It has been well publicised recently that the world’s richest football club has taken the step of getting a YouTube brand channel.  To many this may get a ‘so what’ reaction and many of the articles so far have only mentioned the news but not looked into what this means to the club and for football.

If this had been in any other industry it would not make the news as most decent sized businesses have their own channel that they spend extra on to make it look cool.

But this is football and so far they have stuck to basic marketing strategies and the biggest marketing costs they will have is a club website.  Most have now (with some prodding) ventured into the new domains of Facebook and Twitter but YouTube has been largely forgotten about. But why?

This is a hard one for clubs.  They are watched on TV by millions of people, at least twice a week these days, with the games being beamed all over the world.  But, and it is a big BUT, they don’t own any of the match footage.  This is controlled by the Premier League and broadcasters and there are numerous deals in place.

One slightly odd possibility is, though I’ve never seen the contracts (strangely enough), is that any match footage is not allowed to be shown on social media platforms.  It may sound strange but am 95% sure on this one that is true.

So this leaves clubs with only their own content to use.  What this does is narrow down the field of who is likely to produce their own content and use a video platform to the big clubs.  Those who have their own TV studios and channels, usually on their website.  Those clubs such as Man Utd, City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.

One thing to point at this stage is that gaining a YouTube brand channel is not cheap and certainly not free (sorry to those were getting excited about what they can do with a channel).  This is another restrictor when it comes to which clubs will follow suit with City.

What City have done, and managed to leap in front of the rest in the process, is take it seriously as an additional revenue generator and seen the possibilities.  They started slowly with a normal ‘official’ YouTube channel, much the same as any of us can set up if we so wish.

This allowed them to give away content that would otherwise sit on their CityTV channel being played out to a small audience.  When you are building from scratch to develop a global brand as City are, then reaching out to new fans is a must and YouTube allows that to happen.

Now they have over 4,000 subscribers to the channel and deliver regular (good) content that fans are interested in then they have been able to take the next step. A Brand Channel!

So what does this allow them to do now?

Basically it allows the club to customise how their page looks and what it can do including the channel banners, background image and branding box.  They can also moderate comments and automatically redirect people depending on there geographical location (could be a good one for the future).  It also opens up the possibilities with gadgets (opening up YouTube’s API), syndication (channel can live anywhere on the web) and metrics.  I am a fan of ‘annotations’ which allow the linking off to other videos/sites via clickable links within the video, something you only get with a brand channel.

This last one is key to any brand being on the platform.  It gives you great information on how videos (and the channel) is performing.  It can also tell you more about the content you are putting up and how engaged with it people find it.

They have already made changes to the page with links to areas of their website.  I especially like the map integration where you can buy tickets for upcoming games (as you can see below)…

There are opportunities to get even more creative as time goes by and we’ll see how it goes, as am sure other clubs will be doing.  What it does open up when it comes to revenue, I’ve finally got round to mentioning it, is the advertising/sponsorship opportunities it presents.

They can look at running sponsors messaging on their site, incorporate annotation links within videos, have a company sponsor their page and open up another opportunity, link off to sponsor channels/videos….. there is a lot they can do to monetise this space.

Here’s what those involved had to say about the partnership;

Richard Ayers, Head of Digital, for Manchester City (who has been nominated for a DADI award!), said:

“Manchester City is having a phenomenal year of growth and development online. Our goal is to deliver a market leading experience for fans in terms of online video.  That means delivering the great content we make to where the audience is – i.e. on YouTube. This deal is the first move in laying the foundations of our syndication strategy and is part of a series of deals to expand our online capabilities. The ability to extend our reach and to increase accessibility to audiences is great, but we’re also looking forward to exploring the differentiating factors of YouTube, like using annotations, making bespoke interactive video and, more than anything else, becoming part of the thriving YouTube community.”

Jeff Nathenson, Head of Sports Partnerships for YouTube, said:

“We are excited that Manchester City has become the first English Premier League club to become a commercial partner with YouTube.  They are proving to be an exciting club both on the pitch and in the digital media space.  We believe this kind of deal will have a global impact, allowing them to reach new fans in new territories with compelling original content.”

To finish, here are some examples of cool brand channels and what City could look to achieve (if they want to spend the money on doing it).  Its great to see them pushing the boundaries and hopefully they will pull others with them.

Today is probably the most frenetic day in British football with the summer transfer window shutting at 11pm tonight.  Millions of pounds (and Euro’s) will be shelled out by clubs who find themselves in desperate need of reinforcements to see them through until at least the January transfer window.

Of course we are going to see the likes of Tottenham Hotspur (aren’t they always involved in last minute activity?), Stoke City, Queens Park Rangers (now they have some money to spend under Tony Fernandes), Sunderland, Newcastle and Arsenal (of course) being linked with every player imaginable.

Although fans, managers and players all moan about it being unfair and having to pay inflated fees because of the last second rush to get players in.  But we still live it don’t we!  Is there anything better than watching the BBC Sport website or flicking the TV on to watch SkySports News and their over-hyped countdown with reporters based at every training ground, stadium and hospital (for the medicals).

