Part 4 of a 4 part series

The England bid

After focusing on the Iberian, Holland Belgium and Russian bids we now complete the series by looking at the England bid and what it does digitally.

England, which last hosted a major football tournament in 1996 (and previously hosted the World Cup in 1966),  has a highly interactive bid site and has a large volume of supporters and followers. For these reasons we would argue that it is the best bid site we have looked at.

The official site has much of what we have seen elsewhere. It has comprehensive content, latest news and videos and again the countdown clock. The top banner also rotates in colour.

However, the England bid site differentiates itself from the others we have seen by the way it knows its audience (the global football fan) and allows the reader to get involved – and in so many ways.  Much of the interactivity is also featured on the home page so no need to click elsewhere. The site can be translated into 12 languages which is a good touch given that the World Cup is a massive global tournament. One of the slogans of the bid is ‘England United The World Invited’.

The reader is encouraged to back the bid by clicking in the top left part of the home page. So far a staggering 2.2 million people have done this (even some Scottish fans!). On clicking you are directed to another screen where you can register your details and leave a message of support. Such messages are constantly streamed onto the home page.

England United The World Invited

The site also points you to an interactive section which details English Football’s Global Impact. This section plays a video and features an interactive map which ‘highlights some of the work undertaken by the English FA, Premier League, clubs, government agencies and other partners over the last decade’.

The site also has a photo album of many supporters and ambassadors of the bid (in the Our Supporters section), including Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, and Simon Cowell of X Factor fame.

This site, like the others, also has a downloads section. The array of downloads offered to the reader is impressive. The site states that it has ‘created a whole host of ways for you to ‘Back the Bid’, show your support and interact ’. By offering everything from iphone applications to twitter backgrounds and screensavers the bid site has probably achieved that aim.

The site also makes good use of social media and earlier this week England 2018 launched the second phase of its digital campaign, created by Engine’s Jam. Football fans on Facebook are being targeting through a peer-to-peer recruitment drive. This facebook campaign has attracted over 300,000 from 170 countries (the largest number we have seen by any European bid. The facebook page is consistent with the website by offering photos, videos, supporter apps and further ways to follow the bid.

The England bid, like the others, can also be followed on YouTube (where there are 300+ subscribers), flickr and twitter. The homepage also has a News RSS feed and there is also a button to grab an app for your browser. The official twitter page provides regular updates - official and otherwise - and there appears to be a lot of interaction with twitter users. There have been over 600 tweets so far and there are presently 6,401 followers. In a great touch, the homepage has a live stream of the latest tweet.

This concludes our series. We would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the 4 bids. In the days leading up to the announcement of the successful bid next Thursday, December 2nd, we shall invite you to take part in a poll to vote for the best 2018 bid in digital terms.

Part 3 of a 4 part series

The Russian bid

We’ve previously focused on the Iberian and the Holland Belgium bids. For the 3^rd part of this series we now look at the Russian bid and what it is focusing on digitally.

The theme of the bid is ‘Ready to Inspire’. The official website features this slogan big and bold using Arsenal star Arshavin as the backdrop. Given the low numbers of followers in social media (only 50 on facebook) it would appear that the website has failed to inspire fans. The lack of interactivity with the reader may be a cause of this. The only way I found to interact with the site was to download 3 bid wallpapers.

The site  is, however, comprehensive in terms of content . The reader is greeted with a side panel which provides plenty of information on the bid, its vision, news and events, a photo gallery and a downloads section. While the website of the Iberian bid features an array of official and illustrious ambassadors, such as 2010 World Cup winners, the Russian bid calls on important supporters such as the Mayor of Moscow. President Putin has also backed the bid. The site disappointingly does not have an innovative campaign encouraging participation and engagement such as the Join The Wave idea which we saw last week with the Holland Belgium bid.

The website allows the reader to watch a video on the proposed stadiums for the tournament and read both a bid highlights brochure and a stadium overview brochure. Like the Iberian bid, the website also has a countdown clock to FIFA decision day on December 2^nd.

In terms of social media the site encourages you to spread the word through email, facebook, twitter and MySpace. This is the first time that we’ve seen MySpace in use in this series and it may prove to be a clever tactic by the Russian bid given that over 125 million people use this large social network. On twitter the reader is only allowed to tweet a message which spreads the message ‘Ready to Inspire! – Bidding Nation Russia’ driving traffic back to the official website. Twitter is not used as a communication tool like the other two bids we have seen so far.

