Football Partnerships

Football Partnerships podcast

Football Partnerships re-releases its interview with Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sport Business Strategy and Marketing at Coventry University

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By Scott D. Pierce

Hosted by the Asian Football Confederation, Asia’s governing body of soccer, the annual AFC Champions League features the best clubs from each country competing for Asian soccer supremacy. This past December they unveiled a new identity aimed towards the new and growing generation of soccer enthusiasts.

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n of soccer enthusiasts.

By Alex Kotler

The English Premier League and the National Football League, each renown for its passionate fans, appear to share similar growth strategies – with which, inevitably, come with their respective growing pains.

In February of this year, all 20 teams of the Premier League agreed to explore a proposal to extend the season to 39 games, with the additional 10 fixtures to be played at five different venues to be bid on by host cities. The match-ups would be decided by a draw, with the top five teams seeded to avoid facing one another. The essence of the proposal was to export competitive matches to increase global awareness of the Premier League brand.

Met roundly with hostility, the scheme was all but shelved. Its most vociferous opponent, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, warned that plans by the Premier League to host games abroad would never happen and that the proposal could harm England’s attempt to host the 2018 World Cup.

Said Blatter, “This does not take into consideration the fans of the clubs and it gives the impression that they just want to go on tour to make some money…. They would be playing 12 hours away west and east and 24 hours difference in the south.”

In recent days, however, stances softened, including that of Asian Football Confederation President Mohamed bin Hammam, an original opponent of said proposal.

He called on the Premier League to “share the secrets of [its] success” – a clear reversal from his original position which identified the 39th game as a threat to Asia’s domestic leagues.

Whether the initial opposition was more posturing to appease loyal, local fans or, in fact, genuine resistance, it is plain to see that the globalization – or exportation – of Premier League football is an inevitability. And English fans, despite their feeling of ownership over their domestic league, will – sooner or later – succumb to this certainty.

What’s fascinating, though, is that the United States is experiencing a similar controversy with its National Football League, whose commissioner, Roger Goodell, like his counterpart, Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive of the Premier League, is campaigning to increase the NFL’s international exposure.

This past Sunday in London at Wembley, the San Diego (California) Chargers played the New Orleans (Louisiana) Saints in a regular season, competitive match. The Saints were the “home” team, a disadvantage because, in American football like proper football, playing in front of a home crowd is likened to having an extra player. Take, for example, Manchester City playing at “home” in Mexico City against Arsenal. Not only do the players have to fly across the world to play a single match, but their English-based supporters, the ones who, theoretically, are the principal audience for the Man City-Arsenal match, cannot. Plus, the time zone disparity would, like Sepp Blatter suggested, make it difficult for season ticket holders to watch the match live on television.

What is undeniable, though, is that there is a market for both leagues on the international scale. True, the World Football League, NFL Europe, and NFL Europa – the various manifestations of the NFL’s European league – all went bust, 83,226 people traveled to Wembley to see a sport that they are said to not understand nor enjoy. And while it may be more of an annual spectacle than anything else, Roger Goodell and the NFL see the opportunities – to sell paraphernalia and tickets and to increase brand awareness – presented by the European market.

As a New Yorker and a fan of Premier League football, I obviously want to see the 39th game proposal passed – if only for my selfish interests. Pre-season tours and irrelevant matches featuring players on trial do not satiate my pangs for live, top-flight football. However, I can also appreciate the plight of local supporters – both of the English Premier League and the National Football League – who would be forced to travel internationally to watch their home teams, particularly in an economic downturn where disposable income is diminishing.

Regardless of whether Sepp Blatter warms to the 39th game proposal, or whether a crop of San Diego Chargers fans will suddenly don jerseys and chant along High Street, both leagues, to some capacity, are already global brands with international equity and commercial promise whose potential must be fully explored.

By Alex Kotler

It’s Wednesday morning. You’re wearing the same shirt as yesterday because you stayed at your bird’s flat and didn’t bring a change of clothes. You’re partially shaven, having shredded your face in the shower with your girlfriend’s leg trimmer. Your coffee’s gone cold and your supervisor’s in a foul mood. He makes no attempt to conceal his disgust for your soiled shirt and unkempt appearance, and reminds you that you’re falling behind on your work. You nod, holding your breath until he walks away, and mutter inaudible profanities once you’re alone in the cubicle.

Still, though, you brush off your responsibilities and browse the internet, checking the BBC, Guardian, and ESPN for football news. Once caught up on the tables and leaders and upcoming fixtures, you click on a sponsored link that brings you to an online portal which is likely to consume the next hour at the expense of your work. It’s Gillette’s Freekick Fusion, a computer soccer game designed by Inbox Digital that transforms you into a spot-kick master.

Arriving at the portal, you glance at the Gillette Fusion razor logo at the upper left and the Boots healthcare products logo at the upper right. What strikes your eye is the game logo and artwork, an engaging image of a silhouette striking a realistic football. Cleverly inserted at the bottom is a quick and optional market research survey, asking your gender and age. The Play Game button sits on the lower right, strategically placed to be the last thing read by an English reader.

