trends, 55(1), 22-45.
Zamora Saborit, J., Sanahuja Peris, G., y Blay Arráez, R. (2015). El gestor de marca personal en el ámbi-to deportivo. Questiones publicitarias, (20), 101-116.
Zeng, J., Abidin, C., & Schäfer, M. S. (2021). Research perspectives on TikTok and its legacy apps: intro-duction. International Journal of Communication, 15, 3161-3172.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Rafael Cano Tenorio, Diego Gómez-Carmona, Pedro Pablo Marín Dueñas
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine the right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine.
- Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (eg, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Is allowed and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as to a subpoena more Early and more of published work (See The Effect of Open Access) (in English).
This journal provides immediate open access to its content (BOAI, http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#openaccess) on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The authors may download the papers from the journal website, or will be provided with the PDF version of the article via e-mail.
