5 KEYS TO DIGITAL GROWTH IN MEXICO

The reception to our recently published article on keys to growth in Brazil  got us thinking: there is potential for a content series here! So we called on our wide network of expert Community Managers to provide us with more of their wisdom. Out of our sorting sombrero came Alejandro Martinez Gutierrez, an experienced Community Manager from Mexico City who currently serves some of our highest profile clients and has previously held posts at the Mexican Football Federation and the Mexican National Team.

Given Messi’s arrival in the MLS (which we played our own humble part in), the world’s eyes have turned state-side in anticipation of a footballing boom prior to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. But to the south of the border the US’ co-host for the competition- Mexico-  with its population of over 128m has long been host to a vibrant league, passionate fans and has exported some world-class players including Javier Hernandez, Rafael Marquez and Hugo Sanchez.

With this being said, Alejandro has dived into a little more detail below on how rights-holders around the world can best tap into this vast fan base.

1. DON’T IGNORE THE USA

It’s a little strange to start an article on Mexico by talking about the USA, but bear with us.  The Mexican Men’s National Team’s games are the most viewed in the USA, ahead of global giants like Juventus, Barcelona, Manchester United and even the US National Teams themselves. Alongside this, not only do the Mexican National Teams count on over 60m fans in the USA, but over half of the population growth in the USA in the last decade has been Hispanic, making them nearly as large as the entire population of the UK.

This audience in the USA is young (52% being between 18-34) and more diverse than the typical football fan (32% are female). To ignore the power of this young, diverse and engaged fanbase is to miss a key pillar of engaging the Mexican audience but also adds an extra dimension: which platforms do they want to be engaged on?  In which language? Who are the creators that influence them? I can feel another article growing from these questions.

2. HIGHLIGHT THE PLAYERS & MAKE THE FANS PROUD

Those who had read our previous article will know that we highlighted the players as a key for driving engagement in Brazil. Mexican fans are no different in the sense that they love to see their stars succeed in the top European leagues.

To illustrate this point Mexican followers make up over 17% of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Instagram followers and over 10% on TikTok. The success of the Premier League Club’s  former Mexican striker, Raul Jiminez, was undoubtedly a major factor and goes to show the power of leveraging your Mexican stars, even after they have left the club.

Even if this is simply through a graphic or a photo, like Feyenoord did for Santiago Giminez, Mexican fans are filled with pride to see their heroes revered and recognized by European clubs.

HATTRICK ⚽️⚽️⚽️

SANTIAGO GIMENEZ#ajafey 0-4 pic.twitter.com/ijBTmdPzCS

— Feyenoord Rotterdam (@Feyenoord) September 27, 2023

3. MEXICO IS GREAT

Sharing a border with the cultural behemoth which is the US can sometimes mean that Mexico slips under the radar globally. Our previous point spoke about celebrating the stars that come from Mexico but they aren’t produced out of a vacuum. Although the stars quite often ply their trade outside of Mexico, they are deeply rooted within their pueblos and hearing their stories and backgrounds is an integral way of demonstrating the diversity of Mexico and what is great about it.

Take this example from West Ham United. There are a lot of barriers blocking the path to Mexican athletes reaching the top level and so by showing him speaking about where he came from and what he had to sacrifice in order to get to his position now underlines everything that is chingon about the country.

De Tlalnepantla para el mundo. ❤️🇲🇽

“Viajaba casi cuatro horas para entrenar”. Eres grande, @EdsonAlvarez19. 🔝 pic.twitter.com/7kEGGwOYdJ

— West Ham Español (@WestHamEspanol) August 10, 2023

4. CELEBRATE THE IMPORTANT DAYS 

Dia de los Muertos is the most important day in the calendar, not just in Mexico but around all of Latin America. Our recent article shows how our creative studio, Força, helped our clients celebrate this special day with posts attaining- on average- 30% higher engagement than on standard days. This commemorative shirt that we supported Leeds United with was also a recent highlight which, with the help of the Mexican page, Invictus Somos, won over 1m impressions on LUFC’s ES X account.

But it isn’t just Dia de los Muertos that is notable. Mexico’s independence day, Dia de la Independencia is just one example whereby authentically highlighting the traditions, music and customs of the day can secure you great engagement, good press and build your community. We’ve already talked about celebrating the stars that are making waves in Europe but this is about celebrating Mexico and its history as a nation which is integral to connecting with the fanbase.

¡FELICES FIESTAS PATRIAS A LA FAMILIA MEXICANA! 💚🤍❤️

🎶 ¡𝒜𝓎, 𝒶𝓎, 𝒶𝓎, 𝒶𝓎, 𝒸𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶 𝓎 𝓃𝑜 𝓁𝓁𝑜𝓇𝑒𝓈!
𝒫𝑜𝓇𝓆𝓊𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒹𝑜 𝓈𝑒 𝒶𝓁𝑒𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓃
𝒞𝒾𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝒾𝓃𝒹𝑜 𝓁𝑜𝓈 𝒸𝑜𝓇𝒶𝓏𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈… 🎶

🎉 ¡VIVA MÉXICO, VIVA CHELSEA! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/QWhoD3zh0p

— Chelsea FC en español (@ChelseaFC_Sp) September 15, 2023

5. HUMOUR

As with Brazil, humour is a big part of life in Mexico so allow your team the creative freedom to play with memes, gifs and current trends to engage the community. Experienced Community Managers who really understand their audience will be able to leverage key moments in your club’s season or tournament and respond in a culturally-relevant way that shows the community that they have their finger on the pulse and understand what is currently being talked about on socials and on the street.

If you want to be compa with the Mexican audience, you need to understand what makes them feel good, be happy, laugh, and connect with you. It’s not imperative to add humour to your posts, but it is 100% recommendable if you want not only to engage with them, but connect – which is the most important part to win the continued engagement of the audience.

So there we have it, some more tips from Samba Digital’s expert Community Managers on how to nurture and grow your Mexican digital community. Mexican fans are in the Top 20 followers for all of the Premier League clubs’ official X channels and comprise over 2% of PL’s clubs’ total follower count, which puts them as the 6th most powerful following in the world. There is evidence here to suggest that this large fanbase  still has much room for growth prior to the 2026 World Cup.

But to properly exploit this potential, an expert team that are native, on the ground and adept in the nuances of the country, language and social context is crucial. If you’d like to find out more about how our team could help you with your internationalisation approach, do contact us in the box below. But for now, we say goodbye to Alejandro as he has a lot to catch up on after the weekend’s action. Gracias y hasta luego wey.