📢 Can marketing break football?
nutmeg fc #56.
After this week, Argentine football will no longer be the same. Or it will. Because Argentina has the poetic (or tragic, depending on how you look at it) beauty of repeating its history over and over again.
What happened, for those who haven't heard, is that Deportivo Riestra, a team in the first division of Argentine football, included in its starting eleven a streamer with no sporting background. He played as long as it took for his team to commit a foul. Before the first minute of the game, his coach had already asked for a substitution and later, at a press conference, he announced that the streamer wouldn't play again and acknowledged that it had been a matter of the club's main sponsor, the energy drink Speed Unlimited.
But let's go step by step. 47 steps, to be precise, in honour of the number that Spreen, the streamer in issue, has already made famous/infamous.
01.
Riestra is a historic club of the Argentinean lower divisions that spent its first eighty-two years of life between the fourth and fifth tiers.
02.
When I write about Argentinian football teams that are not so well known to foreigners I like to mention some famous players who played there. No well-known footballer ever played for Riestra.
03.
In 2013, Speed Unlimited, an energy drink, joined as main sponsor. Until 2021, when it was overtaken by Monster, Speed was the best-selling energy drink in Argentina. Red Bull is in third place.
04.
Speed's arrival gave the club a 180° turnaround. A rebranding without putting it in a Keynote. This new personality included frequent visits by Diego Maradona to training sessions to motivate the players.
05.
In 2013, Riestra also started wearing Adidas. Not that the German brand sponsored them, but they bought jerseys and stuck their crest and the Speed Unlimited logo on them.
06.
The following year, Riestra reached the third division for the first time. In 2016 they were promoted to the second division.
07.
The promotion to the second division took place in a very controversial final. Their fans invaded the pitch, forcing the match to be suspended when their team's lead was in danger. The game was restarted on another day for the remaining five minutes, but the score remained unchanged.
08.
In 2023, Riestra struck again and moved up to the first division.
09.
The final to reach the first division was also scandalous. In this case, because of Riestra's violent infringements that were either not charged or cautioned.
10.
In their arrival to the first division, they started to think outside the box from minute zero: they organised an atypical pre-season that took them to do exercises on the beach, throughout the night, next to the discotheques.
11.
It seems to have paid off. This season, they have already beaten three of Argentina's big five (including River) and are level on points with Boca in the standings.
12.
But good results are not enough. In the Copa Argentina, 14-year-old Mateo Apolonio made his debut. This allowed Riestra to break the record for the youngest player to make his debut in Argentine football (he beat Kun Agüero by more than a year). After his debut, Apolonio never played another minute.
13.
The choice of coach is also strategic. Cristian Fabbiani was a footballer more known for his romances with high-profile women than for what he did on the pitch. Before taking over as technical director, he worked as a panelist on a TV show.
14.
In February 2024, Riestra officially registered a certain Ivan Buhajeruk. It had no repercussions.
15.
In September, Panini launched its sticker album and included Buhajeruk, who turned out to be the streamer Spreen. Now everyone was talking about Riestra.
16.
Spreen is the most popular Argentinian streamer at the moment and the third most popular Spanish-speaking streamer (behind Ibai and Auronplay).
17.
Despite signing with Riestra, that didn't stop Spreen from becoming a sponsor himself of Colón de Santa Fe, the team he supports and which plays in the second division of Argentinean football.
18.
Like Riestra, Spreen is sponsored by Speed Unlimited.
19.
When Riestra manager Fabbiani was asked about Spreen, he replied: ‘The only thing I know is that he sells (Speed) cans and I get paid by the cans.
20.
On Monday 11 November it was announced that Spreen would start a match in the Argentine tournament.
21.
It wasn't just another match. Riestra was playing against Vélez Sarsfield, the current leader of the Pro League.
22.
Vélez also won a Libertadores (against Telê Santana's Sao Paulo) and an Intercontinental (against Arrigo Sacchi's Milan), both in 1994.
23.
Some well-known players and coaches who have played for Vélez are Carlos Bianchi, Beto Alonso, José Luis Chilavert, Mauricio Pellegrino, Turu Flores, Fernando Gago, Marcelo Bielsa and Ricardo Gareca.
24.
It's hard to say what position Spreen played in.
25.
As soon as he had the chance, a Riestra player fouled a rival and when the referee stopped the game, Fabbiani demanded a substitution.
