Cristiano Ronaldo is by far the most followed sports personality on Instagram. The former Madrid and current Portugal skipper commands massive online and offline followership—enough to shape world opinion. With a combined 500 million+ followers on the social media—no wonder his action during the week rocked the marker value of popular soft drink Coca-Cola.
The Juventus FC of Italy forward had in a press conference during the ongoing Euro 2020 Championship removed two bottles of Coca-Cola from his front—declaring his preference for water instead. Troubled at the sight of the two bottles of carbonated soft drink in front of him during the presser, the footballer moved the two bottles out of the camera frame. Instead, Ronaldo held high a bottle of water and said in Portuguese: “Water!”
Per ESPN and other media houses, the share price of Coca-Cola dropped by 1.6% to $55.22 not long after Ronaldo’s action. The marker value of the bottling giant wen from $242 billion to $238 billion—which represents a $4 billion drop.
In an official response per The Guardian, Coca-Cola said: “everyone is entitled to their drink preferences” with different “tastes and needs.”
In a similar fashion, Manchester United and French midfielder Paul Pogba moved the Coca-Cola bottle in a press conference he addressed shortly after being named man of the match in France’s opener against Germany. Pogba’s case was a bit different—being a practicing Muslim, he does not take alcoholic content—maybe Ronaldo’s action before his presser had an influence on his decision?
Elon Musk—the self-acclaimed “Dogefather;” a billion who never runs away from tweeting cryptic messages especially when it comes to cryptocurrency. Elon Musk currently has over 46 million followers on Twitter. He is considered one of the most influential persons when it comes to cryptocurrencies.
So influential is Musk that his tweets shape the direction of Bitcoin and altcoin—Dogecoin. Sometime in May, Musk had tweeted that he was working with Doge developers to improve the system transaction efficiency of the altcoin. Shortly after his tweet, Doge experienced a spike in price.
Influencers like Cristiano Ronaldo, Elon Musk, and a host of others, have continued to shape the decisions of people over the years.
One word from Ronaldo was enough to rock the market value of a popular soft drink like Coca-Cola—just how popular are influencers?
Depending on which sides of the divide you found yourself when Must tweeted his Doge message, some crypto traders did smile to the bank, while others wore long faces because the effect only lasted a short while.
Organizers of the Euro 2020 Championship rallied to the support of Coca-Cola—quite naturally too. Coca-Cola is one of the biggest sponsors of football in Europe and the world; and it is only natural for UEFA to come to their defense.
In a statement, Europe’s football governing body UEFA, said the revenues being generated from sponsorship are important for both domestic and international competition.
UEFA needed to issue a statement because the matter was getting out of hand. UEFA’s statement only goes to show how important influencers are and the need to put things in the proper perspective.
