Euro 2020 on TikTok: Players move sponsor bottles at a press conference: what is the opinion of the TikTok audience?

During the Euro 2020 press conferences, many players were filmed moving sponsor bottles that were placed in front of them. These videos have been circulated on all social media platforms, and in particular on TikTok where they generated a lot of engagement.

Following our quantitative analysis on the media impact of these videos” Euro 2020, The Bottles of Discord ” (to be read Hither), we looked at the question of the audience's perception of these actions, and in particular the comments written under TikTok videos. TikTok videos related to these press conferences generated 76% of the total engagement of content posted on social networks and more than 153 million views. (data from our first quantitative analysis).

In order to understand audience perception, we extracted more than 35,000 comments from over 30 TikTok videos. These comments were written in more than 100 different languages, most of which are in English (22% of the sample), in Portuguese (19%) and finally in French (17%).

By analyzing the extracted comments, we identified 6 main themes : comments that mention the purpose of the gestures of two players in particular, Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Pogba, the impact of their actions on sponsors, the relationship of the players with the sponsoring brands and finally on the presence of bottles at press conferences. The last category we identified are comments that mention the comical aspect of the situation, especially the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo seems to have created a fashion among soccer players because he was imitated a few days later.

54% of the comments analyzed were positive, especially the ones that mention players. The audience approves the actions of these players, especially the message they wanted to convey by removing these bottles that were in front of them. For Paul Pogba, the people who commented on his gesture felt that it was disrespectful to put bottles of alcohol knowing that the player is not consuming alcohol out of respect for his religious beliefs (“He is Muslim and does not advertise alcoholic drinks. “).

For Cristiano Ronaldo, he wanted to hide the Coca-Cola bottles and held up a bottle of water in order to promote a healthier drink and the audience approved his gesture (“Congratulations Cristiano Ronaldo, which sets a good example for children to drink less soda”).

Numerous comments also mention the impact of Cristiano Ronaldo's gesture on the Coca-Cola brand (“Coca-Cola has a big problem now they are losing a lot of money because of it”).

One of the categories of negative comments mentions sponsors, and the balance of power that exists between brands and players: the comments condemn the players' actions because the audience believes that they should respect the sponsors who make it possible to organize these sports competitions (“None of them have the right to take anything away. Brands are paying millions for the European championship, which has concluded contracts with brands and points. ”).

Then, the second category of negative comments reveals the confusion of the audience about the presence of these bottles: the commentators expressed their incomprehension about the advantage of having these bottles displayed during press conferences (“I don't understand why in a professional football press conference they put a brand of alcohol”, “Already there is the poster behind him, what is the point of putting it in the front of Heineken as well.“).

Finally, the last category brings together positive comments written by people who found it amusing that Ronaldo started some kind of fashion, an example to follow at press conferences (“It's a challenge for players in their interviews”, “Ronaldo started a trend”).

To Remember

Despite the fact that many players followed Cristiano Ronaldo's example by removing bottles at press conferences, it was mainly the gesture of the latter who hidden Coca-Cola bottles that was the most commented on, with the initiative of the player Paul Pogba who moved a Heineken bottle. Coca-Cola was the brand that was mentioned the most, with also people talking about the impact of the player's actions on the market valuation of the brand. The audience who commented under the TikTok videos validates the intentions of the players who moved these bottles for reasons that they find justified. Some commentators also talk about their lack of understanding about the need for these bottles for press conferences.

However, there were also people who criticise players because they need sponsors for this type of event and therefore feel that they should respect the sponsoring brands.