Category — Soccer Marketing

A couple weeks ago, I planned to write a post about one of the Minnesota Thunder’s new owners. It wasn’t going to be a terribly original post; I was just going to link to an interesting article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press about Dean Johnson and his ambition to do some major (non-soccer) development in sleepy downtown St. Paul.

It seems that city councilman (and strangely-popular jackass), Dave Thune doesn’t care much for Mr. Johnson or his plans. Of course, because the PiPress is, well, the PiPress, they don’t keep stories online for more than about 5 seconds (because, you know, it hurts the environment to keep something online. Update: thanks to uhclem for providing an alternate link. Note to PiPress: It’s too bad that I have to link to a content scraper instead of you). The point is that I didn’t recall the details of the story well enough to write anything about it.

Today, though, there is a bit of Thunder news to report. ThroughBall.com favorite, Brian Quarstad has written a piece on BlueSkySoccer that outlines some of the teams plans for the 2008 season.

The first thing, while disappointing, is not a huge surprise: the team will stay at James Griffin Stadium. That’s kind of a downer but it sounds like they are going to make the best of it:

In making all these improvements [(new scoreboard, new press box, etc)], the Thunder hope to be able to negotiate with St. Paul Public Schools to allow them to upgrade the concessions. The General Manager said he feels that the fans certainly want more than “hot dogs and greasy hamburgers.” All the improvements to the stadium would be a donation to the school district. He hopes the school district will reciprocate and allow the team more control over concessions that are sold at games.

And my favorite part (if you’ve been here awhile, you know why), is that the new owners want to—gasp!—engage in marketing. In fact, they’ve increased the marketing budget from a paltry $20,000 to a more respectable $150,000, which will help cover the cost of a marketing director and a rebranding project:

Along with rebranding will come a new logo. The logo has not been confirmed yet but will most likely be more like the shield the team is currently using on their uniforms. “The logo got changed 6 years ago to what we have currently, and quite frankly, no one in the organization likes it”, Bucholz said. The team has secured a marketing and design firm to give the team several options. They hope to have the new design finished within 6 weeks. He also said, “We are looking for a more European look.”

And would you believe “[t]he team has also partnered with TV, radio and print media organizations”?

My goodness, winter lasts too long…

U.S. Soccer has a problem.

Read the first and second parts.

Incentives

So, how does U.S. Soccer ensure that soccer bloggers continue writing about their product? Furthermore, how can they convince other bloggers to promote their product? Almost everything in life is an economic decision; as such, it is as simple as providing incentives.

I should mention that I’ve rewritten this post a few times because I think that the federation has started to figure it out.

For instance, I think that giving bloggers the ability to embed videos is a good incentive. Shortly after the first post in this series, encouraging U.S. Soccer to provide embeddable videos, I received a note from a reader, saying that embedding was allowed on some of the videos posted since I wrote it. A quick check of the YouTube channel reveals mixed results.

Another reason I had to reconsider this post is that I was going to argue that, in addition to handing out annual awards for the best players, best goals, etc., the federation should consider giving an award to the best soccer blog. Of course, I soon learned that they added a new category this year, to be given to the best U.S. soccer blog.

Isn’t that enough?

It’s a great start, that’s for sure; but they can do more.

How about offering a T-Shirt for the best article about a recent game? (It doesn’t have to be SWAG for the sake of SWAG. In fact, if I were the recipient, I’d run a contest to give it away to a reader.)

In the second post in this series, I said that bloggers should be given moderated access to what are traditionally media-only areas. I was clear that any blogger participation should be at the blogger’s expense. That said, wouldn’t it be nice to send one blogger per year to a game?

Why not give a blogger an exclusive e-mail/phone interview with one of the players? There are so many simple, creative options.

So, you want a bribe?

No; I want to give readers the best product possible. If we accept the premise that bloggers aren’t constrained by journalistic ethos and that they are uniquely-positioned to reach a diverse audience, it makes sense for U.S. Soccer to provide bloggers with incentives to promote their product. Those bloggers who hold themselves to a different ethical standard can pass on (or pass along) the incentive.

