Digital Marketing Strategy: FC Kairat Group 4
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Digital Marketing Strategy: FC Kairat
Group 4
Vikram John
Dina Dudnik
Nick Sigby-Hansen
Daniel James Gill
Module: Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing Strategy: FC Kairat Group 4
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Introduction
This project aims to propose actionable improvements to the digital marketing
strategy of FC Kairat. It takes forward the analysis of FC Kairat’s current digital
media activity on its website and social media platforms performed in the
benchmarking exercise. The proposals put forward correspond to the same
platforms examined while benchmarking with the addition of the Mobile app for the
club which we believe is noteworthy to include.
Club Profile
FC Kairat was founded in 1954 as Lokomotiv Alma-Ata and was the most
successful club from the Kazakhstan region during the Soviet era. The club has not
been as successful in the modern era since the Soviet Union broke up with a
financial crisis in 2007 precipitating relegation. It has since recovered to some
extent with top 3 finishes in the last few years and also winning the Kazakhstan Cup
twice over the same period. While these triumphs in the Kazakhstan Cup gave
Kairat the opportunity to play in the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds it hasn’t
managed to pass the play-off stage, its best result being last season when it cleared
3 rounds of qualifiers but failed in the final play-off to Bordeaux. It last appeared in
the UEFA Champions League qualifiers in the 2005-2006 season just before its
financial crisis. In terms of performances in the recent past, Kairat has fallen behind
FC Astana and FC Aktobe but an improved performance in the last 3 years has
made the club’s supporters hopeful of better things to come. The club is currently
placed 2nd in the Kazakhstan Premier League.
Mission: Through a great team set-up - based on home grown players supported
by a few (mainly Russian) world-class players in the later stage of their
career- show that Kazakhstan and FC Kairat is a competitive club on
all levels from a European perspective.
Vision: To be the leading club in Kazakhstan and qualify for Champions League
2 times in 10 years
Values: Urban, hardworking, proud
Key Conclusions from the Benchmarking Activity
1. FC Kairat’s digital marketing presence does not reflect a clear and coherent
strategy. The club maintains a presence on various digital platforms but does
not use these to either differentiate itself, engage further with its fan base or
attract new fans to the club.
2. No significant effort is visible to capitalize on the marketing potential of recent
big signings and good performances in qualification for European
tournaments.
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3. The club website can do more to interest visitors and attract more of them
by improving its content, building a closer keyword association with its home
city of Almaty and improving its Search Engine Optimization.
4. The club’s activity on social media is unidirectional and does not do enough
to engage its followers.
5. There is a significant number of visitors to the website from beyond
Kazakhstan and Russia but the English language content is lacking in
quality, often appearing to be machine translated. This prevents the club
from interesting an international audience and building a reputation beyond
its existing fan base.
6. Sales opportunities, either of tickets or merchandise, are not sufficiently
promoted through these media platforms.
7. Key consumer occasions for a football club - new players, new jersey's, pre-,
during and post-match isn’t sufficiently used
Assumptions
Since the information available for this project is wholly extracted from external
sources and no access is available that can shed light on the club’s marketing
strategies, finances and other resources, we proceed with the following
assumptions. Certain assumptions also have to be made about the local followers
of the club and the larger community in which they exist, as they make the most
significant contribution to revenue generation and a characterization of them is
necessary in order to create an identity that the club can align itself with.
1. Changes and modernization of the software infrastructure will be considered
as necessary such as to improve the interface and host forums, blogs, allow
comments from different platforms to be integrated, etc. Costs are not
estimated for such improvements but they are not expected to be prohibitory.
2. It is assumed that manpower and the necessary financial resources are
available to maintain the website and increase the number of posts, tweets,
etc. on social media and responses to followers.
3. The following assumptions are with regard to the community that is the target
of FC Kairat’s digital marketing strategy:
a. There is a significant portion of the supporter base within the city that
remains unexploited. This refers to people who follow football but do
not actively support FC Kairat.
b. Based on the history of the city and the perceived consciousness of
its residents the relevant cultural identity we can associate with them
encompasses: urbanity, internationalism, a degree of detachment
and exclusivity from other regions in the country.
