The Football League launched its free Official Football League Clubs iPhone app at the end of August and is available to download for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

It covers all the teams that are covered by the Football League Interactive deal, which currently stands at 65 of the 72 npower Football League clubs.  So if you follow Leeds United, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, Accrington, Aldershot or Stevenage unfortunately you wont be able to get your clubs updates.

Check on the list of clubs when you have downloaded the app to make sure yours is there.

If you are one of the lucky ones you can get some great features including latest news, fixtures, stats and player profiles.

The app also connects users to their twitter and/or Facebook accounts so it even easier to share comments and views with friends.

“Fans live and breathe football and want to be kept up-to-date wherever they are in the world at a time that suits them,” said Ian Ritchie, Chairman of FLi.

“We designed the Official Football League Clubs’ iPhone app with this in mind, using innovative technology to deliver access to rich and interactive content, tailored to your club.  Now you never need to be out of touch with your team.”

You can upgrade to the premium service (have to make some extra income somehow) by paying £4.99 for the season to access match video highlights 24 hours after the game and incorporates Google Mapping to make sure you don’t get lost on the way to the stadium (useful for away days?).

The Football League partnered up with Threepipe to help spread the message through social media and traditional media outlets to encourage fans of the teams to sign up. 

Looking through Google, it appears to have worked with messages appearing on club websites and fan forums announcing the launch and providing download links.

Sadly if you have a Blackberry, Android or Nokia then you will have to sit by your Apple friends and catch their updates.  Perhaps we will gain an update as to whether any other platforms will be catered for in the coming weeks.

Have you downloaded it?  What are the pro’s and con’s of the service?

Most businesses are familiar with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems and will be using them in one form or another to give them insights on their customers, their purchasing and contact preferences and helping them maintain the relationship. As social media and social networking activity steams ahead with no sign of slowing, Social CRM has been getting an increasing amount of airtime.

Jermiah Owyang has compiled a good list of Social CRM (sCrm) vendors and I would expect to see this list grow over the next 12 months. As social media monitoring has matured and the ability to pull insights from the myriad of online conversations and UGC is now established, the next step is to overlay that data onto existing CRM systems. People are disclosing more and more information in their public social profiles and business can use this to provide more personal customer service and build deeper relationships with them.

CRM & Social Media Monitoring Convergence

It should be a natural step for the incumbent CRM vendors to look at integrating a robust listening tool to their current offerings. We are already seeing it in action, Radian6 integrates with Salesforce for example and I wonder how much longer before an Oracle or SAP buy up one of the monitoring vendors. We have seen community platforms like Lithium acquire Scoutlabs to form a social CRM offering, email marketing firm ExactTarget scooped up Filtrbox and Attensity bought Biz360. Jacob Morgan has a good take on it here and has a great diagram showing the SCRM process, check it out.

I think we will see social media monitoring augment existing CRM platforms and in that respect, all CRM systems will or can become social CRM. So, if I was in the CRM business I would definitely be looking to integrate and/or acquire a monitoring vendor to add a layer of ‘social’ to my software. I would then look to build, borrow or steal an engagement platform on top of that to produce an all encompassing social media management system. Again, we are already seeing this develop with the likes of Spredfast, Attensity, Involver and Radian6’s engagement console (which I haven’t yet seen in action).

Culture over Technology

But…is the software really the point? For a business to get the benefit out of a sCRM or even a current CRM system, they need to care about the customer and not just about mining their data for push marketing initiatives. If a business understands that the customer has become increasingly empowered and now demands to be in control over how they interact with an organization and vice versa then they are already using socialCRM! If they don’t understand this and don’t move to ‘operationalise’ their business accordingly to act upon the insights gained through social media…then no amount of cool technology will change that. It’s a cultural thing that most businesses aren’t yet ready for.

As a business, make sure you understand the ‘why’ behind all of this. There is some sweet software on the way and if you are set up internally to exploit it to the full then there are huge advantages to be gained. But it needs to start from within a business’ culture…they need to begin by being in the ‘give a shit about my customers’ business!

www.spearfishlabs.com

Geolocation has been the smash hit in the social media scene of 2010. Coming from relative obscurity in early 2010, Foursquare alone now boasts over 3 million users. With the NYC start up recently breaking it’s own record for most new users in one day, the social media darling has recently took funding to the tune of $20m while reportedly also turning down a buyout offer from Yahoo.

