Inside the strategy that grew Cristiano Ronaldo’s YouTube account to 1M subscribers in 90 minutes

Dentsu Creative Iberia, the Spanish and Portuguese arm of the Dentsu creative network, is responsible for the channel’s content and commercial strategy, while the videos are made by a Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based production team (Ronaldo currently plays for Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr) working in concert with Ronaldo’s own media firm CR7. YouTube itself has been involved in the channel’s development, guiding how to best grow the sports star’s channel on its platform months before launch, said Tomás Froes, CEO of Dentsu Creative Iberia.

“Ronaldo is the biggest star in the world in my opinion,” said Froes. “He is the most known person on the only planet that we know [that] there’s life. So he’s the most known person in the universe. YouTube understands that.”

Though he’s an outlier in fame (measured by followers across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Chinese social media sites Weibo and Kuaishou — he hit roughly 1 billion followers across the social platforms in September — Ronaldo is the most popular sportsman in the world, according to the BBC), Ronaldo’s YouTube move comes during a year in which high and low profile athletes have begun embracing the creator economy.

“Athletes are the new creators. Athletes who aren’t active on social are basically leaving money on the table,” Jas Dhami, vp of sport at We Are Social, told Digiday.

Eight months and 10 years in the making

Froes’ relationship with Ronaldo dates back a decade, when his agency MSTF Partners, worked on a campaign for Portuguese telco MEO, which had partnered with the soccer player. CR7, Ronaldo’s media company, later became a client of MSTF Partners and then Dentsu Portugal (now Dentsu Creative Iberia), when the Japanese holdco acquired Froes’ firm in 2018.

Eight months in the making, the YouTube channel is the latest product of that working relationship. Froes said the agency had assigned a team of 16 staffers to UR Cristiano, as well as five Riyadh-based production staff from British company Whisper.

YouTube has also been involved behind the scenes. It’s unclear how common that is; a spokesperson for the platform didn’t immediately respond to questions from Digiday, only providing a statement from Pedro Pina, vp of YouTube Europe, Middle East and Africa, that heralded the channel’s success.

“YouTube’s dream team-up with football legend Cristiano Ronaldo has been a labor of love and dedication. This is just the kick-off to an epic adventure, and we’re strapped in for the ride,” he said.

Froes said that Dentsu and CR7 approached the Google platform four months prior to the channel’s launch, and the company’s staff provided “insights” and expertise on how best to proceed — in particular, “tactical” advice regarding the length of videos and frequency of uploads. The channel uploads between three and four videos a week, and has released 63 so far — each typically clocking in between 10 and 45 minutes long.

According to Froes, YouTube’s team also advised on the channel’s content mix, which he defines as a blend of “hero” videos such as Ronaldo’s interview with former Manchester United teammate and fellow soccer media personality Rio Ferdinand, and “day-to-day” content, such as quizzes and games. “They helped us a lot,” he said.

Froes is keen to point out that the Dentsu and CR7 teams aren’t taking direction, though. He said YouTube’s internal team had advised a slower build-up and release from the channel’s launch, starting with five initial videos; instead, the team opted for a big-bang approach and uploaded 19 at launch.

The long view

The number of 20-plus minute-long videos creators around the world are uploading to YouTube each month has increased from 1.3 million in July 2022 to 8.5 million in June 2024, according to data from Tubular Labs. Increasingly, YouTube users treat the platform as an outright replacement for TV. Froes said that current viewing habits — in particular the popularity of longer-form video content on the platform — suited CR7 and Ronaldo’s ambitions. 

“We believe that to show Ronaldo as we have never seen him before, we need time,” he said. “He wants to show the Cristiano outside the pitch.”

UR Cristiano isn’t the only example of a sports personality capitalizing on those viewing trends. England and Real Madrid soccer player Jude Bellingham also launched a YouTube channel this year, garnering a lower but still respectable 778,000 subscribers.

Though Amazon’s Wondery network paid $100 million for exclusive rights to the Kelce brothers’ New Heights podcast, fans can watch entire episodes, which often run over 90 minutes, on YouTube. The channel boasts over 2.4 million subscribers, while sponsors include Buffalo Wild Wings, Garage Beer and the Accelerator energy drink brand.

Shea Carter, vp of social and influencer at agency The Social Element, noted that the Kelces’ podcast and YouTube channel would likely grant them a higher measure of agency over their media trajectories than, for example, broadcast TV appearances. “It’s skyrocketed both of their careers beyond just being talking heads,” she said.

“Athletes [are] suddenly realizing that these channels are open to them now… they can go direct to their audiences and monetize that,” added Steve Martin, founding partner at U.K. sports-focused agency MSQ Sport & Entertainment.

Part of Dentsu Creative Iberia’s brief is to help negotiate branded content and product placements. Froes said that the channel was already working with 10 advertisers, and that the first commercial videos would appear on the channel “in the next months,” though didn’t name any of the advertisers set to be involved.

Froes said that Dentsu’s relationship with CR7 was a “traditional” fee-based one, but declined to say whether Dentsu would receive a portion of sales drawn from the branded content and product placement opportunities it’s negotiating on the client’s behalf. Other Dentsu clients wouldn’t get preferential treatment, he confirmed, and Ronaldo himself decides over which brand partnerships end up greenlit.

For Carter, the advertiser appeal is straightforward. “If your brand is doing it right, partnering with creators and influencers and celebrities who have a really authentic fit with your brand totally makes sense,” she said.

Though YouTube’s swing toward long-form has made it more attractive to sporting personalities, it’s also raised the barrier to entry. “It’s a hard nut to crack because the production investment in long-form video is significant,” said We Are Social’s Dhami.

With that in mind, Ronaldo’s behind-the-scenes backing might be the model for future athlete-creator endeavors. After all, Froes noted, “[Ronaldo] is not a YouTuber and will not be a YouTuber. He’s a professional player and then a businessman.”