football and social media in belgium
DESCRIPTION
Today it seems like most companies and brands are conquering their fear of social media, one step at a time. They realize that online presence and reputation matters. A multi-million business like the professional football world can not leave behind. The main goal of this whitepaper is to understand how professional football clubs in Belgium use social media. Not by looking at numbers of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, but by exploring the field, by visiting clubs and interviewing communication and marketing managers. 13 out of 16 first division clubs agreed to talk to me. The data you find in this white paper is varied and covers different aspects of social media. On the 5th of December, during a Cleverwood Trends Session to the 4th anniversary event of Cleverwood, I've presented some of my findings. But my main objective of the dat was to make people aware of what real fan engagement and passion is all about. The presentation create context, the white paper delivers the data.TRANSCRIPT
Football and Social Media in Belgium
Download viawww.cleverwood.be
In the week I’m a New Media consultant, In the weekend I’m passionate about my football team Club Brugge. Today I want to talk about 2 mayor things.
1. Football fan engagement
2. What can brands learn from football fan engagement?
1. Football fan engagement
Why is a football fan not an average fan? Because it’s in our DNA, it’s a
way of live. There are two values that football fans really hang on to.
1. Loyalty
19 %
16 %
11 %
We them both!
1 %
5 %
5 %
Do you have the guts to them both?
1999 - 2000
2000 - 2001
2001 - 2002
2002 - 2003
2003 - 2004
2004 - 2005
2005 - 2006
2006 - 2007
2007 - 2008
2008 - 2009
2009 - 2010
2010 - 2011
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000 1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
Overall increase
AttendeesRank
Red = average attendees of Club Brugge. Blue = ranking. Quality of product
went down but number of clients increased. What other brand can say this?
2. Honour
Fans are the soul of a club. Barcelona has a policy where 800 ‘Socios’ are
consulted with every important decision.
Unconditional support. The supporters of Union Berlin dedicated all their free time to renovate their own stadium with their own hands.
Football is more than 22 man who run 90 minutes behind a ball. It’s about the
experience.
Why use social media
1. Use social media to strengthen the experience – Before, during and after the game. Create climaxes!
2. Use social media to build relationships 24/7 – Before you had 90 minutes to convince and connect with your audience, now 24/7.
3. Use social media to Improve and optimize the relationship between players and fans. Bring you players closer to the fans.
Example – Fansourcing – Thy asked their fans to design a new shirt, they
received 60.000 unique submissions.
Example – Turn your image around – Ryan Donk used Twitter in a remarkable way is in constant dialogue with his fans.
Example - 122 Tweets per minute – Barcelona generated over 2 Tweets per second during the opening of their new training centre.
Example - Second screen - Manchester City experiment
Difficulties
You’re dealing with an emotional community. How do you handle those conversations and turn them in your benefit?
Abundance of platforms and content . The platform and content you provide need to be excellent. If not you'll loose your audience.
Players are the stars – They are little brands on their own but at the same time they represent your team.
2. What can brands learn from football fan engagement?
Like is the beginning, not the end
Understand your fans
Create experiences
Status Access
Power Stuff
SAPS
“All those questions about social media! We would like to keep this internal. We don’t show our financial results either!” – anonymous
53% 47%
YES NO
Is it the purpose to start a conversation?
YES NO
38% 62%Are you planning to invest more money and/or resources?
Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.- Francis Bacon
Cleverwood is a trademark of Fair Wood Ventures sprl/bvba
Thank You !
Pieter MaenhoutJr. Consultant
Direct: +32 2 888 79 34Mobile: +32 (0)489 91 53 76
Email: [email protected]
Cleverwood – Rue des Pères Blancs, 4 – 1040 Brussels – Belgiumwww.cleverwood.be