With Foursquare beginning to assert its authority in geolocation, one of it’s biggest possible rivals decided to step in. Earlier this month Facebook announced ‘Facebook Places’, the social networking heavyweight with over 500 million users took geolocation from niche into the mainstream overnight.

Where as location based services Foursquare, Gowalla, Hot Potato, Yelp and others relied on social networking to spread their message, Facebook turned the tables and are now trying to stamp its authority in the geolocation game by creating its own platform 

With all these recent developments, let’s look at the big players in the game right now, what they currently offer, what they may offer in the future and how sports marketers should be trying to take advantage of geolocation.

Thought geolocation was just for geeks? This billboard in Times Square begs to differ.

Facebook Places

So far Facebook Places is yet to really show its hand, while currently only available to users in the United States, the social media giant hasn’t actually released full details on how businesses can take advantage of the platform, but let’s start with a few titbits from what we know so far.

You can claim your location: Whether it’s your ball park, your front office or your training facility, you can now claim it and anything else you own. If it’s not already there, feel free to create it yourself.

You can link your Fan Page to your ‘Place’: You are able to link your Facebook ‘Place’ to your Fan Page, so do that ASAP.

Yep, that’s about all we really know so far.

For more info on Facebook Places, check out the slide below for a full introduction.

 
Facebook Places for Advertisers
 

Why Use Facebook Places?
This is one for the future. With very few features available so far, it is very hard to tell you to focus on Facebook Places – as being in such an early phase of its development it’s impossible to tell where it will go – but once the platform finds it’s feet, it will be crucial to your digital marketing plan.

Possible additions?

• Facebook Places ads: Ads that target you due to your location
• More game aspects: Features similar to mayorships, rewards, etc
• Hot Potato features (which are covered further down) this includes in-venue messaging

Foursquare

Currently the number one place for all your geolocation needs. It has the most exposure, has the biggest userbase (specifically for geolocation) and also allows you to take control of your venue. Not only these factors, but we have case studies. Manchester City, from the English Premier League, was the first team in all of professional sports to have an official presence on Foursquare. They had their own sub-page on the foursquare.com website, as well as the ability to let their fans “follow” them on Foursquare and become fans.

Whilst reading the fantastic Partnership Activation newsletter (sign up for if you haven’t already for some great sports activation/branding news) put together by my friend Brian Gainor.  I came across something that really stood out and made me take notice.

On the Sports Technology section there was an item relating to the new hospitality experience being enjoyed by McLaren F1 hospitality guests this season.  So, what have they done that is so ground breaking?

In a market that has run stale with companies cutting back on their hospitality expenditure, there is a need to be different and offer a more exclusive and exciting experience to those attending.  Vodafone McLaren Mercedes (VMM) have used a company called Marvellous who have built a fantastic mobile app for them that really is worth taking note of for all those in the sports hospitality industry.

The brief was to mix the need to enhance and prolong the hospitality experience with the showcasing of cutting edge technology that the team, and the sport, embody.  I think they achieved this and more.

The ‘VMM Guest Hospitality App’ is downloaded to guests handsets before F1 events and, by utilising barcode scanning technology, gives guests secure entry to the Paddock Club with exclusive F1 content, including race schedules, location map, driver profiles, guest contacts and even a city guide featuring the coolest bars and places to go.

The Augmented Reality App allowed guests to aim their handset cameras around the track to pick up dynamic content and info, based on image recognition.   This is a great use of the technology and it fits so well with the sports profile and the famous F1 track experience.

Jon Carney, Marvellous chief executive, said: “The android platform gave us the opportunity to enhance the guest’s user experience, by allowing us to incorporate features such as real-time ticket scanning and checking- in, as well as augmented reality of McLaren’s garage, bringing it to the forefront of leading technology.”

You can see why it stood out so much for me and will set the benchmark for others I am sure.  Imagine, it can easily work within football stadiums, on Cup Final days, within the Olympics, Athletics World Championships…. any major event or stadium. 

