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

Cristiano Ronaldo’s YouTube channel, UR Cristiano, has added to the Portuguese soccer star’s already considerable commercial clout.

The channel gained 1 million subscribers in the first 90 minutes after its July debut, and has grown to 65.9 million subscribers at the time of writing, per YouTube. But while its audience is organic, the machine behind the channel is considerably more astroturf.

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.

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