26.
The ball was in play for only 7 seconds with Spreen on the field.
27.
Spreen was replaced by Gustavo ‘el Tortuga’ Fernández, former River Plate player.
28.
When Spreen left the pitch, only 78 seconds had elapsed since the kick-off.
29.
He never touched the ball.
30.
When the match was over, Riestra's coach assured that Spreen would not play again.
31.
The match ended in a 1-1 draw, so Spreen can boast that he never lost a single match as a professional. In fact, he did.
32.
Brian Romero, a Vélez player, was very critical of the marketing manoeuvre and sent a message to the youngsters who want to be footballers: ‘From my place, I want to tell them that this is not the way, and to keep trying, that football is that: try, fail, try, fail, fail, fail, try and keep trying. Today we are sending the wrong message to the kids who come from below.
33.
Juan Sebastián Verón, former Inter and Manchester United player among others, and current president of Estudiantes de La Plata was the most renowned official to criticise the move, calling it a ‘lack of respect for football and footballers’.
34.
Lionel Scaloni, coach of the Argentina national team, meanwhile, called for ‘it not to happen again’.
35.
But it was not all criticism. Journalist Germán García Grova shared some numbers: more than 257 million impressions between X, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube; 10,500 new followers for Riestra on social media (Instagram, TikTok, X); 3.2 million views of the content on IG and X.
36.
Ibai Llanos was also very complimentary: ‘As a marketing manoeuvre, I think it's genius. Now I know Riestra and I even know how many spectators enter their stadium. The most curious thing is that they played against Vélez, the tournament leader. Riestra went around the world and multiplied the impact by fifty’.
37.
Clearly it's a very creative idea, but is it a good idea?
38.
Despite the strangeness of the format, it is still a branded content initiative. And branded content, to be good, has to work for all the brands that are part of it. In this case: Speed Unlimited, Deportivo Riestra, Spreen and Panini, as a necessary collaborator.
39.
Spreen is the big winner. For him it's all positive. It gave him more popularity, which equals more commercial value, and a story to live, repeat and exploit for a long time. It will also have added a lot of haters, but this is something streamers live with.
40.
The other brand that won hands down is Panini. The presence of the Spreen figurine in the Argentinean league album ensures a direct impact on its target audience (children and pre-teens).
41.
For Riestra, things are more divided. On the one hand, it has achieved a popularity that it would not have achieved even with sporting results. On the other hand, it seems to have turned the football world against itself. After the match they issued a protocol statement apologising for the initiative.
42.
The Argentinian tournament has undoubtedly been the big loser in this marketing move. Spreen's debut diminished the league's value and lowered it almost to the level of the King's League, where the show takes precedence over sporting performance.
43.
Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association, was also very critical of the club and assured that it will be investigated by the Ethics Tribunal. Tapia manages absolutely everything in Argentine football and it is complicated that Riestra will not be penalised in some way (official or unofficial) for their actions.
44.
Scaloni's criticism confirms that Tapia's anger is serious. Until now, the national team coach has avoided commenting on the peculiarities of Argentine football. For example, a few weeks ago the relegations were cancelled in the middle of the season, which directly benefited Barracas Central, the team Tapia presided over and where his son plays. Scaloni said nothing about it.
45.
Speed Unlimited is also likely to generate a lot of backlash for this action. However, their previous initiatives with Riestra seem to confirm that they want to show themselves as the anti-Red Bull. They don't mind breaking the rules. In fact, it's in the name of the product: Unlimited, no limits.
46.
Conclusion: this was an idea that broke with everything, to the point of being implausible. Even watching Spreen on the pitch, one cannot believe that it actually happened. If we look at it from our passionate, amateur side, it's clear that it's an insult to football. But if we look at it from our analytical and professional side, I think it's spot on, that it fits perfectly with what the three brands stand for (Riestra, Speed Unlimited and Spreen) and that they have exceeded their objectives. Nobody will be able to do something like this and expect the same result for sure.
47.
One last thing. I know it sounds strange to say that a club has succeeded with an initiative in which it damaged its own league. It's like saying that Pepsi succeeded with a move that hurt the soft drink market. But Riestra's case is exceptional. They know that their present is an anomaly and do not expect sustained, long-term growth. The only possibility is to throw a grenade and blow everything up. So they have thrown their grenade and, now, let's see what happens.