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4. The club also has a potential consumer-base within the large number of
expatriates that reside in the city, the country’s overseas diaspora and
tourists interested in football who visit the city.
5. It is also assumed that the players including the marquee signings are signed
on contracts that allows them and their image to be used for the club’s
marketing.
Goals
The goals that will drive the changes in the digital marketing strategy involve an
improvement in the club’s social media profile, fan engagement, search engine
optimisation and in building an image that has global appeal. Moreover the goals,
objectives and initiatives for the digital strategy are based on the understanding of
the needs for the support/fans. Fans want to feel close to the team, they want to
engage in the dialogue about how they perform, who should play, who should go or
stay and they want something’s that are exclusive for them as loyal fans.
Business Goals Digital Media Goals
Increases sales of tickets
and merchandise
Broaden the fan base to
increase the number of
supporters of the club thus
increasing its capacity to
remain sustainable
Open new channels for the
club’s revenue streams
Increase engagement of the
existing fan base on the various
media platforms, stimulate
enthusiasm among the fans and a
desire to overtly identify as
supporters of the club
Improve content to interest casual
visitors to the website and social
media profiles thus acquiring a more
global appeal
Facilitate the sale of merchandise
through online channels such as the
website and e-commerce portals
Initiatives that will be Executed Across Platforms
The initiatives and marketing campaigns that can traditionally stimulate enthusiasm
amongst fans and which need to be presented across all the club’s digital media
platforms are discussed here. The specific actions that need be implemented on
each platform are described in the different sections.
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1. General Action: Create a campaign package for each of the remaining
home matches that utilizes all owned media with a clear call to action. Set-
up a small production team that develops pre-match interviews and analysis
of both teams, develops post-match highlights, interviews with the manager
and players, head to head ratios and opposition information.
a) This will involve articles with tactical insights, team history, etc. posted
as previews to the matches. These will primarily be posted in the new
blog section of the website and the links shared through Facebook,
VK and Twitter.
b) Slogans, songs, the formation of fan groups and creation of banners
will also be facilitated. These will be specific actions planned in
advance and executed in the build-up to the match day and can be
shared through Facebook, VK and Twitter.
c) A chat forum will be made available either on Facebook, VK or on the
website for pre-match chat as well as during the game. Twitter
updates that run during the game will continue but can now also
include exceptional comments picked up from the chat (appropriately
credited).
d) Post-match: The highlights and interviews of coaches and players will
be posted on YouTube. Key comments will be shared through Twitter
as well as links for the videos.
2) New season - New players: Player acquisitions will be publicized and used to
generate excitement about the progress of the team. Posts across forums will
include interviews with the new players, their history, past records, highlight
reels and potential benefits that they will offer to the team.
3) New season – New look: The design of the team jersey will be made into a
marketing event. The build up to this may involve inviting fans to guess the
design from 3 or 5 options, special discounts and history in case the jersey
design has been used in the past.
4) Development of key rivalries: A narrative has to be created around rivalries
with other clubs within the Kazakh Premier League. This will generate greater
passion and fervour around particular matches which will then become
important not just to fans of Kairat but also generate interest, viewership and
allegiance from other football fans across the country. The most obvious choice
for a suitable rival is FC Astana. Besides being a club whose resources match
that of Kairat, FC Astana is also a club that germinated in the same city, i.e.
Almaty and has since transplanted itself to the capital, Astana. It is significant
that Astana is the new capital of Kazakhstan, a privilege that Almaty held for
many years. By creating this rivalry between two clubs that are almost of equal
strength and ahead of the others in terms of financial and political influence as
well as sporting performance, an added benefit is envisaged. This creation of
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bi-polarity in the league that will cause football enthusiasts across the country
to form an opinion on their choice between the two. Therefore besides their
support for their local club, fans of other teams will also develop an opinion and
preference of one of either FC Astana or FC Kairat. It is assumed that a
significant portion will choose Kairat over Astana and thus Kairat will have
enlisted as such, secondary fans. I.e. fans who actively support their local club
but lean towards Kairat when the big rivals meet.