Wimbledon had a similar app this year that was in partnership with their technology partner IBM.  Technology is becoming more prevalent within the sports hospitality industry and means it could regain some of the lost sparkle that being a VIP should have.

Have you used the VMM Guest Hospitality App or the Wimbledon one?  Or do you know of other uses in this way of technology within the sports industry?

Love to hear your views as always

Geo-location platforms such as Foursquare and Gowolla have been much hyped and talked about over recent months but is the new social networking technology going to take off here in the UK?

A Forrester report that I found courtesy of a recent post by @dmfreedom (aka David Fuller) on this very subject contests the hype and suggests there is still a long way to before we are all checking (if ever).  The US is where it began and would expect the take up to be the highest but…

• 96% of US online adults have never used a location based mobile app
• Of those that do 99% don’t update more than once a week
• Only 16% of respondents had ever heard of such apps (Foursquare, Gowolla, Loopt, etc)

 Whether Foursquare, Gowalla and the like are going to succeed in making the jump for its popularity to be up there with Twitter is certainly not a given. 

The idea behind these platforms is to bring online experiences to the real world, blurring the boundaries a little, by using the GPS capabilities on your mobile phone.  You can check in, leave tips, access badges and notify friends of your location by ‘push-notifications’ via Twitter and Facebook.

Businesses around the world have been working it out for themselves with varying results.  We know that there is a massive opportunity for smaller businesses especially restaurants, bars, coffee shops and the like and it can work for bigger organisations as well.  The rewarding of the ‘mayor’ is the most basic of those possible and creates basic competition to check in more times than anyone else to claim it.

I have been using it on my Blackberry and I find myself either forgetting to check in or not having a signal when I do remember.  I’ve yet to find a venue that offers any rewards to its Foursquare visitors so have I seen any benefit from it?  No, not yet.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel that it be of great benefit within a business strategy but so far we have a small, scattered approach to its use.  The opportunity to reward your most loyal customers, encourage people to visit you more often and make a visit a more engaging and worthwhile experience is one that really can work for you.

You have to remember that mobile location apps are still small in terms of reach.  Around 1.5m people are on Foursquare and a few hundred thousand on Gowalla globally.  I have not seen the figure for UK usage but it won’t be large (if anyone has it then do let me know, be interesting to see).

But to get people using it they need reason to do so.  If they gain benefits from coming to your business, stadium or event then of course they will download the app and start using it.  It needs to be integrated, as all social media efforts do, to other marketing areas so that you build awareness.  Why would you run a Foursquare promotion without telling anybody?  Make it visible and make it easy.

Sport has been slower on the uptake as the benefits are still being figured out.  Again the US has taken the lead in making it work for them by encouraging fans to check in at grounds and accessing offers.  CNN teamed up with Foursquare during the World Cup, an example of a major brand buying into the concept and testing new ground.

Umbro, shirt sponsor of Manchester City FC, decided to use this new platform at the City of Manchester stadium for the Spurs game on 5^th May 2010.  The objective was to break the record for the most amount of check-ins at one venue which only stood at a few hundred prior to the game.

With 48,000 people coming to the stadium it was going to be easy… wasn’t it?  Well, all did not work out as planned.  By all counts the check-ins topped out at 148, some distance short of the record.

So what went wrong? 

It was certainly a good idea but with its minimal reach people probably just didn’t know about.  Was it advertised outside of Twitter and on a few websites?  Were there posters at the ground helping push the attempt?  I don’t think so.  A good case of right idea, wrong time.

There could be certainly a place for geo-location technology but sports organisations are only just getting to grips with Facebook and Twitter so I think we have some way left to go yet.

To muddy the waters somewhat more, the rumours are that Google is in talks with gaming companies about developing a social networking games platform.  That would set the cat amongst the pigeons and will certainly be designed to challenge the domination and reach of Facebook (what this space for more info).  It could once again see the landscape being changed.

Do you use it?  What do you think of it?  Is it the future of social networking in sport?

With the World Cup in full swing and England about the face the old enemy Germany in the last 16 there is an alternative way in which to find out the last news and views.  iSport Global and Synappsis have launched the must-have World Cup app every England fan will be desperate to own.

