“I can’t believe I will see Messi from the cell phone and HD,” said a social networks fan during one of the 2025 Club World Cup matches. And it was not the only one: Miles were surprised to discover that they could follow the full tournament, without paying a subscription through the Dazn streaming platform. Phrases like “I’m going to call my son Dazn”, or “I can’t believe it. Club World, Free, in Dazn. I love you,” they soon collect trend on social networks, reaffirming the impact that this innovative format in the audiences had.
At present we get used to subscribing to Packs: a pack to see the local league matches, another to see the Derbys Barca – Real Madrid for Copa del Rey and even enjoy that Champions League match that we didn’t want to lose. The 2025 Club World Cup broke that scheme: for the first time, an international competition of this magnitude can be seen complete, for streaming and free of charge in more than 200 countries. 63 games, 32 star teams and figures such as Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland, accessible from any device. Behind this milestone, advertising did not interrupt: it made it possible.
From Aleph we always had our very clear mission: democratize the digital ecosystem in development markets through advertising. When we were presented with the opportunity to ally with Dazn to market the advertising spaces of the Club World Cup, we knew we were facing more than a commercial agreement. We had already opted for sport (and soccer particularly) on other occasions, but never in an event of this magnitude. We saw the alliance with Dazn as a real equalizer of opportunities, a concrete way to bring our mission to a truly global scale.
With 3500 million followers worldwide, according to World Atlas, football is the most popular sport on the planet. For fans, seeing a game of this caliber is much more than that, it is an emotional, collective and deeply rooted identity experience, but fanaticism and the possibility of accessing the games do not always go hand in hand. Of those 3500 million followers around the world, many are left out every time access depends on a subscription pays. At this point it is where this edition of the Club World Cup marked a before and after: beyond the desired clash between European and South American teams, the tournament left something much deeper at the conceptual level: the connection between the old and the new. The essentials of sport – passion – was lived in every corner of the world with fans making sacrifices to follow their teams, while a digital platform facilitated access to the rest of the matches.
That myth that said that the football that fell in love was lost with the new consumption habits broke. The reality is another, and is much more powerful: technology, in alliance with advertising, amplifies the experience of fans.
To this is added the power of transmediality offered by the digital ecosystem. By allowing the plays to be followed in real time from any device, conversations were multiplied on social networks: fans not only shared their reactions, but discovered new teams and players while commenting on the live match. According to Comscore data, only during the group stage, a total of 163 million total interactions in publications were generated mentioning the tournament. Experience is no longer limited to the screen: it expands, comments and lives in community, expanding the narrative and creating new stories from a transmission.
This new model also challenged old ideas about advertising in digital content: there is an erroneous belief that audiences reject the ads, but the data say something else. According to the CTV 2024 Panorama report in Comscore Latin America, 59% of Internet users consumed content via streaming in the last year. Of that group, more than half (53%) prefers options with at least some ads, against more expensive plans without advertising. 52% values personalized ads, and 84% made some action after seeing advertisements in CTV.
What changed is not the tolerance of audiences in relation to advertising, but the way in which it is presented in transmissions. Today, effective advertising is not imposed: it is integrated, adapts, and adds value. The challenge is to understand the audiences and create relevant experiences that do not generate interruptions or compete with the content, but complement it.
The result is an equation in which everyone wins: fans, who access the best football without paying a subscription, brands, which manage to connect with massive and committed audiences, and the digital ecosystem as a whole, which found a sustainable way to continue growing.
Global VP of Corporate Development in Aleph
Source: Ambito
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