Salah’s selfie seals the moment: Google Pixel front and centre in Liverpool’s title triumph
- By Jack Supple, Lewis Partridge, Tom Church and Akhilesh Mesta
Introduction:
As Liverpool clinched their 20th League title, a title that takes them level with Manchester United for most in English top-flight history, there was one moment that stood out and came into focus: Mo Salah’s now infamous selfie with the Kop. It has been widely accepted that this, seemingly organic moment from the Egyptian forward, was in some way orchestrated. The phone in the centre of this conversation was a Google Pixel, handed to Salah by a member of Liverpool staff. Google Pixel have been Liverpool FC’s official mobile phone partner since 2023. In the days following the game, much of the online buzz around the fixture and the title success featured mentions of either Salah’s selfie or the Google Pixel phone. YouGov Sport have used their proprietary data tools to evaluate the exposure and value generate by this iconic celebration.
Audience:
Through Live broadcasts on Sky Sports Main Event and Premier League, 1.7 million people watched the fixture in the United Kingdom, narrowly surpassing the average audience figure of 1.5 million for Liverpool’s Premier League home games this season. It raises the question of whether the audience could have been even larger had it not clashed with the FA Cup semi-final between Nottingham Forest and Manchester City, which aired in the same timeslot on free-to-air broadcaster ITV.
As Salah netted Liverpool’s fourth goal of the match and posed for his selfie at the Kop End with Google Pixel in hand, 2.0 million people were watching this unique advertising experience. The peak audience during this game came at 18:24 BST, with 2.1 million Brits watching Liverpool’s impending celebrations at the 90+3 minute mark.
It’s notable that the FA Cup Semi Final finished at 18:23 and then saw a 499k audience drop a minute later, which coincided with the peak audience seen in the Liverpool match. On top of this Live audience, a further 1.9 million watched Match of The Day 2 on BBC which also featured replays of Salah’s goal celebration. In turn, the Google Pixel phone attained 127 seconds of exposure across SKY and BBC broadcasts and generated £8.2k in net sponsorship value.
Secondary Media Volume
On top of those fans who saw this moment through traditional Dedicated TV, many more people were then exposed to it as it was shared widely across online news platforms and social media. Images and videos of Salah, seemingly an influencer on and off the pitch, and the Google Pixel were shared far and wide online. In the first 24 hours, 137 Online Press articles, 13,563 Social Media posts and 39 Social Media Videos were shared globally featuring this Brand Exposure for Google Pixel.
This online content reached a potential 81 million readers, generated 350 million potential impressions on social media and the videos generated 2.7 million views. As a result of the online exposure from this on-pitch moment, £1.1 million was generated in net sponsorship value for Google Pixel – reaching far wider than traditional Dedicated TV and likely reaching outside of the traditional core fan base. Furthermore, when applying YouGov Sports’ NSV-X valuation metric, which uses our BrandIndex tool to consider the value achieved purely through brand association, an additional £83k in net sponsorship value is generated, taking the overall secondary media value to £1.2 million.
With the Premier League capturing national and international interest, major news publications such as the BBC, Daily Mail and Yahoo! Sports covered the moment, driving potential readership and value for Google Pixel. On social media, Liverpool FC owned accounts drove the potential impressions for Google Pixel and in turn generated 34% of the net sponsorship value (£287k). Influential and world-renowned football agent Fabrizio Romano tweeted an image of Salah and the phone twice to his 23.8 million followers, which generated £94k in net sponsorship value for the Google Pixel brand. In fact, 66% of the social media value came via earned posts, enhancing the notion that this moment engaged with the masses on an organic level and had a genuine impact on viewers.
Consumer Metrics
YouGov’s proprietary tool BrandIndex tells a very positive story for Google Pixel amongst Liverpool Fans in the days leading up to and following the match. Interestingly, you can see how the Consideration and WOM Exposure (word of mouth) metrics for Google Pixel remain stable in the general population, but the day after the game, brand opinion improved amongst Liverpool FC fans (+10%) demonstrating the positive influence the Salah moment had on the fanbase.
Similarly, when analysing the WOM Exposure among Liverpool fans, a 12% increase in exposure was observed after the match, further supporting the impact of this strategic advertising moment and highlighting the potential for future brand exposure uplift when aligned with organic moments, such as a goal celebration.
Image Credit: Mo Salah Instagram account