Marketing the Thunder #1: sell the atmosphere
Editor’s note: following is the first in a series of posts (stemming from this post) that aim to provide strategic marketing advice to the Minnesota Thunder. It should be noted that, while the sentiments may not always be popular, the end goal is to grow the beautiful game in this beautiful state. We can all get behind that, right?
After a recent Minnesota Thunder loss, four of us headed to a local establishment for a nightcap. Because the soccer was dismal, our conversation focused on the three most obvious environmental features of the match: the Dark Clouds, the awful, piped-in music, and the Minnesota Thunder Performance Team. The consensus was that the first eliminates the need for the last two.
The greatest selling point for soccer in America is its uniqueness. Soccer is unique in that there are very few stoppages of play. Basketball, football, baseball, and hockey are designed to include constant intermissions that tend to be filled with vapid music and/or strong men and tiny women in tight clothes shooting T-shirts out of cannons. The American sports scene does not require more of the same.
At a soccer ground, the music and cheering is traditionally (and rightly, I say) provided by those in attendance. Anyone who has attended a Thunder game has heard the Dark Clouds and knows that they are more than capable of providing cheers, chants, and songs for the entire game.
What does this have to do with marketing? Marketing a sports franchise is, in large part, about selling the atmosphere. Selling the unique atmosphere of soccer means encouraging fan participation.
Longtime supporters will recall the days when Buzz would clap his hands above his head while glancing toward the stands—his not-so-subtle way of encouraging the fans to applaud a great move or a great pass. We’ve come a long way since then. Fans now recognize and support good soccer.
To hear Freddie Mercury through a muddled public address system tell us how he and his band intend to rock us doesn’t do the Thunder, the game, or the morale of the hard-cheering supporters any good. And the response to the Performance Team is, at best, polite indifference.
A collaborative relationship with the Dark Clouds would allow the Minnesota Thunder to encourage and market the unique soccer atmosphere. They are the devotees, the True Believers; why not reward them by way of discounted tickets, or food for the tailgate, or any number of other ways, and ask them to take on a larger role?
Can you imagine the Dark Clouds, bolstered by the support of the franchise, spread out among the fans, encouraging participation simply by virtue of their proximity? How about hearing thousands of fans singing High and Wide or You Came a Long Way Just to Lose?
People long to be part of something. The Dark Clouds are. The Minnesota Thunder should leverage their loyalty and enthusiasm to create, grow, and sell the unique soccer atmosphere.
5 comments
SPOT ON, TBJosh
I’ve sat in the Dark Cloud section each time I’ve been to a match. While I don’t often make many of the matches the Dark Clouds have always made me and any friends I bring feel welcomed. More fans who go to games need to be less afraid of the Dark Clouds and embrace them and learn from them. They might find they enjoy it. Example: My younger cousin and her friend sat with me in the Dark Clouds section on their first trip to a Thunder match. They haven’t stopped asking me to take them to another. To the Casual Fans; Stop thinking of the Dark Clouds as those crazy guys who make all the noise, and start singing along. You might find it makes the game more enjoyable than sitting there on your hands.
Basically, people need to look at going to a Thunder match like going to a rock concert instead of going to church. At a rock concert you clap, scream, sing along and then go home happier for the memories.
However, it is safe to say that if the Dark Clouds had two or three clouds scattered in the stands, it might make a big difference in audience participation.
I just would like to make a comment about the Entertainment product at the Minnesota Thunder soccer games at James Griffin Stadium, coming from a visitor from Winnipeg Manitoba Canada.
I had the opportunity to take a small summer vacation to your beloved Twin Cities of St. Paul/Minneapolis (which I absolutely enjoyed and plan on coming down possibly next summer).
Perhaps the main reason why I came down was to see professional soccer (futbol) in some form, since up in Winnipeg, we have no professional soccer team.
I throughly enjoyed the game, which was quite entertaining as well as the dark cloud fans.
However the only problem that I had was a) the constant bombardment of trying to sell tickets to a meaningless exhibition game. and b) the constant pathetic usual north american sporting music that was played over a PA system that sounded like their was a stuffed sock into it. What is even more mindbaffling was the need to have cheerleader at a soccer match?
Why I love soccer is the fact that the fans are the cheerleaders. The loud volsterous Dark Clouds were WORTH the price of adminssion. Not the Thunder dance team.
Perhaps maybe if Thunder Management next year should work together with the Dark Clouds, in order to promote the team. I possibly could understand why that people do not come to games at James Griffin Stadium. It is not because of the Dark Clouds, but it is using the usual North American style of pro sports entertainment promotion to sell a uniqulely Un North American game.
Perhaps selling the Un-North American features that makes soccer (futbol) great, would bring fans out to the Jimmy in droves
[...] Recently, I started a series of posts that deal with strategically marketing the Minnesota Thunder. I promise that the second article in the series is forthcoming. [...]
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