Claro, the second biggest telecom company in Brazil, had a tough time to be relevant in the World Cup (WC). The competition had secured the best properties and we could not buy our way into the conversation. So we had to create a relevant fact that would grab people and media’s attention.

We invited Ronaldo, number 9, the biggest scorer in WC history to do his debut on social network and take over Claro’s twitter account to use as his own. Creating the first celebrity branded Twitter account in the world, a channel that reached 1.6 million followers 10 months after started.

To draw the most attention as possible, we called in a press conference the day before the national team coach would release the list of players going to the WC. More then 50 journalists showed up, including international press, waiting for Ronaldo to either say why he was going or why he was not going. Well he was going to the World Cup, but in a new and extraordinary way, as a commentator, on Claro’s Twitter account, that from now on would also be his. He then started tweeting about the games, communicating with other players and celebrities through ClaroRonaldo account, exposing the brand to millions of other followers. And almost every week, he’d tweet something a bit more controversial that would make the news.

The day Ronaldo started tweeting, Claro had 30,000 followers. This number began to increase in a rate of 5,000 followers per hour. Now, 10 months later, ClaroRonaldo Twitter account have 1.6 million followers. Placing it as the biggest corporate account in Brazil and Latin America with 12 times the size of our biggest competitor’s account. Every week Ronaldo tweets a message from Claro, with promotions, launches, etc. And the click rates with his endorsement are much higher. As the first ever celebrity branded Twitter channel, the @ClaroRonaldo account took Claro’s brand to a countless number of channels, always keeping the Claro brand relevant whether the subject is football or social networking.