5) Tactical Analysis: This is a campaign that will invite tactical analysis of FC
Kairat’s upcoming opponents. It is a pioneering exercise in which fans of the
club can provide insights that can benefit team strategy. The campaign contains
2 distinct elements.
i) Initially a forum will be set up which will allow fans to engage in a dialogue
about strategy, tactics and analysis of the team and opponents. This type
of discussion is the most popular among fans of football clubs on the
internet and is certain to increase interest, debate and engagement. This
will allow fans to use the forum on the website and comment from
Facebook/VK as well. Kairat will participate in this forum only by
providing topics and by the release of articles containing tactical analysis
by experienced authors. The authors can also participate in the
discussion and it is desirable that they extend and take forward the
discussion while also commending and praising the views of fans who
have displayed keen insight. It is particularly important to encourage fans
and make them feel proud of putting forth fresh and interesting views.
This will set the stage for the second phase to be launched.
ii) In the second phase, a contest will set up where fans are invited to
provide actionable tactical insights into the weaknesses of Kairat’s
upcoming opponents (no more than 3 in number). The contest will be run
throughout the league season, including any European games. Each
phase of the contest will open 3 days before the upcoming match and
will close for entries one day before the match. The results will be
announced within 2 days of the end of the match. 10 entries will be
shortlisted by the marketing team using authors who are experienced in
tactical analysis and these will be presented to FC Kairat’s coaching staff
once all the entries are closed. The coaching staff have complete
freedom to either use these insights or ignore them. However, within one
day of the finish of the game, a member of the coaching staff will select
the 3 best entries from the 10 that have been presented to them. These
will be ranked as first, second and third and will be published as the
winners of that phase of the contest. Points will be awarded for each win
and possibly also for being in the selected 10. At the end of the season,
a prize will be awarded to the fan who has accumulated the most points.
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This may be a day spent with a footballer of his choice, season tickets,
merchandise, tickets and paid trip to a European game or other such
decided by the marketing team. The discussion forum from the first
phase will remain in place but fans are now provided 2 incentives to
express themselves and engage with the team. The first is the possibility
that they would be helping the team with their ideas and secondly that
they could win the prize.
Website
Current Situation: The website can be read in English, Russian and Kazakh.
However content in all 3 languages is not updated simultaneously or to the same
quality. The interface of the website also appears rudimentary for a club of Kairat’s
standing. It requires a fresh look with more media content available from the
homepage accessible by direct links rather than drop down menus. There are
numerous dead links on the site.
Objectives
1. Extend daily time on site by 50% (to 6:06 min) within the next 6 months
Improved time on site implies that visitors are interested in the content available
and learn about the history, current status, team news and what the club offers to
its fans. This is reflective of greater engagement with the site visitors and is critical
to adding them as followers and fans.
2. Increase the pages per visit to 5 within the next 6 months
Similar to the previous objective, greater number of pages per visit reflects greater
engagement and interest generated through the content on the website as well as
its functionality.
3. Drive 25% more traffic to the website within the remainder of the season
By directing a greater amount of traffic to the website, Kairat improves the likelihood
of finding site surfers whose interest can be drawn by the club or existing fans who
are looking for information, content or seeking to establish their allegiance to the
club through its online portals.
4. Re-direct 15% more visitors to the "Buy tickets area" within the
remainder of the season
Better facilitation of online channels for ticket sales will enable greater sales as
many people would like to purchase their tickets without having to travel to the
stadium and well in advance of the game.
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5. Build a web shop as an application to the existing website before the
start of the new season
It is important to sell merchandise as much as tickets through online channels as
many fans may not be able to travel to the club shop and would like to purchase
products from and have them delivered to their homes.
Actions/ Proposals
1) General Improvements to the Interface
News and multimedia content are the types of material that site visitors are
looking for the most often when they access the website. Hence this content
should be available by direct access rather than from the drop down menus.
Videos of interviews, highlights of matches and news can be interspersed on
the homepage.
Dead links have to be updated. There are a number of them especially on the
English language version on the website. Besides disappointing visitors who are
looking for such material (including access to the ticket sales page), this projects
a lack of professionalism that reflects poorly on the club.