The Russian bid can be followed on facebook, flickr and YouTube. On facebook as mentioned previously the bid has a mere 50 followers. The photo collections on flickr mainly focus on official presentations, media meetings and officials in suits. For my money the photos are lacking in the fun and enjoyment that we’ve seen in the previous two bids but you do get to see Chelsea FC owner Roman Ambramovich lending his support. The official YouTube Bidding Nation Russia channel features 9 videos and has just 21 subscribers. The latest video on the bid stadiums has had 10,524 views, which is only a third of the number watching the Holland Belgium bid channel.

Later this week on Thursday we wrap up this 4 part series on ‘The digital battle behind the bidding for the 2018 Football World Cup’ by focusing on a bid far closer to home – the England bid.

Part 2 of a 4 part series

The Holland / Belgium bid

For part 2 of our 4 part series we turn our attention to the digital efforts behind the Holland / Belgium bid. Our Northern European neighbours have the legendary Ruud Gullit, European Championship winner in 1988, as President of their bid. The former Chelsea and AC Milan star has been highly active in supporting the bid and earlier this week he even took to cycling the streets of Paris to do so.

The Holland Belgium bid utilises more social media than the Iberian bid we examined last week and has more followers. The official website is full of informative content and, with features on great goals, a fanzone, a bidbook and a bid monthly magazine, there is more than enough to keep the casual reader or avid fan interested.

The site encourages participation. One unique and interesting way it does this is through the ‘Join the Wave’ campaign. Fans of the two national teams are encouraged to ‘create a virtual wave with the most colourful supporters in international football by uploading their videos to the site.’ At the time of writing, there are 41,776 ‘hands in the air’. This idea is particularly attractive to fans as it focuses on fun and sharing and enables them to share their own personal wave across multiple social media platforms – facebook, Hyves, twitter, Netlog and email.

Put your hands in the air for the Holland Belgium bid

The website also explains how this bid is aiming to be environmentally friendly with its goals of sustainable stadiums and a green World Cup.

Like the Iberian bid website, there is also a comprehensive multimedia zone where photographs are shared on flickr and bid on tour videos can be uploaded onto an official Holland Belgium bid YouTube channel (with over 30,000 upload views) .

As you would expect there is an official facebook page and the bid has its own twitter page, which posts regular news updates on press conferences and presentations (with 635 followers).

The website has links to both Hyves, which is the most popular social network in the Netherlands, and Netlog, which is a Belgian social network site. This is definitely a case of the bid knowing its audience and going where its fans and eyeballs are. This is consistent with some of the ideas we have been advocating here the theuksportsnetwork for some time. On Hyves there are over 1,000 members sharing photos, videos and generating general buzz behind the bid. Netlog is somewhat smaller but still plays an important role with over 100 members again sharing content such as blogs, videos and photos.Neither nation has lifted the FIFA World Cup, but both have had their moments. Holland has reached the final three times – mostrecently earlier this year in South Africa. We will have to wait until December 2^nd to know whether the bid will be successful.

For the next post in the series out next Monday we head East to take a look at the Russian bid’s use of digital media.

Week 1 of a 4 part series

The Spain/Portugal bid for the 2018 Football World Cup

FIFA will officially appoint the host nations for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on December 2^nd, in Zurich. Over the past few months, many column inches in the British press – both front and back pages –  have been dedicated to  the bidding process, the voting system and even allegations of bribery. Initially many countries were bidding for both tournaments but, after some withdrawals, the final outcome is now more certain. The 2018 World Cup will definitely be heading to Europe. There are 4 bids in total coming from Portugal and Spain (together), Belgium and Netherlands (together), Russia and finally, closer to home, England. The 2022 tournament will be played outside of Europe – and in the mix for that World Cup there are bids from Qatar, Australia, South Korea, Japan and the United States.

The FIFA executive committee will look at various criteria when selecting the host nation such as the suitability of stadia, supporting infrastructure (transport, hotel accommodation etc) and much more. Given our love of all things digital here at the uksportsnetwork, we thought it would be an interesting exercise to look at what each European nation is doing in the digital space. Focusing on digital content and social media each week for the next 4 weeks, we will appraise and compare each of the 4 European bids for the 2018 World Cup.

