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April 26, 2005

Chelsea USA?

Five (Sort Of) Big Ideas to Market Chelsea Football Club in the United States

As promised in an earlier posting, things were a bit busy the past week with the class-related assignments. Luckily for me, I was able to shape some of my assignments such that I could actually write about topics I found interesting (instead of, say, doing another freakin case analysis). The following is an abridged and edited version of one of said assignments....

Despite efforts in recent years from global soccer giants Real Madrid, Manchester United, and Barcelona to establish a significant brand presence in the United States market, no foreign soccer club (or domestic club, for that matter) has claimed the title of Soccer's Coolest/ Most Iconic Team. Whereas the average European knows very little about baseball, he/ she will likely be able to conjure up the name "New York Yankees" if asked to name an iconic baseball team. The closest thing that soccer has to an icon in the United States is Pele, but only the real sports fans could tell you what team he was on; certainly very few ten-year-olds know.

So there's a job opening. And it turns out that there might be a new applicant. Since Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich bought a controlling interest in Chelsea Football Club for $233 million in 2003, the team has spent $470 million on players. Success on the field has followed: Chelsea are currently in first place in Barclays English Premiership and in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

But being the world’s biggest football club is about more than just goals and wins. It is also about marketing and establishing a globally recognized sports brand. Chelsea have just announced some big plans for Asia; why not the United States? Most U.S. soccer marketing to date has been very mainstream: they're all going after the soccer-mom crowd. But there's an opportunity to go upstream of that -- to introduce a premium soccer brand that's edgy, sophisticated, worldly, and trend-setting. (There are plenty of reasons why this can work as a long-term strategy, but they're too boring to detail here; it's all that marketing/ biznass-blather about opinion-leaders and early-adopters and whatnot.)

Here are five ideas for establishing Chelsea as The Coolest/ Most Iconic Soccer Team in the United States:

(1) Find Regional TV Broadcast Partners: one of the most important trends in the sports media business has been the growth of regional sports cable networks. Typically owned in conjunction with a local sports franchise in a region, these networks broadcast sports-related content to large metropolitan areas; powerful regional sports networks already exist (Comcast SportsNet regionals, CSS-Comcast Sports Southeast, ASPN, Empire Sports Network, MSG Network, NESN, SportsWest, Turner South and YES Network) and total 50 million subscribers. These regional sports networks need content, especially when their team is out of season. Manchester United already have a deal with the YES Network. Chelsea should strive to strike deals with as many of these networks as possible, and insist on both live weekend broadcasts and then midweek rebroadcasts during the day (for the youth audience in the after-school hours) and in primetime (for the adult audience). Regional media deals would not impact the larger deals that UEFA and the English Premier League have struck with national media channels, and would allow Chelsea sole exposure in large US markets.

(2) Sponsor Konami Winning Eleven Soccer Series: Konami’s Winning Eleven soccer game (aka "Pro Evolution Soccer" in Europe) series is the best sports video game I have ever played. Better than Tecmo Bowl. Better than Double Dribble. Yet it's barely marketed in the United States (hitting shelves each year five months after its European debut, and six months after its Japanese debut) and enjoys only modest sales (it sells really well everywhere else), while Electronic Arts' FIFA series sells very well (which is ridiculous since the EA title isn't nearly as good). Chelsea should make Konami an offer: Chelsea will sponsor the sales and marketing of the product in the United States in return for preferential treatment in the game packaging (meaning that a Chelsea player will be featured on the cover) and in the game content (meaning that the skill level of the Chelsea players and team will be at least the equal of any other team in the game – which is not a farfetched concept). The game itself is outstanding; with marketing support from Chelsea it could sell well, and when it does it will offer a unique promotional experience for the Chelsea brand.

(3) Partner With a Hollywood Studio on a Soccer Film: with the upcoming release of "The Game of Their Lives” featuring MLS players, as well as a film about an American soccer player making it big in Europe financed by Adidas and featuring top Adidas-sponsored stars, it seems that a film is almost essential to keep up with other soccer-sponsored media. But instead of going after a family market with the film, Chelsea should seek a partner to make a grittier, tougher movie about the challenges facing a young soccer prodigy growing up in poverty in South America (a familiar trope for most soccer fans, but an unknown story for American viewers) and struggling to reach the pinnacle of success, which is, of course, a spot at Chelsea Football Club. Essentially, it should be “Hoop Dreams” meets “City of God” only with a soccer game at the end.

(4) Seed Chelsea With Entertainment And Music Celebrities: Chelsea should approach a number of music and entertainment management agencies to offer complementary Chelsea attire as well as offers to attend a Chelsea game – in a luxury suite – if they are ever in London. Plenty of celebrities seem to be Chelsea fans; the club should approach them about wearing Chelsea attire in public. Chelsea should also approach up-and-coming rock and hip-hop musicians through their record labels with Chelsea attire and merchandise, and, if available, should sponsor inclusion of this merchandise in music videos and public appearances. Essentially, get them shirts in the videos and on Pimp My Ride!

(5) Fetishize the Gear: speaking of getting the shirts in videos, you need to get the shirts at retail. Just as with American sports, the soccer shirt (or "jersey" in America) is the backbone of soccer club licensing and merchandising. In addition to promoting the club by placing the jersey in popular media and on celebrities/ opinion leaders, it is essential to get the shirts into selected retailers. Although some sporting goods retailers should be included in the mix of distribution, Chelsea should also seek placement in high-end athletic boutiques, retro jersey dealers in major markets, and youth-driven specialty retailers like Urban Outfitters. In selecting the right mix of retail partners, Chelsea can communicate that they aren't just a soccer team -- they're an important and iconic unit of cultural currency, something that the cool kids are into.

Of course, all of this is contingent upon Chelsea continuing to win. All the sneaky brand marketing in the world can't compensate for success on the field. Americans like winners, and if you're going to be cool here, winning is the price of entry. Luckily, Roman Abramovich has $12 billion to make sure that isn't a problem.

Posted by thatkid at April 26, 2005 11:38 AM under Biznass

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