2) Improve content on the website
a) Make the News page more interesting by publishing up to date information
about the club, finding some unknown facts about the football players, writing
more extensive pre and post-match reports.
b) Start a blog that is different from the news page and will have information
that is related to the club, to Kazakh football or international football. It should
provide an interesting read and be exciting to share with friends on other
social medial channels.
c) Add pictures and videos to the Media page from every match played,
trainings and of the football players from behind the scene.
These changes in the content should be able to catch more visitors’ attention
and make them stay longer at the website by increasing their interest and
encouraging them to look through more pages.
3) Improve Keyword association with the city of Almaty and Kazakh football
Kairat has to build a stronger keyword association with the city of Almaty since
the name of the club does not itself include the city. This can be aided by adding
blog content that explicitly link the club and the city. Portrayals of the club
through history can be related to historical events in the city as well. I.e. a
pictographic timeline can be added that includes historically important political
and social events of the city with events from Kairat’s own history. Blog content
should also have more diverse subjects rather than being completely focused
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on the club so that searches related to Kazakh football, football in CIS countries,
current players of Kairat, etc. help to drive traffic to the website.
4) Enable sale of merchandise on the website
Even though the website has a page for an online shop, at present it is not
possible to buy merchandise on the site as the link does not work. It is possible
to buy jerseys and shorts online through the website that sell sports goods, but
it is very likely that those products are not official Kairat products. The
merchandise is advertised on the official FC Kairat VK page, but it does not
provide any option to purchase it.
Therefore, it is clear that online sale of the official merchandise is a big issue for
the club and has to be taken care of. It is crucial that the club repairs the links
on its website and sets up the system for online payment and delivery of the
merchandise across CIS countries as there is a demand for the t-shirts from
Arshavin and Tymoshchuk fans. Enabling the sale of the merchandise will not
only popularise the club but will also drive up the club’s revenues.
It is also recommended that Kairat finds a suitable e-commerce partner for sale
of official merchandise. Such a partner, through its online shop will facilitate
sales and deliveries of the club’s products outside Kazakhstan with the club
receiving royalties and income without itself having to undertake the difficult
logistics of sales and delivery.
5) Increase tickets sale on the website
In order for the online tickets sale to increase, the “Buy tickets area” should be
available on most of the pages of the corporate website. The link should also be
visible on other social media channels. Besides that the technical team of the
website should make sure that online sales system works continuously without
any problems.
Campaign Actions:
New Season - New Players: The website will support the campaign by displaying
the profiles of the new players (profile picture hyperlinked to complete details)
prominently on the homepage for a period of at least 1 week from the signing of
their contracts. Additional details will include the player’s history, achievements and
career highlight videos hosted on YouTube and embedded into the webpage.
Interviews can be posted in which the players describe their excitement in joining
FC Kairat and their hopes and aspirations to further their careers and the cause of
the club. The blog will feature a lengthy analysis piece describing how the player
acquisition fits into the club’s strategic framework and furthers the option of the team
manager.
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New Season - New Look: The team jerseys that are released at the start of the
season will be featured prominently. It is expected that the club website will include
a function to purchase merchandise directly from the site by then. It is also
necessary to include an applet similar to that used in online clothing shops that
allows the prospective buyer to analyse the apparel in high definition through a
zoom function that tracks the movement of the mouse pointer. This page should
also include an option to instantaneously add the item to the shopping cart and
proceed quickly to the checkout. Additional details about the apparel should be
available including features like new technology in the clothing, advances in the
design and colours and historical significance when the new design incorporates a
retro image used previously by Kairat.
Development of Rivalries: The rivalry to be actively developed with FC Astana
should be showcased by appropriate content preceding the game and greater
celebrations after it in the case of a win for Kairat. The content can include videos
of highlights from previous matches, histories of the teams, win-loss record between
the two in the past and interviews with the coaches and the players and fans
emphasizing what the match means to them. Video content will be supplemented
with blog articles detailing the history of the rivalry and amplifying the importance of
the upcoming match within the historical narrative.
