The Importance of Social Identification through Digital Marketing to Cultivate Emotional Attachment towards the Brand: Evidence from the Real Madrid, F.C.

Abstract

The Covid-19 has caused an unprecedented global economic crisis (Maguire, 2021). This pandemic has negatively affected all industries, but it has specially struck hard in the service sector. One example is based on sports entities, which have faced serious financial difficulties because of the lockdown and restrictions during the “new normal” era. However, Real Madrid FC is the only major European football club that did not suffer economic losses during the years of the pandemic. On the contrary, they even continued to be profitable, achieving the distinction of the world’s most valuable soccer team by Forbes in 2022. Furthermore, during this time they also became the most followed football club on social media and the club with the highest web traffic. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches, this article applies the framework of Social Identity Theory to explore how emotional attachment towards the brand was cultivated during the pandemic through the use of digital marketing.