Category — Soccer Marketing

In a case that perfectly illustrates the old axiom, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” Chelsea has formed a unique partnership with the video-sharing service YouTube.

It is a tremendous understatement to say that this is brilliant marketing from Chelsea. Instead of fearing the future and threatening to sue, they formed a deal whereby footage will appear on a specially co-branded page.

The net result is that consumers/viewers won’t be bitter about having videos pulled; instead, they’ll be happy to find them all in one convenient location. At the same time, Chelsea will maintain positive control (rather than negative control by way of suing or pulling videos) over their content and will do so while promoting their brand.

Following is the video welcoming viewers to the Chelsea FC YouTube channel. They’ve still got a bit of work to do to properly optimize (YouTube has ruined our expectations of quality, by the way) the video but it’s a great start.

The Carolina Railhawks have launched a radio advertising campaign to promote their inaugural season. As Jarrett says, it’s a little cheesy. Still, you have to be impressed with their desire to sell the team.

Anybody in the Thunder offices listening?

It seems the folks at Bayern Munich think it sucks when other people do the marketing for them.

The Kin of Fish has agreed to host the next Carnival of American Soccer.

The topic he has chosen—marketing soccer—is near and dear to my heart. Specifically, Mr. Fish wants to know how Major League Soccer can get “butts in the seats.”

You’ve just been handed the plum position of MLS Marketing Director. MLS regular attendance (as I’m sure you know) reached its peak in the launch year of 1996. Since 2000, attendance has been relatively flat…

Without changes to the league structure or season (i.e. single table, no playoffs, etc. etc.), and with a reasonable but not unlimited marketing budget, what will you do to give MLS the “cool factor” that will ensure an attendance increase next season and beyond?

I’m not a big MLS guy, but I tend to think that soccer marketing is soccer marketing so I’m going to write a piece for this carnival.

What do you think? How can MLS get its marketing groove on?

Two days ago, I received the following e-mail from Kyle Sheldon, the Communications Coordinator at D.C. United:

Hello soccer fan –

For those of you who haven’t heard, Bobby Boswell of D.C. United is one of 50 candidates for Cosmopolitan magazine’s Bachelor of the Year award. For those of you in the blogging world, it provides for a great opportunity to a) spark interest amongst your female readers, b) make fun of Bobby and c) link a couple of pretty funny videos Bob and I put together for it all. The links to the videos are below, as is the link to Bobby’s Cosmo page.

For Cosmo: http://youtube.com/watch?v=urjk5N51Yvc
Bloopers: http://youtube.com/watch?v=BqA1S85kZ_U

Also, folks should go here to vote…

-Kyle

“So what?” you say. In short, this is a example of perfectly-executed guerrilla marketing.

When I received this e-mail, rather than writing a piece about it, I held off, betting that if I sat on it, the story would snowball. Of course, it did. A quick search reveals that I am not the only one who tipped off to this story.

D.C. United smartly realized that reaching out to individuals (in this case, blogs in the Soccersphere) would benefit their brand (and the Boswell cause). They wrote a simple, informal press release geared toward bloggers that appealed to bloggers’ self-interest by listing the benefits of running with the story.

That is brilliant marketing.

Editor’s note: following is the second in a series of posts that aim to provide strategic marketing advice to the Minnesota Thunder. You can read the first post of the series here.

When the Minnesota Thunder moved their operation from Blaine (a suburb some 20 miles from their current home) to James Griffin Stadium in St. Paul, it seemed like a brilliant idea in terms of accessibility. To wit, the stadium location is far more accessible to commuters than its predecessor and the team now has access to a significantly larger population that should have a higher propensity to support the team.

With these seemingly beneficial variables in place, why don’t the Thunder sell out The Jimmy every night? The answer is all-too-simple.

There is no buzz.

On the heels of their move to the city, the Thunder employed a great guerrilla marketing tactic. It was impossible to walk through the neighborhoods of Saint Paul without seeing lawn signs that read, “Soccer Spoken Here,” “Soccer In The City!,” or “Futbal Se Habla Aqui.” These signs had an enormous impact; according to sports-forum.com:

All told, over 1,000 signs were given out to anxious fans at the first two games. This was a great way to break down cultural barriers and invite all soccer fans to their new home at James Griffin Stadium in St. Paul! As a direct result of the program, several hundred people called the Thunder office claiming they had seen a lawn sign and were curious how to get one of their own. An increase in awareness of the team’s new home and free publicity were benefits that were directly realized by this initiative.

 
Since 2004, I have not seen the Thunder employ similar guerrilla marketing initiatives. The lawn signs were a great start, but it shouldn’t stop there. What about:

• Brokering deals with local gas stations to co-brand the gas pumps
• Giving fans pocket schedules to leave or post at their coffeeshop, barber, laundrymat, etc.
• Sending players/coaches/staff/volunteers to canvass the neighborhoods
• Printing ticket discounts on the back of grocery store receipts
• Taking part in parades and other localized events

The ideas are simple and endless.

If we’re honest, we’ll admit that the Thunder are small fish in a big pond. They cannot compete with the Twins, Timberwolves, Vikings, or the Wild in terms of a marketing resources. That said, one of the benefits of being a small fish is agility. The Thunder should be able to adapt quickly and take advantage of simple, cost-effective, guerrilla marketing tactics to create a buzz.