In this campaign the club can consider publishing some provocative content such
as videos of incidents in past matches, fouls, aggressive tackles and raucous
celebrations.
Tactical Analysis: Both the forums for general blog content stimulated discussion
and the one for the competition on quality of tactical insights will primarily be hosted
on the website.
1. The Discussion Forum will be a portal that hosts the discussion. It will allow
the posting of an article that is also made available on the blog. The article
will be presented in collapsible form, i.e. when clicked on, it will expand
allowing the user to view the entire article. At other times only the title and
the chronologically arranged comments will be visible. Users should be able
to post comments without having to sign in but membership and login are
encouraged. Anti-spam verification should be added avoid spam posts.
2. The Competition will be made available as a separate application that allows
users to sign in and submit an entry through a form. The entries will be added
to a database and acknowledgement of receipt of the submission will be
provided by email. Winners will be identified and notifications posted on the
site presenting a table with the leader board as well as by personal emails.
Submissions of contestants will not be visible to each other.
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Mobile Application
Current Situation: FC Kairat has mobile applications for the club’s fans available
in 3 languages. There are about 1000 downloads of the application in Russian, 500
in Kazakh and very few in English. It also has a supplementary application that
allows fans to carry reward points and discounts over various purchases of club
merchandise or tickets. The app itself is well designed and allocations have been
made for most of the important functions. However, it is not updated with content
and details in crucial sections. This is perhaps because it was only recently
launched. Yet it is important that the club ensures that the dead links that are
common on its website are not carried over as a practice into the app. It was also
noted that news on the app has 2 posts from September and the posts available
prior to this were from May. The app supports the purchase of tickets and its most
interesting section is the Fan zone where wallpapers and club chants are available
along with an option to apply for membership of the club.
Objectives
1. Increase the number of downloads of the app by 100% over the coming
year.
2. Improve the content on the app ensuring that all functions are equipped
with the required capabilities and updated content.
3. Add functionality to sell merchandise.
4. Add functionality to access and contribute to some of the discussion
forums and the tactical insights contest.
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Actions
1. In order to increase the ratings for the app and the number of downloads an
in-app rating function should be added that updates its user review and rating
on Google Play.
2. The content on the homepage of the app can be automatically fed from that
of the homepage if this is technically possible. This will allow the app to be
updated easily without the necessity of generating fresh content for it.
3. An allocation has been made to sell merchandise through the app but the
functionality is not yet available. This has to be added so that fans can easily
access the merchandising section and make their purchases.
Campaign Actions
It is desirable to add functionality to the app to support some the campaigns. The
most prominent among these is the campaign related to the competition on tactical
insights. This can be a feature that is added where fans can make their submissions
to the contest through the app.
Current Situation:
The Facebook page of FC Kairat has 2583 page likes at the moment, which meant
that the club makes better use of its Facebook page than the other clubs at the top
of Kazakhstan Premier League. Due to the fact that KPL season is approaching its
end, the Facebook page is very active, as there are many important matches going
on and the club is trying to increase excitement among the fans. FC Kairat links a
lot of news posted on their website to their Facebook page which allows to attract
more support and interest through this social media channel. However, the
communication is merely informative than interactive. Unfortunately only few
comments can be found for the posts and it is very unlikely that Kairat would
respond to any comments. The platform acts more as a supplementary medium to
promote the club’s corporate website.
Objectives
1. Increase number of page likes from local fans.
2. Increase the fans on Facebook from outside Kazakhstan by 50% within the
next 6 months.
3. Increase the possibilities for interaction and active engagement with the fans
and between them.
Actions
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1. Increase the auxiliary content posted on Facebook. This is part of the general
initiative intended across platforms.
2. It is also determined that content on Facebook will be posted in both English
and Russian (and/or Kazakh). I.e. all content will be provided with translations
where possible. This may not be possible in the case of some long reads and
articles as this would be very work intensive and some subtleties in the content
may be lost in translation. Also, where possible videos of interviews will be
subtitled in the alternative language to that of the audio.
