Nico Williams' renewal, a historic digital impact
Nico Williams' renewal, a historic digital impact
The announcement of the youth academy player's continuity has boosted the numbers on Athletic's social networks to levels never before reached, surpassing even those of the Copa title or the celebration with La Gabarra
The announcement of Nico Williams' renewal until 2035 has changed completly Athletic Club's digital history. On Friday 4 July 2025, the contents related to the continuity of the red and white international player generated 65 million views, an achievement that places Athletic as the second club in the world with the most views on its official channels on that 4th of July, only surpassed by Liverpool FC, and first in LaLiga, ahead of Real Madrid (58M) and FC Barcelona (19M).
To contextualise this impact, it is worth remembering that Athletic has a digital community of almost 17 million followers, while Real Madrid has almost 533 million and FC Barcelona 471 million. Athletic's monthly average number of views during last season was 94 million, which means that in a single day almost 70% of the usual monthly figure was reached.
In the world top-3 in interactions
Also in terms of engagement, the impact has been exceptional. The 5.3 million interactions in a single day make Athletic the third club in the world (behind only Liverpool FC and Real Madrid) with the highest number of total interactions on its social networks during the day.
This milestone even surpasses the records obtained in the most exciting moments of the Club's recent history, such as the winning of the Copa in Seville (6 and 7 April), the historic celebration of La Gabarra (11 April) or the Super Cup title in January 2021, which reflects the enormous repercussion and excitement generated by the continuity of one of the great references of the present and future of Athletic Club and whose viral video also had its intrahistory.
The intrahistory of the viral video
Just before the hooded graffiti artist writes ‘WIN 2035’ on the mural with the image of Nico Williams, a cat appears in the shot, giving the night sequence a revealing authenticity. A stray cat that just happened to sneak into one of the shots during the video shoot, but which the production team decided to incorporate into the final result in a premeditated way.
The ideation and execution of the Athletic WIN campaign for the renewal of Nico Williams was based on the objective and emotional transmission of the authenticity that distinguishes Athletic Club and makes it #UniqueInTheWorld.
The challenge for the Club consisted of knowing how to transmit emotional authenticity beyond the objective news: the decision of a footballer to prioritise his feeling of belonging to Athletic over offers from some of the most powerful clubs in Europe.
Or to put it another way, the challenge was to incorporate into the story - as in the case of the cat in the video - all those real elements that, well combined, like the ingredients of a good dish, would leave the audience with the flavour of a good true story. And what were those ingredients?
The fundamental one, Nico Williams himself, a generational player with extraordinary personal charisma and international projection.
Secondly, the invention, already used in the signing of the previous renewal, of the Athletic WIN slogan, where the word not only means WIN and denotes ambition, but also responds to the initials Williams Iñaki Nico, appealing to the family, a crucial value for the Club and for the generational transmission of identity.
And finally, a mural that had been in the news in recent weeks for two opposing reasons. Firstly, its vandalisation; and secondly, the Club's reaction, taking a public stance in defence of the mural, a symbol of its values.
The combination of these three ingredients is the one that originates the script of a video that has already become a historic milestone in the club's digital communication.
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