Will the World Champions co-host the event with Portugal in 2018?

We start the series by looking at the various digital platforms used by the Iberian bid from Portugal and Spain. The official website has a welcoming look to it, is highly informative and also holds a multi-media zone which stores logos, videos and corporate images. On the right hand side of the homepage there is a panel which really engages with the reader and football fan and gives you the opportunity to share content and interact with others. Firstly, there is a countdown clock (in seconds) to  decision day on December 2^nd. There is also a rotating gallery of famous backers of the tournament (Ronaldo and the FIFA World Cup trophy obviously make appearances here),  a video section where you can see an official presentation from the organizing committee, an opportunity to view each of the stadiums slated for the tournament, a results library for the two countries and further files relating to the Iberian bid.

For users of social media the panel guides to the YouTube Iberian bid channel where you can see a video of an official presentation (can England seriously compete with spectacular beaches like that?). You can also click to the official Facebook and twitter pages, which are supporting the bid.

The Facebook page has 2,800 likes at this stage and the typical array of photos, videos and posts on the wall and separate tabs that you would find elsewhere. The page does seem to lack a degree of interaction and participation with only 2 photos provided by others. We can also only see 7 likes for the last comment posted on November 2^nd. You could also argue that the posts are not regular enough.

As for twitter, the numbers are similar and, at the time of writing, the page has 2,935 followers and is following 579. The tweets are fairly regular, provide content (videos typically) and interact with others. However, given the combined population of Portugal and Spain is just over 56 million, the bid’s committee would probably expect a few more followers in twitter for two football obsessed nations.

La Candidatura Ibérica has 2,935 followers on twitter

Spain is presently the European and World football champions. Over the next few weeks we will determine whether, in digital terms, we think the Iberian bid is the best in Europe. Next week we head north to Belgium and the Netherlands.

The alleged match fixing charges against Pakistani cricketers which have been dominating the sporting headlines recently raise two interesting questions. Firstly, will there always be match fixing in sport? Secondly, is sport really any different to any other business?

History would suggest that the answer to the first question is unfortunately a resounding yes. In ancient Greece, Olympians had to take an oath to maintain the integrity of the competition but bribes were still common. Match fixing is probably as old as sport itself.

Getting back to cricket – the English game, which first attracted gamblers as early as the 1660s, is no stranger to match fixing controversy. A decade ago Hanse Cronjé, the then South Africa captain, was charged with match fixing and players from India, Pakistan, Kenya and South Africa have all been banned since 2000.

Our national game, football, has also been tainted by match fixing. Back in 1964, eight players from the FA were jailed for it. More recently, in 1999, a Malaysian based betting group was caught installing a device to disrupt the floodlights at Charlton Athletic’s ground and further investigations revealed that the group had also been responsible for floodlight failure at both West Ham and Crystal Palace. Another footballing scandal involved Matt Le Tissier who “revealed that he once attempted to play a part in a £10,000 betting scam while a player with Southampton”.

Across the channel, French football was shocked by a match fixing scandal in 1993 involving powerhouse club Olympique de Marseille (OM). In the year that OM won the Champions League, the club fixed a match with Valenciennes. The club was subsequently stripped of its French championship. Financial irregularities linked to the club president, Bernard Tapie, were also discovered. As punishment, the club suffered a forced relegation to the second division.

Similarly, Italian football was thrown into turmoil in 2006 when several major teams, including then league champions Juventus in addition to AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggina, were all found guilty of match-fixing (the clubs actually influenced the appointment of match referees).

There are also ongoing investigations into match fixing in several other European countries and sports. In August 2010 charges were filed against two men alleged to have attempted to influence at least 10 football matches in Germany and 14 elsewhere in Europe. As I write this, John Higgins, the snooker star, is also maintaining his ‘100 per cent’ innocence into allegations he threw frames.

Arguably the most famous case of match-fixing in sport is the ‘Black Sox’ scandal. In 1919, the Chicago White Sox threw the baseball World Series. Eight members of that team received life bans for deliberately losing to the Cincinnati Reds. The ‘Black Sox’ scandal resulted from players being linked to the Chicago underworld, and set a pattern of established crime syndicates being associated with professional sports match fixing.

