In this episode of FLYDE Talks, Luis Serrano, Head of Growth at Real Madrid, sits down with Paco Herranz, Founder and CEO of FLYDE, to explore how the concept of Growth Marketing has evolved in an environment shaped by artificial intelligence, extreme personalization, and data privacy—and how it can be applied to the unique context of football.
With this new episode of FLYDE Talks, we continue to bring together leading voices from across the marketing world to discuss, clearly and without jargon, the ideas that are transforming the industry today.
WHAT DO WE REALLY MEAN BY GROWTH?
Paco opens the conversation with a question every growth professional has asked themselves: What exactly do we mean by “growth”?
For Luis, the term has expanded significantly. What once referred to scaling digital channels now means understanding growth from a holistic perspective: digital and physical channels, data, user experience, and brand value.
“We’re no longer just talking about digital channels,” he says. “We’re talking about everything.”
Growth is no longer about funnel optimization alone; it’s about connecting every touchpoint between the user and the brand under one unified objective.
REAL MADRID’S ‘NORTH STAR’: THE SATISFIED MADRIDISTA
Paco and Luis agree that successful growth depends on having a clear metric that guides the overall strategy: the famous North Star Metric.
At Real Madrid, that North Star is the satisfied Madridista: a fan who trusts the club, shares their digital identity, and enjoys a full, consistent experience across online and offline channels. The satisfied Madridista is the “guiding star” behind every growth initiative at the club.
To measure that satisfaction, the team tracks KPIs that range from fan acquisition and retention, including engagement metrics, NPS (Net Promoter Score), and churn. The challenge lies in turning every interaction into a source of value, for both the fan and the brand.
‘ONE FAN, ONE EXPERIENCE’: UNIFYING DATA FOR ONE-ON-ONE PERSONALIZATION
From FLYDE’s perspective, growth can only scale if data is unified. It starts with data collection—first, second, and third party—and continues with data unification to create a single customer profile, the key to enable precise segmentation, activation, and measurement.
The unified customer profile is the foundation of any growth strategy. It allows teams to move from analysis to action: building micro-audiences, orchestrating omnichannel campaigns, and, most importantly, measuring attribution accurately. The real challenge isn’t gathering more data, but rather knowing where each impact truly comes from.
Real Madrid applies this philosophy with a simple vision: One fan, one experience.
From email to app, store to stadium, every interaction is tracked and optimized to deliver the best possible experience within the club’s ecosystem.
The ultimate goal is true micro-segmentation, evolving from “many-to-many” to “one-to-one,” offering each fan exactly what they need. As Luis puts it simply: “If I have a cat, why are you offering me dog food?”
Read more about the importance of data unification.
‘SEO IS NOT DEAD, AND GEO IS SEO.”
“SEO isn’t dead—and GEO is SEO.”
Through experiments with LLMs and metasearch engines, Luis found that generative AIs don’t search websites directly—they search search engines. In other words, for an AI to index your content, you still need to rank well on traditional search engines first.
So optimizing for visibility in AI results still means doing SEO: paying attention to microformats, structured data, and quality content. New tools, like Adobe’s LLM Optimizer, can even estimate how readable and indexable your content is for AI.
The takeaway is clear: the future of organic traffic will be hybrid and those who master SEO today will remain visible in the age of AI. At least based on what we know today.
MACHINE LEARNING AND GENERATIVE AI: THE NEW MARKETING DUO
Luis asks Paco how FLYDE integrates AI, and Paco explains that for him, AI isn’t a trend but a natural evolution of data-driven marketing.
FLYDE uses Machine Learning for key tasks:
- Measuring KPIs
- Detecting customer value patterns and projections
- Predicting churn
- Recommending products or audiences
On top of that, FLYDE has developed Brain, a generative AI layer across the platform. Brain acts as a data assistant, enabling any user, technical or not, to interact directly with their data ecosystem: building audiences, suggesting actions, analyzing campaigns, or even generating complex queries.
Its mission is to democratize access to data and remove the “blank page fear.”
As Luis jokes: “AI is like a shrimp cocktail—we have so many things to pick from that we don’t know where to start.”
THE CDP: THE NATURAL EVOLUTION OF THE CRM
Both speakers agree that a Customer Data Platform (CDP) like FLYDE is the strategic backbone that ties everything together.
At Real Madrid, the CDP is built around the Madridista Community, integrating data from e-commerce, the app, the Bernabéu tour, RMP Play, social media, and even in-stadium activity.
Thanks to this integration, the club can microsegment and activate data in real time. For instance, if a user is near the stadium, the system can trigger a personalized app notification with an offer or reminder.
The result is a coherent, contextual, and measurable experience—where data powers emotion.
Contact us to learn more about what the FLYDE CDP could do for your business.
PRIVACY AND REGULATION: GROWTH WITH RESPECT FOR THE USER
The new era of marketing comes with a non-negotiable condition: privacy.
Luis emphasizes that Real Madrid applies a strict transparency policy because trust is part of the fan experience itself.
Meanwhile, FLYDE advocates for ethical data usage. Its technology supports privacy-safe attribution using inferred data (such as average age, income level, or household type) to improve performance without compromising user trust.
The goal isn’t to know more, but to use what we already know better.
TOWARD A MORE HUMAN, MEASURABLE MARKETING
Growth marketing in 2025 operates at the crossroads of AI, CDPs, and customer experience.
But beneath it all lies a single principle: brands grow when they understand that data only matters when it creates satisfaction, trust, and real value.
Paco leaves us with an important conlcusion. Sustainable growth is born from the connection between data and people—and when done right, that connection is the future of marketing.
Start taking control of your data today.
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