Wrap it up, already

All of these posts are predicated on the idea that bloggers represent a viable way for U.S. Soccer to increase brand awareness (reasonable people can disagree about that). But if U.S. Soccer is waiting for the traditional media to give them exposure, they’ll continue waiting. Leveraging the power and nimbleness of the of the blogosphere is an alternative to that status quo.

photo by andrewb823

U.S. Soccer has a problem.

Miss the first one? It’s here.

The Current Conditions

Every time the U.S. Men’s National Team plays, I have a checklist.

If the game is announced far enough in advance, I check my calendar and remove or reschedule any events that conflict with my being able to watch the game. If the squad is playing abroad and the match will occur during the hours that I work, I take the day off of work.

I do all of that just so I can watch the game live on television.

There are two reasons I want to see the game as it happens. First, I’m a fanatic; I love that team with all my heart and I can’t imagine watching a “DVR’d” version of the game and still feeling loyal. Second, I want as much time as possible to compose a post about the game for the following day.

The Perfect Storm

Those two things aren’t as unrelated as they seem at first glance. From U.S. Soccer’s perspective, they comprise a perfect storm. The recipe is simple: take one fanatic, add a dash of eagerness to report the game and the result is almost instant, free marketing.

As I said in the first post of this series, bloggers are in a great position to reach people who are otherwise ambivalent about soccer. So, if U.S. Soccer is serious about spreading their message, they should allow bloggers access to the facilities, matches, and players so they can provide better, in-depth coverage to their audience.

Traditional soccer reporters will always perform their duties in a traditional (and extraordinarily valuable) way and, while the world of soccer journalism is a little different from the other major American sports in terms of chumminess, they simply aren’t going to take on the role of overt cheerleaders.

Because bloggers are not constrained by traditional media ethos, they will see and report the game from a different perspective and, more importantly, reach a different audience. While a reporter writing in Sports Illustrated or on Soccernet will reach the devoted fan, the blogger will perform dual outreach roles, writing for both the devoted fans and the ambivalent observers who make up that all-important, spongy market segment that wants to love soccer but hasn’t been given a reason.

How-To

It’s easy for me to spout off about credentialing bloggers because I don’t have to deal with the logistical nightmare. So, how should U.S. Soccer begin? With a pilot program. The Federation should invite two or three bloggers to one game (on the blogger’s dime), give them some reasonable ground rules and see how it goes.

The worst thing that could happen is that the bloggers write a standard match report. If that’s the case, U.S. Soccer isn’t out any money and there are three more insightful columns about the game. The best thing that could happen is that the bloggers do a bang-up job, take some great “insider” pictures or video, and ask insightful questions that attract massive attention on the blogosphere.

In reality, the result will be somewhere in the middle, where everyone wins.

Addendum: Too Much?

If the Federation isn’t willing to give bloggers that kind of access, here are some baby steps they can take:

• Allow bloggers to sit in on media conference calls. (Put us on mute, if you must)
• Distribute some Creative Commons-licensed photos of the teams/training sessions/games for bloggers so they don’t have to steal them
• Put bloggers on the press release distribution list
• Give bloggers a media kit and access to the media section of ussoccer.com

Photo by Eleventh Earl of Mar

Nice to have you along.

I’d offer you some iced tea but I’m afraid we’re fresh out. For goodness’ sake, you can’t pop in on a person like this and expect him to be prepared for a party.

If you’d like, you’re welcome to try on my collection of DaMarcus Beasley jerseys and the Sam’s Army hat. If you really want to class it up, I think we have some some Kraft Singles, saltine crackers, and a box of Cabernet in the fridge.

As long as you’re here, you might as well set a spell (subscribe, if you’d like). And feel free to poke around but be gentle; some of the stuff around here is mighty fragile. I recommend:

• How U.S. Soccer can use the blogosphere to increase brand awareness (Part I: Sharing Video)
• U.S. 2-1 Canada: a review in letters
• U.S. 1-0 Guatemala; I’ll write a real match report someday
• The entire “From the New York Times archives” series

For the rest of you chuckleheads who are already hooked, I’ll explain this whole thing later. No, I haven’t won anything and no, I don’t deserve to win anything. Can’t you people just let me have one moment’s peace?

U.S. Soccer has a problem.

This is the first in a series of three posts that will offer methods for the U.S. Soccer Federation to leverage the soccer blogosphere to increase visibility.