3. Links to blog posts and videos posted on the website will also be posted on
Facebook. Some part of the content can be adapted to make it suitable as a
Facebook post with links provided to the complete articles on Twitter. Videos
may not to be reposted according to the format acceptable for Facebook.
4. On a weekly basis at least three additional actions or short promotion will be
initiated on Facebook. This can be in the form of opinion polls (who is the most
valuable player, what place will Kairat finish at, etc.), contests (fans are invited
to come up with songs, slogans and banners) and discussion posts.
5. Facebook and VK will also be used to facilitate the organisation of fans before
games. Posts initiated by Kairat will help fans communicate with each other and
organise into groups with similar desires to sing, create and furnish banners
during the game, etc. Existing active fan groups can be officially recognised by
the club by following such group accounts. Common travel arrangements for
those travelling to Kairat’s away games can also assisted by forming
appropriate groups on Facebook where details can be discussed. There may
also be fans from other countries who may seek to use the club forums to
arrange travel to games.
Campaign Actions
New Season - New Players: The Facebook accounts of the players can be linked
to the official club account with each following the other. Prior to the new signings,
opinion polls can be carried out to gauge which players are the most popular with
fans. Contest and quizzes can be used where fans are tested on the history and
interesting facts about the new players.
New Season - New Look: The new jersey will be featured prominently in Facebook
posts when it is released along with links to purchase it both from the club website
and any external vendor employed for the same purpose. Contests can be arranged
where fans are asked to guess the coming design or they may be asked to help
design the same by providing them with a number of feasible options and asking
them to choose the one that appeals to them the most.
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Development of Rivalries: Considerable excitement should be stimulated on
Facebook just before a game with the main rival. Videos can be released indicating
some special preparation from the team for the game or to promote the rivalry.
Facebook posts from prominent fans, players and even opposition players that can
increase the passion in the rivalry can be reposted on the official page. Special
chants and songs can be composed that deal specifically with the rivalry or fans
can be asked to come up with these and the best ones acknowledged by the club.
Tactical Analysis: New comments in the tactical analysis discussion forum should
be accessible through Facebook both to view and to comment. There should be
Facebook posts in the lead-up to each match marketing the Tactical Insights
Competition that is hosted on the club website. Winners should be announced on
Facebook each week and the prize that the eventual winner will receive should also
be frequently mentioned or picturised.
VK
Current Situation
FC Kairat’s page on VK (the most popular social network among the Russian
speakers) has 90,758 followers which makes it the most popular and important
social media marketing channel. Such high number of the followers means that
there are many committed fans as well as there is a lot of potential for promotion of
the club. The content published on VK includes news, links to the club’s website,
live match comments, photos, videos, fans’ songs, discussions and advertisement
of the official merchandise. The more informal tone on VK allows fans to connect
more easily, thus the page is far more interactive, has greater amount of followers
and comments than Facebook.
A major disadvantage is that a number of followers have fake profiles, act as
spammers or have deactivated their pages.
Objectives
1. Increase number of page followers from across the country.
2. Increase the fans on VK from CIS countries by 50% within the next 6
months.
3. Increase the possibilities for interaction and active engagement with
the fans and between them.
Actions
1. As FC Kairat is the biggest and oldest football club in Kazakhstan it has
supporters all over the country. Hence, the club is highly supported by
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Kazakh speaking population and it is important to add posts and news in
Kazakh language as well is in Russian.
2. To add more interactive content such as games and quizzes between the
followers, preferably with prizes in order to add excitement and engage the
fans to communicate among themselves more. In addition to that, it will be a
good idea to add pre match and post-match surveys, for example who will
score the goals, the best and the worst players of the match.
3. The page administrator should be more active and polite when answering
the followers. Besides that he should block the followers who advertise other
website or generally what can be regarded as spam. As the main page of
the club’s website displays a set of VK followers, the fake followers spoil the
image of FC Kairat.
4. At the moment VK page allows its followers only to discuss the topics started
by the administrator of the group. From the feedback in one of those
discussions, the followers express their wish to be able to start their own
discussions. Allowing the followers to discuss the topics that they are
interested in will create a greater interaction among them in various topics.
