Athletic Club wins award for best social media content in 2025

Athletic Club has received LaLiga's award for the best social media content in 2025. The accolade is given to one of the 42 teams in the first and second division in recognition of the clubs’ creativity, influence and storytelling skills in the digital sphere.

On this occasion, the award recognised Athletic's digital content campaign promoting Nico Williams' contract extension, particularly the social media video that broke the news.

This award, presented at the 2026 LaLiga Clubs Conference, places Athletic at the head of the field when it comes to digital sports communication, with particular praise for the work carried out by our Communications Department, which was responsible for the conception, production and publication of the award-winning content.

Athletic were chosen as winner via a mixed voting system in which the clubs and LaLiga took part. Specifically, 60% of the final result was based on the assessment of the other 41 clubs, whilst the remaining 40% was determined by professionals from LaLiga’s digital department. In both cases, Athletic Club received the most votes. Getafe FC and Real Oviedo came second and third, respectively.
 

The inside story

Nico Williams’ contract renewal was not just an agreement resulting from the club’s negotiation efforts, it was also a strategic and symbolic milestone for Athletic. A historic moment.

The academy graduate, following the countless rumours regarding his possible departure over the summer, signed a new deal until 2035, thereby extending his contract Athletic for a further 10 years.

The challenge for Athletic Club was to convey genuine emotion beyond the objective news story: a footballer’s decision to prioritise his feeling of belonging over offers from some of Europe’s most powerful clubs.
 

The power of the heart ❤️#AthleticWIN #AthleticClub 🦁 pic.twitter.com/1z6nai3TlQ

— Athletic Club (@Athletic_en) July 4, 2025

 

The key ingredients?

The main figure, of course, was Nico Williams, a once-in-a-generation player with charisma and a global reputation.

The slogan ‘Athletic WIN’, which was already used during Nico's previous contract extension, is a play on words combing the first letter from Williams, Iñaki and Nico to pay tribute to the brother as a family – a crucial value for Athletic and for the intergenerational inheritance of the club's identity.

The mural seen in the video had been in the news beforehand for two contrasting reasons. Vandalism and the club’s reaction, with Athletic publicly defending the mural as a symbol of our values.
 

The filming process

When it came to shooting the video, the club faced a double challenge: keeping the news a secret, whilst at the same time managing to film with Nico Williams in a public space without anyone finding out.

And all this in less than 24 hours. The communications team organised themselves to film in the early hours of the morning. The main scene at the mural was filmed at around 04:00 AM, with every detail carefully planned to ensure they weren’t discovered. A local cat as their only witness.

Dressed in a 'Unique In The World' hoodie, Nico spray-painted the mural with a slogan that then went viral around the world: “WIN 2035”. Earlier, the scene's final video – in which hooded figure's identity is revealed – had been filmed at Nico Williams’ home.
 

A momentous digital achievement

With all these factors in play, the unexpected announcement that Nico Williams had signed a new contract until 2035 marked a turning point in Athletic Club’s digital output.

In a single day, the club’s various social media channels racked up 65 million views, a figure that made Athletic the club with the second-highest number of video views worldwide on 4 July, surpassed only by Liverpool FC, and the top club in LaLiga, ahead of Real Madrid (58 million) and FC Barcelona (19 million). 

It is worth noting that Athletic had a digital following of around 17 million at the time, whilst Real Madrid had almost 533 million and FC Barcelona 471 million. The club's monthly average views during the previous season stood at 94 million, meaning that in a single day we achieved almost 70% of our typical monthly figure.

In terms of engagement, the response was also exceptional. With 5.3 million interactions in a single day, Athletic became the third club in the world (behind only Liverpool FC and Real Madrid) in terms of total interactions on social media on 4 July.

This feat even surpassed the records set during the most thrilling moments in Athletic recent history, such as winning the Copa in Seville (6 and 7 April 2024), the historic celebration on La Gabarra (11 April 2024) and the Spanish Supercopa trophy in January 2021, reflecting the enormous enthusiasm and excitement generated by the confirmed retention of one of Athletic Club's biggest stars.