All these cases, and this is by no means a comprehensive list, merely demonstrate that sport is a reflection of the human character. Unfortunately that means that traits such as greed, arrogance, self-interest, to name a few, will always be present in sport. The stakes in sport are high and the punishment for breaking rules too light. The incentive to throw matches is always going to be there – and I haven’t even touched upon other sporting crimes such as doping, cheating on the field itself, breaching salary caps and other matters.

Getting back to the second question, sport is therefore no different to any other business (just look at some of the banking scandals on Wall St).  However, the ‘rotten apples’ in sport are definitely in a minority.

Nearly all sports are played, administered and governed properly and in the right spirit. Sport is far from being broken. The growth in popularity of sport on a global scale is living proof of that. The examples of good sportsmanship are just too numerous to mention but one famous one I’d like to leave you with took place in English football in the 1999/2000 season. In a surprising demonstration of fair play from a player previously banned for pushing a referee, the Italian striker Paolo Di Canio caught “the ball rather than shoot when Everton goalkeeper Paul Gerrard was on the ground injured”.

Will Carling famously referred to the game in England as being run by ’57 old farts’ back in 1995 when he was national captain. However, English rugby (union) has come a long way since then. Admittedly results haven’t been entirely awe inspiring following the 2003 World Cup triumph – but in commercial terms the future looks rosy.

According to SportsPro magazine, in 2009 “games at Twickenham generated £29.2 million for the RFU, accounting for a quarter of their £118 million turnover. The union’s gate receipts have actually increased by £4.1 million since the 2006-2007 season.” Last season in the 6 nations “England could have sold out its 82,000 capacity Twickenham stadium twice over for each of its two home games”.  Additionally, “England received the largest economic boost from the tournament, with a total of US $132.82 million spent by fans on match tickets, transport, food and beverage sales, accommodation, merchandising, and at city attractions, and by sponsors on marketing”.

Hospitality and marketing have been important aspects of the increased commercialisation of rugby in the country where Webb Ellis first picked up the ball. In terms of sponsorship, England’s involvement with O2, its principal sponsor since 1995 when it was known as BT Cellnet, has been both beneficial and lucrative for rugby. England’s mixed broadcasting package, unique to the home unions, with both Sky and the BBC ensures strong annual TV revenue. The BBC covers home games in the 6 nations while Sky covers the autumn internationals and much more – from U20 internationals to the Army and Navy game. Looking to the future, England will also host the 8^th Rugby World Cup in 2015. The Rugby World Cup is the third largest sporting event after the football world cup and the Olympics. When staged in France, in 2007, it delivered “a total economic impact estimated at up to £2.1 billion” for the host nation.

Domestically the picture looks bright too. Aviva, the fifth largest insurer in the world, has recently replaced Guinness as the official title sponsor of England’s premier club rugby competition. In a 4 year deal, Aviva will pump £20 million into the renamed Aviva Premiership. In another exciting move, JP Morgan Asset Management earlier this year launched a Sevens tournament for the 12 premiership clubs. This is a bold move which aims to build on the momentum that entry into the 2016 Olympics has given the shortened version of the rugby game.

There are, however, some small dark clouds for rugby in England. The so-called ‘Bloodgate’ scandal has left a bad taste in the mouth (quite literally). The affair has tarnished the image and reputation of both Harlequins (one of the oldest clubs in the game) and the sport in general. It would certainly have been scrutinised by sponsors even though Etihad Airways has signed a one year extension to its sponsorship with the Harlequins club.

The relationship between the Premiership clubs and the national squad is not always a comfortable one. Like in football, there are arguably too many overseas stars in the domestic game. If selection of these players curtails the long-term playing development of home grown talent the results of the national side may suffer in years to come. Some players in the national side are also plying their trade overseas and this has led to friction between their respective clubs and Martin Johnson’s national squad. This was notably the case when the French club Toulon refused to release Jonny Wilkinson for a recent England squad summer camp. To keep revenues coming in, the RFU needs to carefully manage these issues to ensure that its strongest side runs out at Twickenham in order to attract sponsors, broadcasters and keep fans streaming through the turnstiles.

The upcoming season promises to be an exciting one as the rugby community looks forward to the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. Whether Martin Johnson and his England team will get their hands on the Webb Ellis Trophy again remains to be seen.