In order to avoid possible spam posts it is advised to have a person who will
monitor the activity and remove inappropriate posts.
5. VK can also be used to help fans travelling for the away games to organise
themselves into groups and make common travel arrangements, etc.
Campaign Actions
The actions for the various campaigns will be very similar to that which is described
in the actions for Facebook. Greater engagement is expected on the VK portal since
it is more popular among Russian speakers. Also, many activities that involve
organisation and stimulation of local support, stirring up the rivalry and improving
the passion and atmosphere in the stadium have to be followed up and closely
monitored on VK.
Current Situation
Kairat FC has three Twitter accounts: in Russian, Kazakh and English languages.
The Russian account is the most popular out of them and has 3,301 followers. The
club’s account is reasonably active, especially during the matches when it posts in-
match updates, while on other days it has only couple of tweets per day.
Objectives
1. To increase the number of followers by 50% in 6 months
2. To increase engagement with the fans
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3. To use Twitter account to link club’s other social media channels
Actions
1. In order to increase the popularity of their Twitter account, FC Kairat should
not only work on how to promote their own account but also increase the
number of people and groups that they are following. At the moment they
follow only 30 Twitter accounts, including accounts of various football
associations and some of their current players. They should follow all their
players, coaches and associated organisations to increase the awareness of
their brand.
2. It is essential for FC Kairat to become more engaged with their fans through
the Twitter account, by retweeting and responding to the fans’ tweets.
3. The club should continue to tweet links to other social networks and news
updated on its corporate website. It is important to do that in order to increase
overall activity, especially on the days when FC Kairat does not play
matches.
Campaign Actions
All the proposed campaigns should be promoted and supported by Twitter. Posts
related to the campaigns on development of key rivalries, pre-match tactical
analysis and other general actions should be retweeted regularly, at least 3 times
a weeks throughout the season; while new season - new players and new season
- new look campaigns should be aggressively promoted at the appropriate time,
during pre-season.
YouTube
Current situation
FC Kairat is reasonably active on YouTube and uploads new videos quite regularly.
The content gives an insight into the training of the players from main team and its
academy, different events where team is involved and in general represents
material that would not be available elsewhere. Besides that FC Kairat uses
YouTube to provide its fans with live streaming of the matches, which is very useful
for the supporters who may not have access to TV or want to watch the matches
from abroad. However, the club has only 9870 subscribers to its YouTube channel,
the average number of views per upload is in the thousands and not many
comments are generated per upload.
Objectives
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1. To increase the total number of subscribers by 20% in 12 months
2. To increase the frequency of video posts from 5 to 10 per week.
3. To increase the internally generated content such as interviews with
the players and coaches as well videos of training sessions and related
to the club’s history.
Actions
1. FC Kairat should add more videos that can be exciting for the fans to watch,
for example previews of the matches, interviews with the players, interviews
with the fans, videos about team’s travels.
2. The YouTube channel could be used a little better to generate excitement
on the eve of the match by reporting previous statistics, making overviews of
the previous matches played against the team in the upcoming match.
3. It will be also useful to segregate the club’s videos into the separate playlists
for the fans to be able to locate easier the videos they are looking for.
4. To engage fans to create videos and upload the best ones in the separate
playlist on the YouTube channel.
Campaign Actions
YouTube channel should become a useful tool for all the campaign actions. All
videos created for various posts and campaigns should be uploaded on YouTube.
They can be organised in playlists according to the particular campaigns. In
particular new season - new players campaign should be supported by various
videos about the previous achievements of the new players, their highlight reels,
interviews with them that can cover topics related to football as well as their lives.
Social Media Content Calendar
Timeline 1, below highlights specifically when the events previously mentioned in
the document occur over the course of the season and the social media promotion
that will occur as a result.
ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS - Winter Transfer Window
11th Jan – 3rd April: New Player’s Campaign JANUARY
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WEBSITE – E-Purchasing Enabling: “Buy tickets now” area
and Online Club shop improved and enhanced to allow online
purchases of tickets and official club merchandise
FEBRUARY
ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS - Start of Season: New
Season, New Look Campaign Kit and Merchandise Launch
Event & Competition
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS - Summer Transfer Window,
8th Jun – 5th Jul: New Player’s Campaign JUNE
JULY
ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS – End Of Season Highlight:
Written summary, photographs and video reels documenting
the entire season.