We saw an explosion of interest in January as Twitter came into its own with #DeadlineDay being a top trend.  Liverpool was mentioned 301,169 times during the month as they spent almost £50m on two major signings in Andy Carroll and Luis Saurez.

So who is going to come out of today with a big grin and who is going to rueing their luck in the last day gamble?  And how is the best way to follow all the action?

BBC

The BBC are running their #BBCFootball tag so that you can follow the gossip and breaking deals with their reporters on the ground.  They have also amalgamated all their news into one feed on their website with SportsDay Live – Transfer Deadline Day.  You can also follow the reporters directly on Twitter to catch the news as it happens – why not set up a list of these guys and watch as the deals unfold before your eyes…..

Paul Plunkett

John Sinnott

Phil McNulty

David Ornstein

Juliette Ferrington

Dan Roan

Howard Nurse

Chris McLaughlin

Ian Dennis

SkySports

Sky will be running their news as it happens mainly through their 24 hour a day TV channel SkySports News.  They also have their website which not only has confirmed news but also has an interesting crowdsource area where all rumours gathered from members of the public are shown (usually something like “I just saw Ronaldo getting off a train in Stoke” or similar).  You can catch up with these in the Rumour Room.

The main feed on Twitter for the channel is going to be the SkySports News official account.  They have also put together a list on Twitter where you can follow their reporters/presenters and get breaking news straight from the horses mouth (so to speak).  Their main people are;

Rob Parrish

Pete Fraser

Mark Buckingham

Pete O’Rourke

Bryan Swanson

Ed Chamberlain

Georgie Thompson

Other Links

Of course there are more ways to follow what is happening but the main action today is easily going to be on Twitter.  The record for the most number of tweets per minute has recently been broken ay the MTV Music Video Awards by the news of Beyonce’s pregnancy with 8,868 tweets per second being achieved.  Can today surpass it?  With more people joining twitter every day then these records are going to continue to be shattered.

ITV appear to be taking a slightly more reserved approach with the news being shown on their website and news through the official channel of @itvfootball

You can also follow any number of journalists who will be covering the days events (and having a very late night);

Oliver Kay

Paul Hayward

Ollie Holt

Dan Silver

Guillem Balague

Ian McGarry

Have fun watching the day of transfers – I know many players are excited to see what happens (those not involved in the action but watching on TV) and I will be glued to the set after work this evening whilst watching Twitter on my iPad.  The full multi-screen experience!

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.

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.

Earlier this week the New York Times had an interesting article on sports broadcasting as viewed through the recent YouTube – IPL Season 3 experiment. While the financial winners and losers of the arrangement are not known, we do know that it was a win for many fans, including myself, who viewed matches and highlights. In fact, according to the article:

“About 50 million viewers tuned in to YouTube’s I.P.L. channel, 25 percent more than Google executives said they expected when they signed the deal in January. Approximately 40 percent of those viewers were outside India.”

Yesterday I wrote about Google’s Chrome ads and how there were more than just about speed. I think the Google has made another shrewd move with the [Google-owned] YouTube – IPL tie-up. Just as they are challenging Apple in the ‘creative’ space (again, see the Chrome ads), they are also positioning themselves to challenge the likes of ESPN (via their ESPN3 online sports channel).

By partnering with the IPL, YouTube not only has a direct plug in to the burgeoning Indian market, but also to the high end sponsors that come along with a property as massively popular as the IPL. Again from the NY Times article:

“Google signed on seven advertisers in India, including Coca-Cola and Hewlett-Packard, two in Britain and one in the United States, where YouTube showed matches 15 minutes after they finished.”

Now it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to see a vision of the future where fans from around the world are watching live sporting events via YouTube on their Nexus One Google phones. That really can’t be more than a couple years away at most. Just as Rupert Murdoch grabbed rights to English Premier League football to legitimize Sky Sports (and to some degree NFL rights to legitimize FOX in the U.S.), Google could tie up exclusive mobile rights as a trojan horse for the Nexus One.

Perhaps the biggest problem Google will face is that both the properties themselves as well as the current broadcast rights holders are organized or technologically savvy enough to make this work. They’re stuck in an out-dated system that often bundles mobile and television rights to the same outlets, regardless of their abilities to maximize the digital opportunities.

Ultimately Google, if they are indeed headed in this direction, may need to pay over the top for mobile or online rights. I’d reckon that’s a gamble worth taking, especially for a sport such as cricket which is on a global upswing right now

The signs have been there. From Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat to my own version: The (Sports Marketing) World Is Flat, it’s been clear that India was a country about to explode as a global leader from a sports perspective. Maybe not as participants – though that wouldn’t surprise me at all – but as viewers, and more importantly as consumers, the subcontinent (and the Indian diaspora) is poised to change the global face of sports marketing.