‘Geoff Hurst’s England 2010’ features exclusive video, daily World Cup diaries, competitions and all the latest news, scores and group standings from South Africa.

Sir Geoff will add video analysis of all England’s opponents, his thoughts on other teams and the players to watch out for during the tournament. The former West Ham, Stoke and WBA striker will also tweet on anything that catches his eye throughout the African tournament.

Using iTouch unique flick gestures users can slide through his bio, honours and profile before moving on to his own personal picture gallery and exclusive videos.  The latest news comes from Sir Geoff’s daily diary, so you know what is happening, as it happens.  Users will also be able to enter unique competitions for signed Sir Geoff shirts every time England play throughout the World Cup.*

Once 50,000 downloads have occurred iSport Global will draw one lucky winner at random to win a meal with seven members of the 1966 World Cup winning squad at a Gary Rhodes restaurant (Terms and conditions apply).  When they reach 100,000 users, iSport Global will draw one lucky user at random for the ultimate fan experience – a private meal for two with Geoff at his favourite London restaurant.

The app is available to all iPhone, iPad and iTouch users.  So join England’s legend of ‘football’s coming home’ as you cheer the Three Lions on with ‘Geoff Hurst’s England 2010’ app.  Its available in the Apple store and iTunes right now.

Follow Geoff @ twitter.com/sirgeoffhurst and his Facebook page.

A different way to follow the World Cup with the legend that is!  If you know of any other unique/different apps, technologies or places of interest then let us know.

The Great Britain basketball team were formed on December 1st, 2005 when the home nation’s respective governing bodies England Basketball, Basketball Scotland and Basketball Wales joined forces to field a competitive team for international competition after London secured the 2012 Olympics.

However, basketball is one of the few sports in the Olympics where the home nation doesn’t get an automatic qualification. FIBA President Bob Elphinston in April 2010 announced that in order for Team GB to secure a place in the Olympics they would need to qualify for Eurobasket 2011, a campaign that begins with their scheduled games this coming August.

Whilst basketball is the third largest participation sport in the UK Team GB have struggled to build a fan base and attract fans to games and I’d like to have a look at why, and how we can change this.

Are basketball players actually basketball fans?

I recently read this great post “Are Soccer Players True Fans?” By Ryan Knapp, in which he discusses soccer in the US and the fact that not all US soccer players are soccer fans and I think we have a similar situation over here with Basketball.

Let me explain.

Just because someone plays basketball doesn’t necessarily make them a fan of the game. They may go down to local court for a game and go to practice every week, but that’s where their involvement in basketball finishes – there’s a huge disconnect between being a basketball fan and a basketball player, and as Ryan states in his article, one does not imply the other.

Note: I’d highly recommend reading Ryan’s article as a lot of what he says can be directly applied to basketball in the UK.

Now, whilst people playing basketball is great, not having fans of the game is not so great especially for Team GB, without the fans it’s hard for the game to develop over here. I feel that one of the key problems when it comes to basketball and attracting fans to games is exposure, if people aren’t aware of games they won’t go. It’s as simple as that.

Exposure

Football was my first sport, I grew up playing and watching it – being a football fan here in the UK is easy, football is everywhere; on TV, in newspapers, online, in fact it’s hard to avoid! You’re constantly connected to it, and you don’t have to make an effort to find out the latest results or news.

In basketball we don’t have that; the sport gets very little coverage other than Hoopsfix.com, Basketaball24/7 and FadeAway Magazine, and most mainstream coverage of basketball focuses on the NBA. This makes being a British Basketball fan hard, and by hard I mean you have to make an effort to follow the sport and with so many distractions both online and offline nowadays many people just don’t keep up with it.

How can we change this?

The developments of technology and social media have made massive changes to the way we consume information and content, it has also opened up the doors for content creators to reach out to new people and share their content easily. Team GB no longer need to worry about mainstream media not showing highlights or games, the opportunity to reach an audience is there, they just need to take advantage of it.

If GB Basketball wants to turn players into fans and start selling out games they need to reach out to us, give us the content we want and build up a relationships with us. After all one of the keys to success for any sports team is the relationship between the organisation, players and fans.