Before clicking Play you do a guilty 360-degree swivel to be sure no one is watching you. With no boss in sight you click your mouse and hover over Single Player, conveniently represented by one Gillette Fusion razor. To the right, the game offers the options of playing a buddy, where multiple players can compete over a server; learning about Gillette Fusion; and telling a friend, where players can recommend Freekick Fusion to other people via email.

Selecting Single Player, you’re finally on the pitch receiving instructions on how to play. It’s fairly simple, really, requiring only that you hold the mouse button down, direct the shot by gliding left and right, and releasing when the power gauge is at its peak. The more goals you score, the higher you progress in the game. The higher you progress in the game, the larger is the wall obstructing your view of goal. Behind the goal are billboards of the Fusion and Boots logos, symbolically kicking the brands towards you as you kick towards them. Meanwhile, a timer ticks away to heighten the pressure to perform.

You’re stuck on Level 3, with three players in the wall when your bladder tells you that your morning coffee has run its course. Minimizing the screen to mask your infidelities, you head to the bathroom. As you’re washing your hands you check yourself out in the mirror. Splotches of unevenly trimmed hair speckle your face. You think of the Gillette Fusion, and on returning to your seat you maximize the screen and decide to learn more about the product. And there it is, the Gillette Fusion Power Stealth, surrounded by accessories and sports icons, including the cleanly shaven Thierry Henry.

Although intentionally exaggerated for entertainment’s sake, this scenario may not be too far-fetched. In fact, Freekick Fusion players have posted record performances on YouTube for others to view. For a multinational consumer product manufacturer like Proctor & Gamble, the viral spread of such videos provides a second wind to its principal initiative. Whether either translates to customer conversions is unknown, but if awareness is the primary objective then mission accomplished.

The marriage between the consumer products and video game industries is surely silver, if not gold. Since at least the time of 16-bit Nintendo, food and beverage corporations have romanced video game manufacturers. As chronologued by Lee Andrew Henderson in 2007 for Associated Content, firms like 7Up, Domino’s Pizza, and Frito Lay created mascots such as Spot, the Noid, and Chester Cheetah, respectively, who featured in product-branded video games.

Marketers today, continually seeking new ways to reach key consumer segments, have learned to exploit the video game landscape, populating interfaces with in-game advertising and strategic product placement. The recently released FIFA 09 is a prime example, integrating shirt sponsors and uniform logos into a realistic virtual world. According to Justin Townsend, CEO of IGA Worldwide, in an article published by MediaWeek in 2007, “In-game advertising of any kind—be it PC, console or mobile—has to be contextual, adding to (or at least not taking away from) the realism of the game.” Such is the genius of FIFA 09.

The popularity of in-game advertising has soared in recent years, and here are two guesses as to why: One, studies show that the average age of video gamers hovers around 30 years, indicating that the segment includes a consumer group with disposable income; and two, because firms like Nielsen Media Research now provide electronic ratings services which assign metrics to gauge brand impressions. The ability to quantify and measure enables rights holders and advertisers to determine their return on video game investment. In the days of Spot and the Noid, success was determined exclusively by sales.

Returning to Freekick Fusion, here are just five reasons of why it is noteworthy:

• 1. It’s free, so it requires no financial investment on the part of the user. Given the simplicity of the game module this is fortunate, and surely even Gillette would acknowledge that Freekick Fusion wouldn’t be sellable.
• 2. It’s proprietary, so despite the shortcomings of the game, Freekick Fusion is entirely Gillette’s (per its agreement with Inbox Digital, of course) – meaning it needs to make no attempt at subtlety. While the billboards with logos behind the goal are contextual, the entire interface bleeds Fusion branding. But, since the game is free, gamers will allow themselves to be spoon-fed the Gillette Fusion – and maybe even concede to participating in the market study.
• 3. Because it’s an online game, every click is traceable, which provides Gillette with immediate data on user habits.
• 4. Every phase of the user experience leads to learning more about the brand and where to buy the product.
• 5. It is designed to spread virally, moving from email to email, YouTube to YouTube, increasing global brand awareness at no cost to Gillette.

Freekick Fusion is not a new game, nor is it necessarily a unique concept. Evidenced by the co-branding with Boots, an umbrella brand in the UK, it was not heavily pushed in the US. This, though, may have been due mostly to the degree of popularity of football in the UK versus the US. It’s worth mentioning, too, that the three Gillette Champions (spokespersons), Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and Thierry Henry became Federer, Woods, and New York Yankee Shortstop Derek Jeter, presumably because so few Americans recognized Henry. Regardless, as an alternative marketing vehicle, it represents one of the more engaging ways to connect with a target segment.

Sitting in your cubicle, you groan seeing that it’s not yet noon. You return to Freekick Fusion, click Single Player, and begin again. As you set up your first kick you suddenly turn introspective. “Am I going to be playing games like this with my kids?”

I’d be willing to bet dollars to Fusions that Gillette and other brands are wondering the same. They might even know better than you.

By Shahnaz Mahmud

NEW YORK Fox Soccer Channel is trying its hand at branded entertainment, creating Super Sunday Plus, a 90-minute highlights show covering global soccer — with a twist. The program is set against the backdrop of a British pub, with hosts Christian Miles, Keith Costigan and Gary Richards seated around a table rehashing plays and performances.

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