As La Liga club Barcelona retained their record winning run yesterday by defeating fellow La Liga club Real Sociedad, the elation experienced by the loyal supporters of the club in Nigeria was one of the top trending topics on the country’s Twitter sphere. The name ‘Luis Suarez’, the Uruguayan charged with getting the goals for Barcelona, trended for hours on Nigerian twitter. Yesterday’s game exemplified the hold the most thrilling football league in the world, has over Africans and Nigerian football lovers. Thanks to Hill+Knowlton Strategies, La Liga is coming closer to its fans in Nigeria.
LaLiga is a sports association comprising of all the clubs in the first and second division of the national Spanish football competition. The Spanish competition is widely recognized as the world’s best, based on the number of international competitions won, and also based on individual accolades received by the world’s best footballers, presently Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Hill+Knowlton Strategies is a PR firm with offices around the world. Its office in Nigeria is located in Lagos. The firm has several multinational clients in its portfolio including P&G, Canon, Visa, Cisco, Hogan Lovells, pladis, OVH, Lenovo, and Eko Atlantic City. It has now added La Liga to it, making it one of the most important Sports PR deals globally.
It is now the base of operations for La Liga de Futbol Professional’s (LaLiga) communications in Nigeria and in Africa. The H+K Lagos office will be responsible for the maintenance of Spain’s football league’s image across the continent.
According to a press release statement announcing the deal, H+K Strategies will be important to La Liga’s budding reputation in Africa. “The aim of the LaLiga Global Communications team is to build the organisation’s reputation, and expand awareness of its football clubs beyond Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. H+K’s strong media relations and knowledge of the market will help capture the passion, drama and suspense of LaLiga’s football.” Joris Elvers, La Liga’s Global Communications Director, said.
The PR company will focus on communication strategies for La Liga in Africa, media and influencer engagements with its ambassadors, and helping to build local relevance, and also to help forge brand partnerships for La Liga in Nigeria and Africa.
“Our intention is to be closer to the fans in Nigeria, which for us is a very important territory, and we want to bring the Nigerian fans the best league in the world, boasting many of the greatest sporting spectacles” Elvers added.
“We are delighted to be partnering with LaLiga,” said Tokunboh George-Taylor, Managing Director, H+K Nigeria. “We hope to increase LaLiga’s share of voice and present the league as not just a football league, but as an entertainment spectacle, whilst also highlighting the organisation’s commitment to social responsibility and fair play”.
La Liga football matches are currently been televised through several Cable TV channels on the continent and they represent the selling point for the Spanish football league. There are dedicated fans of some of the best footballers on the planet who ply their trade in La Liga E.g. Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi in Africa, and this partnership will bring them closer with their heroes.
La Liga has an office in Nigeria, established 2016, and through this office aims to support football development in Nigeria especially the grassroots. Barcelona established a football academy in Lagos in 2015, which has largely helped in developing Nigeria’s brightest talents in the beautiful game of football. Its football rival in La Liga, Real Madrid F.C. signed a partnership deal with the Rivers State government in Nigeria to establish its own football academy in the state.
