Project overview
As Creative Director for DAZN Central Creative, I led the development of El Clásico 2025, a campaign that redefined the world’s most iconic football rivalry as a universal moment of pause.
Every year, when Real Madrid meets FC Barcelona, the world stops. Our goal was to capture that truth and translate it into a creative system that could resonate locally in Spain while expanding seamlessly across DAZN’s global markets.
The result: “For 90 Minutes, Nothing Else Matters”, a campaign that transformed El Clásico from a match into a shared emotional experience, uniting fans across languages, borders, and screens.
the challenge
El Clásico is not just football, it’s heritage, rivalry, and ritual. But in an attention economy defined by endless entertainment choices, even the biggest game must fight to feel essential. Our challenge was threefold:
- Reignite the emotional gravity of El Clásico in its home market, Spain.
- Drive DAZN Plan Fútbol subscriptions around the fixture.
- Create a unified creative platform that could travel across international DAZN markets with LaLiga rights, consistent in tone yet locally adaptable.
The task was to balance cultural specificity with global scale, to make Spain’s story the world’s story.
Creative Strategy & Concept
The strategy centered on a universal truth: When El Clásico begins, the world holds its breath. We built the campaign around that suspended-time moment, the pause that happens in kitchens, streets, and living rooms everywhere.
The strategy centered on a universal truth: When El Clásico begins, the world holds its breath. We built the campaign around that suspended-time moment, the pause that happens in kitchens, streets, and living rooms everywhere.
The creative narrative was simple but cinematic:
Every year, the world holds its breath. Life pauses. Kitchens, streets, and cities fall still. Because this isn’t just football. It’s a rivalry reborn, stronger every time. For 90 minutes… nothing else matters.
Two complementary pillars shaped the rollout:
1.- Spain-First Anchor — A locally produced hero film tied to the Plan Fútbol promotion, reinforcing DAZN Spain’s leadership as the home of LaLiga.
2.- Global Expansion — A universal English-language adaptation distributed to other DAZN markets (UK, DACH, Japan, and beyond) to unify all territories under a single creative idea.
This dual-layered strategy ensured both cultural authenticity and international scalability.
Process & Execution
I directed the creative lifecycle end-to-end, from initial strategic articulation to localized rollouts and narrative integrity across markets.
Key responsibilities:
- Developed the overarching creative proposition and campaign line: “For 90 Minutes, Nothing Else Matters.”
- Led the narrative scripting and editorial structure of the hero film.
- Partnered with DAZN Spain’s brand and marketing teams to align promotional messaging (Plan Fútbol 9.99 €/month offer).
- Supervised localization for international versions, maintaining emotional consistency while adapting to each market’s language and nuance.
- Collaborated closely with social and broadcast units to ensure unified creative expression across on-air, digital, and CRM touchpoints.
The execution fused existing match footage, cultural imagery, and narrative pacing to create a sensory experience in which the world seemed to freeze for ninety minutes.
:30 Sec | Spain-Specific Promo Spot
Programmatic Video Ads
Outcome & Impact
“For 90 Minutes, Nothing Else Matters” exemplifies my philosophy of creative leadership: insight-driven storytelling with strategic precision.
We didn’t advertise a match, we captured a feeling.
We didn’t sell subscriptions, we built anticipation.
We didn’t create content, we created pause.
We didn’t sell subscriptions, we built anticipation.
We didn’t create content, we created pause.
By anchoring our storytelling in emotional truth and scaling it across markets, we proved that powerful creative can bridge cultures and deliver tangible business results.
- 57 k new Plan Fútbol subscriptions in Spain, 70 k total new subs across all tiers.
- 22.2 % national audience share on DAZN Spain, with 2.95 million unique viewers and an average audience of 2.31 million during the match.
- +24 % year-on-year streaming growth compared with the previous season’s El Clásico.
- Record-breaking 3.1 million hours streamed, the busiest day in DAZN Spain’s history.
- Became the “most engaging” OTT event ever on DAZN Spain, surpassing even Formula 1 and MotoGP viewership benchmarks.
The campaign succeeded in doing what few sports promotions achieve, turning a broadcast moment into a cultural event, a shared global heartbeat that reminded audiences why El Clásico still defines football.
THE TEAM
Lead Producer: Emily McAlister
Video Editor: Ryan Kent
Motion Design: María Sánchez Fernández
Designers: Laura Bote
Copywriter: Raúl Gallego Méndez
Marketing Leads: Antonio Casado Roó, Steve Spencer, Sara Embarba, Amy Digpal
SVP Marketing: Enrique de Porres Martínez
VP Creative: Caroline Woods
Creative Director: Manuel Lopez G.
Video Editor: Ryan Kent
Motion Design: María Sánchez Fernández
Designers: Laura Bote
Copywriter: Raúl Gallego Méndez
Marketing Leads: Antonio Casado Roó, Steve Spencer, Sara Embarba, Amy Digpal
SVP Marketing: Enrique de Porres Martínez
VP Creative: Caroline Woods
Creative Director: Manuel Lopez G.
Thank you