The Current Conditions

Approximately one year ago, U.S. Soccer created its own YouTube channel. You can find a lot of great stuff there, including behind-the-scenes video, player spotlights, and examples for use in referee position papers.

The video content that appears on the YouTube channel also appears on ussoccer.com. In fact, that’s where I ran into this well-produced piece about DaMarcus Beasley.

Note that I had to link off-site to the video examples in order for you to see them; I wasn’t able to place the videos on ThroughBall.com. U.S. Soccer has disabled easy embedding of their YouTube content and there is no easy way to get videos from ussoccer.com. That isn’t to say that an enterprising blogger couldn’t embed them directly on their site but it’s not quick or easy for the everyday blogger to do.

Why They Might Think Prohibition is a Good Idea

So why won’t U.S. Soccer let bloggers easily embed their video content? Frankly, there aren’t any good reasons but they probably believes something along these lines:

• “We worked hard to make those videos and we’re not going to give them away.”
• “We want people to see the YouTube channel and ussoccer.com as the official channels for communication.”
• “Bloggers are a volatile bunch and we don’t want our content seen next to posts about WAGs.”
• “Giving these videos away might lead people to compromise the content.”

Why They Are Wrong

Let’s take them one at a time:

“We worked hard to make those videos and we’re not going to give them away.”

The quality of U.S. Soccer video has improved markedly over the past couple years and I’m sure they are very protective of it. But if I make the best widget in the world but don’t find a way to tell anyone about it, that widget is worthless.

“We want people to see the YouTube channel and ussoccer.com as the official channels for communication.”

Ussoccer.com will always be the “official” channel. Only allowing videos to appear on YouTube or ussoccer.com assumes first, that true believers—the U.S. Soccer fanatics—will remember to go to YouTube or ussoccer.com to look at the videos and second, that U.S. Soccer is marketing only to the true believers; that no else could possibly be interested in their product.

“Bloggers are a volatile bunch and we don’t want our content seen next to posts about WAGs.”

This is probably the most reasonable objection. There is no telling what someone without an editor will post. One day, it’s a K-Fed rumor, the next, it’s a look at an offside call in an international friendly, and so on. But it isn’t about the contiguous content; it’s about the one piece of content and whether or not people see it.

“Giving these videos away might lead people to compromise the content.”

An organization must be very careful about maintaining its brand. Letting consumers or retailers (bloggers, in this case) get a hold of a product requires a bit of trust: trust that they will present the product in the best light; trust that they will see how valuable the product is. But they need the chance to earn the trust if you want your product seen.

It’s a New Media World

Like it or not, bloggers are here (whether we’re here to stay is a different question). It isn’t like the mainstream U.S. media are breathlessly awaiting word that the U.S. Soccer Federation has released a new video. By limiting their distribution, U.S. Soccer has effectively cut off the only real mass media way to attract new viewers.

The market is a diverse place full of diverse people and bloggers are best positioned to reach them. People who read soccer blogs aren’t necessarily soccer fans. In fact, I can think of a few regular ThroughBall.com readers who had no exposure to the game prior to reading about it here. That’s not significant until you multiply those numbers by hundreds, maybe thousands of soccer blogs (and maybe, just maybe, non-soccer blogs). That’s when you are talking about an untapped mass market.

Just Do It

Furthermore, bloggers are always looking for new content and are quite happy when content is dropped in their laps. Of course U.S. Soccer should have figured this out by now and it is hardly a new idea. After all, their kit supplier, Nike (arguably the best marketer in the world), has mastered the art of video sharing as a means of spreading a message. How many times have you seen the Eric Cantona World Cup spots or Wayne Rooney commercials on the blogs you visit?

It’s never too late to start and U.S. Soccer should abandon their close-minded approach and set their content free.

Stay tuned for Parts II and III of this series.

[Photo by aye_shamus]

Brand New, a daily read at ThroughBall.com headquarters, reviews the new L.A. Galaxy logo.

The almost-NASA worm type may be a serious injury, but they can replace that next season. Implementation will be a cinch for those designers obsessed with pitch-perfect embroidery. An absence of gradients is pleasantly surprising. Depth has been achieved with some careful use of lines and sober color choices…Even though this shield is static in comparison to the former, its brevity is powerful.