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
Timeline 2 highlights the Social Media promotions that occur on a weekly basis.
WEBSITE - Video and Photo Gallery Update: Media updated
showing highlights of the week (training sessions, player
interaction, press conferences)
PRE-
MATCH
FACEBOOK, VK & Twitter - Online Forum Discussion: Open
dialogue about strategy, tactics and analysis of team and
opponents.
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Twitter & Instagram – In Game Commentary: Live highlights and
key moment information posted (goals, bookings, substitutions
injuries etc.)
MATCH
DAY
WEBSITE, YOUTUBE, TWITTER - Video and Photo Gallery
Update: Media updated showing highlights of the match day
(match itself, player’s arrival, press conferences and interviews)
POST-
MATCH
FACEBOOK, VK, and Website - Contest: Top 3 best tactical
suggestions and/ or opposition analysis offered by fans are
decided and rewarded.
Both of the timelines work to ensure the release of social media promotions are
regular, on time and delivered successfully and add to the efficiency of the of those
responsible for its delivery.
Progress Monitoring and Review
For monitoring and managing social media it is important that the tool used helps
the club achieve the goals set in the digital marketing strategy. The chosen tool
would first of course need to be compatible with the social media platforms the club
use. Secondly the tool would need to provide analytical data, plot trends of usage
and assess social media behaviours and insights of the clubs fans and finally have
the potential for immediate engagement with fans. The tool which competently
provides these requirements is Falcon.
Falcon will allow the club to remain relevant by not solely collecting data but also
connecting it. Through the use of filters the club will have the ability to find the fans
and trends relevant to the club, and detect potential image issues. These
discovered trends give the club a chance to exploit the opportunity for additional
promotions assisting the club in its goals for increasing engagement nationally and
internationally and in increasing revenue through ticket and merchandise sales.
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Falcon also provides the ability to manage potential threats. Using an alert system
the media team at the club will be able to respond promptly and accordingly to any
risk in the form of “negative buzz”, inappropriate images and language etc.
Falcon also provides the opportunity to search social networks and the internet to
find the right people to reach. In the case of FC Kairat it would help identify key fans
and potential opportunities to exploit and potential problems to avoid again working
to increase and improve the image and reputation of the club.
Falcon provides data on all of the content of the clubs social media, what is being
accessed and viewed and what is not. This review data will be key in deciphering
the appropriateness of the overall content of all the platforms. This information will
assist in the goal of ensuring fans stay longer on the clubs social media and also
that the club is using the correct promotions in engaging with new fans, especially
those from outside of Kazakhstan.
In order to appropriately benchmark the success of the digital marketing strategy, it
should be measured against that of competitors at a frequency of every 6 months.
Adjustments can be made to improve the frequency of posting and the nature of the
content posted. It is also important to check whether activity levels and fan
engagement meet the levels stated in the objectives.
The benchmarking should be carried out not just with Kairat’s competitors in the
Kazakh Premier League but also those outside the country such as Russian clubs
of similar or slightly greater market value. This is because Kairat is a better
established club than most others in the league and is expected to have greater
resources than them. Therefore it will generate greater fan following across forums
than other Kazakh clubs. Kairat has to have aspirations beyond this is in its
marketing strategy and attempt to reach the level of other clubs in Europe.
Conclusion
The success of most strategies associated with a football club are inextricably linked
to its success in the sport. Kairat has improved its performance over the last few
years and is actively challenging for the title this season. It has also improved its
results in European qualification over the years and there is an expectation that it
will soon qualify for the main stages of the Europa League or the UEFA Champions
League.
The digital marketing strategy proposed in this document envisages an aggressive
growth plan that will attract more fans and also engage them better. By retaining a
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high level of engagement while also expanding its fan base, Kairat will increase its
business sustainability and income. This expected increase in revenue will allow
the club to invest in players and further spur its sporting success.
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