Yahoo Finance How Real Madrid and Abbott are tackling malnutrition with brand reach
The stories you don't know about some of the world's best and little-known brands
On the same evening where Real Madrid fans were hungry to lavish praise on club great Toni Kroos as he bade an emotional farewell at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium last weekend, a powerful global message of malnourishment was being beamed to millions thanks to a “unique” tie-up between two of the biggest brands in sport and health.
In March, Abbott, a global healthcare leader, and Real Madrid renewed its partnership until 2027, with the underlying aim of reducing childhood malnutrition and promoting healthy habits. At the Bernabeu, and ahead of the club’s Champions League final at Wembley, Abbott chose the last match of the club’s domestic season – the Kroos love-in only added extra eyes – to highlight its ‘Beat Malnutrition’ campaign and call on communities to help ensure millions of at-risk children around the world are screened.
Talk about creating visibility at European soccer’s behemoth. The Abbott message was portrayed on a banner covering the centre circle, ‘Beat Malnutrition’ armbands were worn by the players and fan scarves handed out, while there was impactful messaging screened on the 360-degree video scoreboard running around the top of the state-of-the-art stadium.
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Meanwhile, malnutrition content has been seen millions of times across Real Madrid’s social media accounts, which last year topped the 500 million mark in followers. It was the first sport organisation to achieve the feat, to go alongside being the most visited football club website in the world.
Reconstruction plans at the venerable venue to a “digital stadium of the future” were first revealed in 2019 - costs doubled to a reported €1bn (£785m) for the completed project – around the same time that Abbott first started talks with Real Madrid executives on a potential partnership.
Since the start of the deal in 2021, Chicago-based Abbott has worked with the Real Madrid Foundation to deliver more than 35,000 hours of health and nutrition education and screening over 3,000 children. The renewed, undisclosed deal will, say Abbott chiefs, continue its sustainability goal of improving the lives of three billion people every year before 2030.
As a former journalism student who also worked for a start-up, Ann Smith knows the power of a story and brand awareness. She has been with Abbott, which has 114,000 staff globally, for over 20 years and is now co-lead at Abbott Centre for Malnutrition Solutions.
According to Smith, talks started on nutrition, recovery, strength and endurance, which in turn led to an introduction with the Real Madrid Foundation, where former goalkeeper Iker Casillas is now assistant to the general director, and both brands’ medical teams on improving player nutrition.
“This is a unique partnership, much more than just a sponsorship,” Smith says at Real Madrid’s training base. “There was the opportunity to do something very different and we saw a lot of value to it as a global partner. We are working towards a common goal of helping improve the lives of kids around the world and that’s at the core of what we are doing.
“What was interesting to us was to take the nutrition science and health expertise of Abbott and pair it with Real Madrid’s huge reach. The idea of bringing those together, that we have innovation, messages and education that we can deliver through this well known channel was a super interesting partnership - and not just two groups you would typically think of coming together for a really aligned goal.”
In a malnutrition programme overview briefing last week, global maps were projected on a big screen in a conference room at the club’s training base at Valdebebas, with Africa and Asia – two regions where the club has a mega fan base – starkly highlighted in red for severe areas of stunting (148 million children globally under five are thought to be below a healthy height for their age) and wasting.
A malnutrition screening with a MUAC z-score tape was demonstrated by Dr Susan Abdel-Rahman, the brains behind the device, to showcase real-world implementation and aid a lack of statistics in research-restricted areas.
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The tape is a tool akin to a traditional tape measure and includes age-specific, colour-coded indicators to show if a child, from two months to aged 18, is at risk of malnutrition. The device, says Smith, gives Abbott the ability to meet kids and families directly and who need help the most.
“Something like this doesn’t have legs without this partnership,” Abdel-Rahman adds. “We don’t have that reach as academics.”
Meanwhile, representatives Abbott will take to the stage at the American Society of Nutrition conference at the end of the month, while they have also showcased its malnutrition awareness project with Real Madrid at the World Health Summit in Berlin.
“There is interest in understanding the model and partnership and how we are going about it, not just the data that has come out of this, which as academics is what we are focused on,” says Smith.
The two groups have also delivered a health and nutrition education curriculum called Future Well Kids to children in nine countries (including the UK, Brazil, India, Mexico and Philippines), while Real Madrid Foundation coaches have been trained to use the measurement tape to help families learn their child's nutritional status.
The partnership has also allowed Real Madrid to put more provision into nutritional science at the elite level. Only five years ago, the club had one part-time nutritionist, now there are five full-time staff, and 12 in total. This includes looking after 330 talented children, as well as the women’s team and Real Madrid’s basketball teams.
Last year, an innovation lab was launched, where Abbott scientists and Real’s medical staff collaborate to aid the players of today and tomorrow in sports health, nutrition, performance and recovery.
The lab sits atop the layered training headquarters, where junior hopes start at the bottom of the training fields, the idea being that they work their way up to the holy grail as a first-team player and able to use the facilities at the top decking.
The current crop of stars have also been used for the partnership’s health-highlighting mission; the focus in this brand activation centring on the eye-catching statistic that malnutrition affects one in three people around the world.
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A goal celebration video with Real Madrid players holding up one index finger and three raised fingers on each hand, followed by crossed forearms to highlight the beat malnutrition mantra, has been viewed nearly 11 million times on Instagram. Meanwhile, a fans’ goal celebration competition in the same manner has received 29,000 entries.
Last weekend, Abbott executives were also hoping one of the Madrid stars could go even further with a ‘1 in 3’ goal celebration for the La Liga champions. It wasn’t to be; the match against Real Betis finished goalless, but the impact of the night and partnership felt so much more.
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