In mainstream sports we know the players personalities and to some extent we feel connected to them because we read about them and see them all the time, the same cannot be said about basketball players. By utilising social media, Team GB could take us inside the team and let us get to know the players and start to build a relationship with them.

This would also give Team GB the opportunity to give the younger generation of player’s role models to look up to at a young age. Just as I looked up to David Beckham as a kid, the next generation of British basketball players and fans could look up to Ben Gordon or Luol Deng.

Back British Basketball

Since I started writing this article Sam Neter, basketball fanatic and Editor of Hoopsfix.com, has launched his own campaign to bring GB Basketball to the forefront of our minds.

‘Back British Basketball’ is a campaign to promote Team GB and get people in the UK supporting the team and attending this summer’s crucial Eurobasket 2011 qualifiers. The campaigns tagline, “Our Team, Our Olympics, by any means necessary” sums up the campaign, the 2012 Olympics is our party and our basketball team needs to be there.

Sam explains; ‘The fact that Team GB has met and exceeded every goal FIBA has set out for them so far; yet they still don’t have a guaranteed place in 2012 is outrageous particularly given the fact that the UK is the host nation. As a committed fan I intend to drive this campaign and do everything in my power to get the nation on board and increase Team GB’s following ensuring their every chance of success in August’

It’s great to see someone as passionate as Sam trying to get the UK behind our team and I’ll definitely be backing British Basketball this summer. If you’d like to show your support visit www.BackBritishBasketball.com, or connect on Facebook and Twitter.

What do you think the future holds for British Basketball?

On a recent trip to the US, Anthony Alsop caught up with Nick Monroe, who is the Head of New Media Development for the Milwaukee Bucks.  He was nice enough to answer a few questions about the team, his other roles at the Bucks and how the Bucks came to be in new media in the first place. 

Anthony Alsop: Nick, how did you come to work at the Bucks?

Nick: I graduated from college with a degree majoring in Internet-Based Marketing, so I’ve always had an interest in the internet. I arrived at the Bucks the same summer Andrew Bogut was drafted. I started in the sales department where I sold season tickets.

AA: What is your current role at the Bucks?

Nick: My main job right now is the senior lead of season ticket sales and retention; I help manage the team that renews our season ticket holders. I am also the head of New Media Development which social media is a major component of.

AA: How did the Bucks get started in new media?

Nick: We kind of fell into it in 2008, when I started the @Bucks Twitter account. I was using Facebook and Twitter at the time, but the Bucks had no presence on either of these platforms, so I thought why don’t I start the official Bucks accounts? These days, if you see me around the Bradley Center (Milwaukee’s home court) I’ll more often than not have two phones out, updating either the Facebook or Twitter accounts. It’s great to keep our fans up to date with what’s going on. Twitter is a great platform to reach our international fans, or those around the US who can’t get access to the game via the internet, TV or radio.

Nick is a busy man on game nights 

 AA: Tell us about a typical day for you?

Nick: I’ll arrive at the Bradley Center around 830-9am, and prioritize my day. In terms of new media, I use an application for our Twitter account that allows me to set up automatic tweets, so I can do 10-15 tweets in as many minutes in the morning. This allows the account to be active throughout the day while I do other things. For each home game, our PR department puts out news and notes, and I like tweeting some cool facts or figures from them. I’ll also aim to get two or three Facebook status updates as well.

For my non-new media work, I look after my clients in the season ticket department, so I’m handling additional ticket requests and returning lots of phone calls.

AA: What benefits have the Bucks seen from their involvement in new media?

Nick: I love hearing feedback from the fans on Twitter, so I’ll try and reply to as many tweets that I can. Social media has definitely driven more traffic to our website. Whether it’s for a game preview or for ticket sales, we’ve definitely seen increases in both as our presence on social media grows. Being able to send our fans to specific parts of our website through links on Twitter, is quite powerful. If there is a sale on tickets or merchandise, we can tell them exactly where to go on Bucks.com.

We’ve also been lucky that Jim Paschke (our long-time TV commentator) has been willing to do some videos for Bucks.com. We see the market demanding more video as both the internet and social media evolve, so it’s fantastic for us that Jim is willing to do some video content for the site.

