Good morning Almudena. First of all, thanks for your time and for visiting us here at the Chamber. We would like to know a little bit more about you and LaLiga.
LaLiga is a private sports association comprised of 20 clubs/ SAD of LaLiga Santander (which is the Spanish acronym to designate public limited sports companies) and 22 of LaLiga SmartBank. LaLiga is responsible for organizing professional and national football competitions. It is a global organization, an innovative and socially responsible company, the leader in leisure and entertainment. In the season 2018/2019 LaLiga reached more than 2.7 million of people all around the world. Its headquarters is in Madrid (Spain), although it is present in 55 countries through 9 offices and 46 delegates. LaLiga carries out social actions through its foundation and it is the first football league in the world that has competition for football players with intellectual impairment, which is LaLiga Genuine Santander.
What made you and your company come to the Philippines?
LaLiga is a leading global company in entertainment that only last season, reached out 2.7 million people in the world, so it is really important to have an international strategy that enables us to be nearer to our fans around the world so that they can enjoy LaLiga, its football matches, and entertainment. In 2017, LaLiga created the project of LaLiga Global Network aiming to strengthen the international strategy, flourishing the brand LaLiga globally and bringing over the experience of the best league of the world to all our fans that follows us outside of Spain. It is a unique project that allows LaLiga to be in more than 55 countries, including the Philippines, which is a market with huge growth potential in the industry of football and entertainment. Only in Asia that we have three offices in China, India and one regional office for APAC in Singapore as well as 9 delegates in each market: Singapore, Korea, Japan, Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand (Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos) and Vietnam. LaLiga Global Network acts as a spearhead to find new opportunities and add value to LaLiga and the clubs.
What year did you arrive and how has the country changed since then?
LaLiga was already present in the Philippines through our operator which is the only one that owns the media rights. Currently, it is beIn Sports that offers all the matches of LaLiga Santander in TV beIn Sports channels and through its platform, beIn Connect that it allows to stream the matches live and on-demand. LaLiga came physically to the Philippines at the beginning of 2018 through the project of LaLiga Global Network. We can already see some relevant changes – although basketball is the most-watched sport, football is getting more and more prominence not only as a sport to practice but also as an entertainment as the demand to watch football increases in diverse platforms, such as TV, mobile, OTT, and social media.
This is also partly thanks to the local football trend, the renovation of the Philippines Football League, the Paulino Alcantara Cup or the last achievements of the national team “The Azkals” in international competitions (AFC Asian Cup). LaLiga comes to the Philippines seeking to be the second league most followed in the country. The first has to be the local league and we believe that we have to keep working to develop football in the country. Moreover, we have to take into account that the Philippines is a volume market that is not only narrowed to Manila. As far as we descend geographically, football gains more prominence in some provinces such as Negros, Visayas, and Mindanao.
How has your professional career or your company´s career developed since you have been in the Philippines?
Not only has the audience of LaLiga increased but also the acknowledgment of the brand and its clubs, further than Real Madrid, FC Barcelona or Atlético de Madrid. The Philippines is an appealing market for our clubs; Real Madrid is present during some years through its foundation with different projects, the FC Barcelona represented by its trainers from la Masia that has come various years together with Milo to visit clinics with children. Not so long ago, one of the players of the CD Leganes visited the City of Leganes in Iloilo. Moreover, some of our clubs will be present in the SPIA Asia event to present their strategy in the region, which will be held in Manila in December and from which LaLiga is a partner.
Do you think that doing business is nowadays easier or more complicated than before?
The international strategy of LaLiga is long term planned and we know that in some markets such as the Philippines, it is important to establish lasting and trustful relationships with the stakeholders of the industry, that´s why we invest in permanent resources such as our delegates in the country.
How has the Filipino consumer changed in the time you have been here?
The Filipino consumer demands new contents that are consumed through different platforms (mobile, OTT, social media) although traditional TV is the better way to reach most of the people. The Philippines is a market of young consumers – with an average age of 24 years- which consumes digitally. According to the last report Digital 2019: Global Digital Overview de WeAreSocial y Hootsuite, Filipinos spend an average of 3.5 hours consuming audio-visual content. The Philippines counts with 76 million active users on Facebook. That´s why our digital strategy is very important.
As an example, we can observe the rage of Filipino users in social media after the last campaign of Unboxing to present the new season 2019/2020 and the new ball PUMA of LaLiga for which we had two volleyball influencers Bea de Leon y Dennise Lazaro that published on their Instagram accounts and most of all our TikTok challenge, that consisted of a filter that users could use while hitting the ball with the head with the new ball PUMA of LaLiga. It became the best football challenge of the platform and reached just in a week 67M. Only in the Philippines 6M of views and 200K posts.
What has been your most difficult challenge since you are here?
The initial situation of this sector in the Philippines has already made this market a challenge by itself, but it also presents an opportunity for a brand such LaLiga as we have a scenario where the potential development is high and we want to keep increasing our Filipino fans.
Of all these years, what are you most proud of?
All the work we do is valuable not only for our clubs that know they can count on LaLiga, but also to the Filipino fans of LaLiga that can feel we are there through our activations of the experience of LaLiga. One of the most special parts of this job is the social part. In the Philippines, there are diverse organizations working towards the development and inclusivity of children and young people through football. I have had the opportunity to get to know some of them, such as the one from Fundación Santiago (with the Alma Cup from Real Madrid Foundation in Batangas), Tondo FC (disadvantaged areas in Tondo, Manila) or Gawad Kalinga in Iloilo where we went with the CD Leganes to one of the communities.
Could you please tell us an anecdote that you will never forget from the Philippines?
The enthusiasm and love that our Filipino fans show and especially as a representative of LaLiga in the market, some people got to ask me to sign a ball in an activation. Another curiosity of the Philippines is that as the selfie country after every meeting we always have to take a photo.
Finally, we wanted to know if you have had any challenges while working in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
In a traditionally male-dominated industry, we can see a positive change in the trend for years. However, we still have work to do. In this line, it is important that there are female representatives in the industry. LaLiga works to improve the female representation amid its personnel, a figure that currently stands at 30%, supporting talent. Some examples are Loreto Quintero, who joined LaLiga during the Global Network Project and is currently a Strategic Project coordinator from the chef cabinet of LaLiga or the recent nomination of Maite Ventura as a director of LaLiga for MENA region in our office in Dubai. Moreover, there are females as chairs of some clubs, such as Victoria Pavón (CD Leganés) or Amaia Gorostiza (SD Eibar). On the other side, the female football is getting more and more important, as an example, we could mention the successful attendance to the stadium during the last Liga Iberdrola, when the record reaches 60.739 spectators that attended the Wanda Metropolitano to see Atlético de Madrid – Barcelona.
