No Messi, No Problem: How Leagues Cup 2024 Thrived on Social Media Without the GOAT

By Marcos Peres – Social Media, Digital Content, Livestream & Communications Consultant | Leagues Cup Social Media Project Leader

This North American soccer post is not about the GOAT but rather his absence. It’s about how an analytics-based, strategy-first, fine organic content-focused social media project was able to exponentially grow all Leagues Cup platforms in the last 30 days, despite facing the biggest challenge a brand-new sports property can encounter — missing its franchise star. And we’re talking about one of the biggest superstars of all time.

Through no one’s fault, that was what we were up against when our Leagues Cup journey began this year. Last year’s edition of Leagues Cup marked the biggest moment in North American soccer history. It was the tournament where Messi played his first match in the largest sports market in the world—and the man was the usual beast, scoring 10 goals in 7 games to lift the trophy, just like that! Imagine the frenzy…

After the human being Messi — not the myth — injured himself playing for Argentina, Leagues Cup 2024 began Messi-less in July. It was the first League Cup for GUT Agency and Content Co. And yet, our social media community thrived and grew by over 20% on every single owned and operated social platform. How did we manage to pull it off?

First and foremost, it’s about the team — the people — and we’ve got the best of the best in the soccer social media world. An excellent multinational, multicultural staff across the U.S. and Mexico managed a groundbreaking bilingual (trilingual at times) social media endeavor, catering to both casual sports fans and a passionate soccer audience throughout North America and around the world.

Dependable, talented, and resilient people will get you through 77 games in 30 sleepless days — and thrive! And guess what? You will only be able to attract that caliber of talent if your reputation allows it.

Then, it’s about the tools you make available to them, to combine their natural talent with analytics-educated decision-making.

This is an investment. Analytics cost money. It’s time-consuming. Social media people don’t necessarily want to do it — it’s not a lot of fun. But this composite of soccer content minds, pop culture trends, social media listening, and content performance platforms, blended with newsjacking strategies, is what is going to keep you on track to follow your strategies and ultimately achieve set goals.

A knack for fun across the staff is still indispensable, though — don’t get me wrong.

And a squad of social media influencers will help expand your footprint. But they should not define your brand’s soul or content.

Leagues Cup’s World Cup-like format, with 47 clubs from Canada, the U.S., and Mexico fighting for the trophy during a four-week period, was first launched in 2023.

It’s one more baby I’m so proud to help raise in North American soccer. I’m sleep-deprived, tired, lost a few pounds, and gained some more grays… That’s just part of fatherhood, as I know well.

But the people I met — and learned from — the opportunity we seized together, and the community out there we empowered and inspired… It all paid off.

Now, back to our dashboards! We still have a lot of work to do.

And if you want all that for your brand, let’s chat. But first, I plan on getting my sleep tally back to healthy.