AA: Do the Bucks have a social media policy for their players?

Nick: We brief all our players on social media and web strategies, but our players are smart enough to know what to say and what not to say. The NBA has their own Social Media program in their induction week for rookies, so we don’t need to do too much on our end. I think we have one of the most active teams on Twitter. You can find Andrew, Brandon Jennings, Charlie Bell, Danny G, Luc Mbah a Moute and Royal Ivey all on Twitter.

AA: What impact does social media have on your international fan base?

Nick: With one of our best players coming from Australia, you can imagine we have a pretty good following from down there. But it’s not only Australia, we also have players from Cameroon, Argentina, Slovenia and Turkey. In terms of international fans, our biggest market place is Australia, and then South-East Asia – we have over 10,000 fans from the Philippines alone and we’re also quite popular in Malaysia.

We’ve never really had an official channel to greet these fans before; I doubt these fans could point out Milwaukee on a map, but they can tell you who the Bucks are and who their favorite player is. That’s really cool.

AA: In terms of mobile, do the Bucks have a presence in the mobile app market?

Nick: We sure do. The NBA has released an official app for each team and you can get them for your Apple, Blackberry or Android mobile device (pricing depends on which country you are in).

AA: Tell us about your #FearTheDeer social media campaign

Nick: That came about from a mention on SportsCenter, and we heard about it and we ran with it. On Twitter you can set up a movement or a slogan by adding a hash symbol to a phrase, so we added a # in front of “FearTheDeer” and it kind of became our slogan by default. It’s been great though, the fans have backed it 100% and we’ve just released some merchandise with the slogan. We also just launched a “Jennings 4 ROY” Facebook fan page to help promote Brandon Jennings’ fantastic rookie season, and we have 55 reasons why he should win.

Everyone is embracing #FeartheDeer 

AA: Has the team’s recent on-court success lead to social media success off the court?

Nick: Absolutely. The more the team wins, the more people want to know about the team. Whether that’s content on our website, tickets for the game or merchandise, we’ve seen our overall web traffic really take off since the All-Star break. This has come about as we’ve had a great run of success on the court. We also run weekend web specials for ticket sales, but we’re seeing a ten-fold year-on-year increase for ticket sales via our website; the demand just grows every year as our brand awareness increases.

The wins on the court definitely lead to more success in social media as well; our Facebook and Twitter accounts have added a few thousand fans in the past few weeks, fans that weren’t in our community before. When the team is winning, everybody wants to get involved, and we’ve managed to see a financial return on that as well, which is fantastic.

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

As I said in my last article, Real Madrid is one of the most recognisable brands in sport, and no club better embodies our times, when sports, business and technology are in constant flux. This is in no small part due to their social media and mobile strategies.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Pedro Duarte, Mobile Marketing Manager at Real Madrid CF, about the clubs use of mobile technology.

Real have been working with mobile technologies for around two years and aim to implement mobile as a key tool in the clubs marketing strategy. For that purpose they have created the brand “Real Madrid Mobile” which involves all of their mobile activities.

Real’s mobile strategy can be broken down into two key aims:

1. Generating extra revenue for Real Madrid through the distribution of their mobile content portfolio and creation of new mobile services and products
2. Building a mobile community for Real Madrid fans, and the integration of mobile into the clubs communications with the fans.

 
Pedro summed up the clubs strategies well when he said, “our mobile strategy aims to utilise mobile as a way not only to extend the reach of our traditional services and products, but, also to implement mobile as a useful communication tool between Real Madrid and our fans.”

Real Madrid is one of the leaders in terms of mobile technology and sports here in Europe, explains Pedro, “one of the main things that separates us from other sports organisations in terms of mobile success is that we have a department dedicated to our mobile platforms and mobile marketing – that is the main difference between Real Madrid and many other companies, some of them have digital teams, but we specialise in mobile marketing and building a mobile community for Real Madrid.”

