Football and Social Media in Belgium

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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

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Thank You !

Pieter MaenhoutJr. Consultant

Direct: +32 2 888 79 34Mobile: +32 (0)489 91 53 76

Email: pieter.maenhout@cleverwood.be

Cleverwood – Rue des Pères Blancs, 4 – 1040 Brussels – Belgiumwww.cleverwood.be