| 114,000+ | +7% | 5 |
| Anonymous viewers turned into owned fan profiles | Total database growth from one season-long campaign |
Broadcast networks mapped — including 3 US channels |
About the Tigres:
Tigres UANL is one of Mexico’s most storied football clubs. They’re a Liga MX powerhouse with a passionate, digitally active fan base, and one of the most forward-thinking marketing operations in Latin American sports.
The Challenge:
Millions of fans watching, but no clear mechanism to own their direct fan relationship.
Every matchday, the Tigres’ marketing team watched hundreds of thousands of fans tune into live broadcasts — fully locked in, emotionally invested, and likely with a phone in hand. And then the broadcast would end. Those fans would disappear back into their lives, with no way for the marketing team to re-engage, get to know, or nurture each fan.
"Our broadcasts concentrate audiences who are highly committed in real time. But traditionally, these broadcasts function only as a content consumption channel.”
Over two seasons, the marketing team had been building something durable for long-term fan relationships: a first and zero-party data strategy. They moved from chasing reach on social platforms as their top-line metric toward a fan database they could own, nurture and monetize. Real fan profiles. Easier to build segments. Direct channels to engage fans with ticketing, merchandise and sponsor activations. But broadcasts — their highest reach touchpoint — remained a blind spot. The attention was there, the mechanism to capture it wasn’t.
ON THE STRATEGIC SHIFT
“We understood that the social media model, while incredibly powerful, has limitations when the goal is building long-term relationships.”
The Insight:
A fan watching a live match isn’t a passive audience. They’re a participant waiting for something to participate in.
Live broadcasts are traditionally measured in reach. You tune in, you watch, you leave. There are very few prompts or interactions where the fan crosses from viewer to participant.
The Tigres team saw something in this audience: a fan watching a live match isn’t a passive hostage — they’re usually locked in, emotionally invested, and eager to weigh in. The barrier to participation is the absence of anything worth participating in.
ON SPOTTING THE UNTAPPED CHANNEL
“Broadcasts concentrate highly engaged audiences in real time, but in most cases, there’s no clear mechanic to convert that attention into active participation. Before this campaign, they weren’t integrated into our database growth strategy at all. The campaign let us rethink that entirely.”
THE COST OF DOING NOTHING
“The main cost would have been continuing to underutilize one of our highest-reach touchpoints. Broadcasts concentrate thousands — sometimes millions — of fans in the same moment. Without a mechanic to capitalize on that attention, you’re losing a strategic opportunity every single matchday.”
The Activation:
A memory match presented through a QR code to fans. Engaged fans in less than 60 seconds.
Throughout the season, a QR code appeared on screen during live broadcasts, encouraging fans to scan, participate and win. Fans who scanned it landed in a digital memory match game built in Tradable Bits. The prize: signed jerseys and exclusive club merch. To enter, fans filled out a short registration form, then played — and the entire journey took under a minute without pulling anyone away from the match.
Their registration gate also did something powerful for the Tigres marketing team — it was a well-embedded profiling moment. In exchange for a shot at prizes fans cared about, the Tigres captured five fields of meaningful data:
- Full Name
- WhatsApp Number (the primary direct channel in this market)
- Date of Birth
- Postal Code
- Broadcast Network (which network they were watching on)
“The simplicity of the experience was everything. Scan the code, play the memory game, register. It had to be quick — something that complemented watching the match, not interrupting it.”
The execution of this activation required three teams: digital marketing, paid media and design. They didn’t require any new infrastructure or really complex integrations — it was a well-designed mechanic, deployed at the right moment.
“A fan watching a live match is already there — in real time, with a high level of interest. That context opens an opportunity to introduce something interactive. If the mechanic of play is simple, and the prize is worth it, the fan is willing to engage. We trusted that, and the response exceeded what we expected.”
That Extra Intelligence Layer
It may seem like a simple question, but their marketing team's integration of a broadcast question is something to pause on. The Tigres’ audience doesn’t just live in Monterrey. A fan watching on Telemundo in Los Angeles is materially different than a fan watching on TV Azteca in Monterrey — they’re different markets, with different sponsor relevance, and different communication channels. This information is useful for the marketing team and reshapes what’s possible in a sponsorship pitch. It also gives the club a real window into their international fanbase.
The Results:
114,000+ fans, the type of growth that usually takes months.
+7% database growth from a single campaign. Typically that’s several months of sustained digital activity across multiple channels — all brought in from one activation run over the season on broadcast.
The new registrants and fans captured didn’t participate and just go quiet. The Tigres team saw these fans start engaging with other digital experiences — entering new campaigns, consuming content, entering the Tigres’ orbit. This growth represents new fans that they can start nurturing for stronger relationships in the future.
And beyond the Tigres marketing team, the over 40K new fan profiles also represents an opportunity to their commercial team — they’re reachable fans that can be segmented and targeted for sponsored digital experiences. Data-driven activations that are measurable in a way beyond a logo placement.
“Beyond the number of new fans, it’s the ability to build a direct relationship with 43,000 additional people. For the brands that collaborate with us, it means access to segmented audiences inside digital experiences where they can participate in a more direct and measurable way. In many cases, these audiences become new commercial assets.”
The Bigger Shift
Owning the relationship vs renting the attention.
The campaign changed how Tigres thinks about broadcasts, but it also sharpened something more fundamental: the difference between reaching fans on someone else’s platform and actually knowing them.
“Social media remains relevant for reach and visibility. But when a fan is inside your database, you can communicate with them directly, personally and consistently. That’s why we increasingly look for ways to transform attention on external platforms into relationships inside our own channels.”
Live content consumption is growing, which means the opportunity to activate it is too. The clubs building activations to meet fans in these moments — converting these viewers into known, reachable people — are building an asset that will compound. The Tigres have proved the model. One mechanic to reach fans season-long led to 43,000+ promising relationships.
Frequently Asked Questions