One thing we do know for sure – on the commercial front English rugby is in great health.

Text books will tell you that sport should be one of the few businesses to be recession proof. The argument you’ll read is that sport has legions of loyal fans and players who will remain committed and contribute financially even in difficult times. Such people will not be prepared to compromise on sport and will instead cut back on other items in the weekly spend.

Is there any substance to this argument?  A recent study by Sheffield Halam University for Sport England would seem to suggest that the answer is yes.  “Sport now plays a bigger part in England’s economy than at any time for the last 25 years”. Sport is boosting the wider economy and “accounts for 2.3% of all consumer spending and 1.8% of employment”. The study reveals that ”Consumer spending on sport was up by 138% in real terms between 1985 and 2008 to £17.3bn.”

Unsurprisingly, football has been an important catalyst in transforming UK sport to what it is today – a sophisticated, multi-million pound business.  Integral to all this is the “explosion of media rights” where the Premier League has played a significant role. Sportswear sales are up and shirt sponsorship deals for football clubs are bringing in large revenue streams too. This year the Premier League clubs have grossed £99.75 million for their shirt sponsorship deals. Liverpool and Manchester United both signed £20 million deals per year with Standard Chartered and AON respectively. The Old Trafford club switched to a more profitable deal after its previous one with AIG for £14m.

However, if you look beneath the surface there are signs that the recession may be having an impact. Going back to Old Trafford, Manchester United released an extra 4,000 season tickets on general sale in July this year. For a club that is typically many times over-subscribed, this is a rare step. The club issued a statement insisting that their sales are “healthy in a time of recession” and pointed out that late renewals for 2009-10 ticket holders are being dealt with. A similar story is developing on the other side of the pond. The new $1.6 billion Meadowlands stadium in New Jersey, joint home of the New York Jets and New York Giants NFL football teams, with a capacity of 82,500, is having difficulty selling its seats. Back in June, the Jets was forced to make dramatic price reductions in personal seat licenses (season-tickets) as a measure to prevent vacant seats as the season starts.

Sport is a business like any other, but it does have its own unique characteristics. Sport should be competitive, tribal and co-operative (especially in the US at the team level). Like all other businesses, however, there are certain disciplines to follow. Without being too simplistic, clubs should focus on the product (performance and results), grow revenue streams, smartly manage expenses,  closely monitor its competitors (of which there are many in the entertainment industry) and listen to its customers. If sport can emphasise such business disciplines, there is every reason to believe it can achieve one very important victory – beating the recession.

Even in the sports industry where results on the field typically speak for themselves, communication is becoming increasingly more important and valuable.

Take Arsenal FC for example. The North London club is adopting a more sophisticated sports marketing model and central to this is a shift to a US-influenced corporate communication policy. The first step towards the new business model began in January 2009 when the club appointed Ivan Gazidis, then deputy commissioner of Major League Soccer in the USA, as its new chief executive. The club’s publicized recent search for a new head of communications, to replace Amanda Docherty after 12 years in the post, is further evidence of the club’s new approach to communication.

Arsenal is seeking an authentic voice which can articulate the brand values that the club represents. On a daily basis, Arsenal FC, like any other business, has to share meaningful and relevant information with customers (fans), sponsors, partners and investors – increasingly on a global scale.

The chosen person for the open head of communications position will have to answer to and work with the great Arsene Wenger who has had a colossal presence and influence at the club since his arrival in 1996. Wenger himself is a great communicator who can converse in six languages, has a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Strasbourg and is somebody who has real confidence in statistical analysis. In other words, Wenger and his coaching staff, who manage the club’s assets on the pitch, also understand the importance of information and communication.

The Gunners were valued by Forbes in 2010 as the 3rd most valuable soccer team in the world after Manchester United and Real Madrid, with an expected value of £837 million ($1.2 billion). The club was ranked 8^th most valuable sporting franchise overall. Arsenal’s shares are still traded on the Plus market, an exchange for smaller companies, meaning that anyone can buy shares.  So anyone could potentially have a vested interest in the regular statements from Avenell Road, Highbury N5.

If the club can successfully embed the new corporate communication policy, it should find it easier to develop and communicate brand values domestically and globally – and that means generating more revenue for the club.