Anecdotal perhaps, but here are a couple of things to be aware of:

Earlier this year it was announced that YouTube would begin live streaming of select sports content. NFL football? English Premier League soccer? No, IPL cricket.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1dXehhLVl8[/youtube]

Yes, that’s a 4 hour 30 minute YouTube video. Cricket, more akin to religion than sport in India, is exploding all over the world. When ESPN bought the stellar cricket website, cricinfo, not many people here in the States took notice. Or rather, not many in the sports marketing world took notice. But ESPN saw what was happening. They saw that during the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup cricinfo got it’s highest percentage of page views from India. No prizes for guessing that one, but which country came next? The United States. Shortly after the tournament ESPN announced the purchase, and even today the U.S. ranks fourth for audience percentage on cricinfo, trailing India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

As cricket’s popularity continues to grow internationally, India’s players, teams and sponsors figure to cash in and they’ll be able to thank YouTube for helping to spread the word. As of this writing, the IPL’s official YouTube page had more than 16 million channel views and more than 55,000 subscribers. By contrast, ESPN’s official YouTube channel has more than 33,000 subscribers.

Outside of soccer, cricket is perhaps the most popular sport in the world. If any other sport could make an argument it would be F1. Another sport in which India is poised to become a major player.

It started in 2005 when Narain Karthikeyan became the first Indian to secure a ride in F1. Leave it to consummate showman and legendary hustler Eddie Jordan to be the first to try to capitalize on India’s huge potential by giving Karthikeyan a chance. Ultimately, Karthikeyan may have been a pioneer, but he didn’t achieve breakout success. Since then an Indian-based team,Force India, fronted by billionaire Vijay Mallya, has joined the F1 circus and a new driver, Karun Chandhok, has also entered the F1 ranks (see this Forbes India post for more on Karun and F1 in India).

We know that Indians are fans of cricket, but what about F1? That’s not really their sport is it? Well, a good friend, Mansi Trivedi has recently been doing some research on the subject which she was kind enough to share with me. I was somewhat surprised after reading some interviews she did with F1 fans of Indian backgrounds. This certainly speaks to my ignorance, but they sounded like Italian, British or Brazilian F1 fans (what should they have sounded like?). They loved the drama, the speed and the technology. They watched with friends, had favorite drivers, and though most had never seen a race in-person, that was high on their ultimate wish lists. According to ESPN-Star Sports, there will be 22.6 million such fans for the entire 2010 F1 season in India. With the F1-branded iPhone mobile app seemingly an instant hit, the sport is well placed to take advantage of this new fan base and the technology they are using to stay connected to friends and family who are spread out across the globe.

Kunal Shah is calling 2010 The Year of Indian Motorsport and with a round of the 2011 F1 championships scheduled to take place in India at the Jaypee Group Circuit in Uttar Pradesh, expect F1, and sports in general, to continue to gain traction in India.

Did you know that last week three out of the four FA Cup fifth-round replays were broadcast live – not on the TV but on the internet.

And also that the games were not broadcast illegally by foreign sites such as iraqigoals.com but by the FA’s official website and by ITV.com (who I happen to work for).

While many of us who work online would like to think that this heralds the start of something big, the actual reasons behind last Wednesday’s events are much more mundane – The FA have been showing games on their site all season following the collapse of Setanta, while ITV were showing Inter Milan v Chelsea on the same night and couldn’t persuade any of the FA Cup teams to play on Tuesday or Thursday.

That said there are many people who believe the future of football broadcasting lies online.

A story in the Daily Mail last week claimed that the Premier League have decided to set up their own TV operation to service the overseas market and in future could look to go it alone in the domestic market as well. If this were the case there’s no doubt they would look to screen games online using a pay-per-view model.

The FA are also thought to be thinking along the same lines especially following the success of this season’s Cup matches. New chief executive Ian Watmore is known to be a big fan of new media and could decide to go down a new route if the FA fail to attract big offers for the next round of their TV rights. Although this issue is slightly clouded after the FA sold the rights previously held by Setanta to ESPN who begin their FA Cup coverage next season.

And even newspapers could have a stake in a new online future after the relative success of last October’s experiment when England’s World Cup qualifier in Ukraine was broadcast live on a number of national newspaper sites.

It’s clear the technical problems which have previously hampered such plans  have now been pretty much solved with online streams offering decent, if not brilliant, picture quality while issues around buffering are not as common as they were.

But for online streaming really to take off, the likes of Sky, ESPN and ITV would have to be persuaded of the economic benefits of moving some of their games exclusively onto the web and at the moment the arguments just don’t exist.

But that’s not to say they never will.

At the moment it’s possible to watch all ITV games live on their website, while you can also watch Sky games live if you’ve bought certain subscription packages so it’s clear that the broadcasters have not completely ruled the web out of the equation.

But, personally, I believe it could be the top clubs who could be the drivers of change although not necessarily in a positive way.

The Premier League may have it faults but its collective bargaining policy where all the league’s teams benefit from TV money is one area where it can be admired.

However I often wonder how much longer the big clubs will tolerate this for, especially given the precarious financial position many find themselves in.

While Manchester United and Chelsea have full-fledged TV channels many other clubs offer smaller online versions on their websites which, with a bit of investment, could be transformed into the broadcasting platforms needed to show live games.

It is coming, but we may have to wait some time before Chelsea v Manchester United is live on your PC.