Building a mobile community of fans is something that Real are very keen to do, as they have found that fans are very responsive to mobile communication, “mobile generates in some cases a much better response that other forms of communication, such as email and traditional letters, “We get a great response to the content we put our via our mobile channels, for example; when we win a trophy we can send out video calls to all of our mobile subscribers and once the fans respond to the call they will see a video of one of our players saying “Madridista we have won La Liga thanks very much for your support!”

“We believe this type of communication is much more personal as well, for a Real Madrid fan if you receive a call from a star playing saying thank you for your support then this is great engagement and a great way to reach out to fans.”

In September 2009 Real launched their The MyMadrid platform – a multi platform and multi language community for fans – which has already reached an impressive 150,000 downloads. “We want MyMadrid to be the single point of contact of all of our madridistas that want to enjoy the “madridista” experience through their mobile device. So far the response we have had from the fans has been great and we are very proud of the amount of downloads which the app has had.”

MyMadrid offers fans real time news, access to the clubs official Youtube channel, minute by minute game updates, real time 3D goals from matches, access to ticketing, chat and MSN services and additional mini games services.

Real also have big plans for the future of this platform.  “We are now working on integrating merchandise sales into MyMadrid and implementing the Real Madrid membership content into the mobile platform as well as Real Madrid Mobile Television into it. We are also working on more premium services for fans.”

“One of these premium services is Follow Me, a real time service which allows fans to see what our players are doing. For example if you subscribe to Kaka’s follow me you will receive real time updates of what he is doing including images.”

“We are also developing some more interactive features and games which will allow fans within MyMadrid to interact with other fans, one example of this is a Penalty Kick game which we are developing – this allows MyMadrid users to connect with one another and play as either a keeper or striker during a penalty shoot out.  We want MyMadrid to not only be a mobile community but we also want it to create and spark interaction amongst the users and fans.”

“We also use our mobile platform to communicate exclusive special offers and ticket availability to MyMadrid users, so if for one game we have some tickets left we can let all of our mobile fans know and offer them the opportunity to buy tickets to a game.”

 “Real Madrid has also created the first Subscription Content Club Service, which allows the fans to download the latest content from the club (mobile games, photographs of the matches…) paying a weekly rate card. More than 100,000 users have subscribed to this service, showing that our supporters are keen to pay if the Club offer exclusive and premium content in real time”.

Real Madrids mobile marketing activities have also opened up new opportunities for club partners and sponsors. ”Our mobile services have built up a permission marketing database which is being used by some of the main sponsors of the Club to promote their activities. In this way, Real Madrid has created a new marketing vehicle that allows the sponsors to get in contact with their customers in a more direct way.”

“In addition to this, over these past two years the club has reached agreements with the main media partners in Spain, in which Real Madrid launches monthly  SMS contests in TV and  newspapers giving the fans the opportunity to win special and exclusive prizes. As an example, in 2009 Real Madrid launched a super contest that gave the fans the opportunity to win the official AUDI cars of the players, those that had been used by the stars of the squad. Entries were via SMS, and 180,000 madridistas participated in the campaign, which made it a huge success in Spain. This is one of the drivers Real Madrid uses to show the “madridista experience” to the fans, whilst also giving the Club the opportunity to generate a permission marketing data base.”

Outside of Spain the Real Madrid mobile platform is ran on a licensing /franchise model which sees Real control all content centrally with local based partners acquiring a license to distribute the clubs content. This business model has allowed the clubs mobile business to spread worldwide in a short space of time.

“In terms of mobile content we are now selling worldwide, we close exclusive agreements with local partners and they acquire our mobile license for their territory, this way of working is the best to achieve our goals and maintain contact with all our fans. Due to this business model we are now distributing content to the US, Japan, Middle East, Latin America, UK, Portugal, Israel we have just signed an agreement for South Africa.”

“So we are now reaching a worldwide fan base and giving them the latest Real Madrid content direct to their mobile. Our mobile platform also offers further exposure to our sponsors and partners, and has opened up new advertising and marketing opportunities for brands looking to reach Real Madrid fans.”

I’d like to thanks Pedro Duarte for this interview and for sharing some great insight into Real Madrid’s mobile marketing strategies. 

Pedro is also speaking at the following events throughout 2010:

http://www.sportisfantastic.com/page/speakers.aspx

http://www.sports-media-summit.com/en/speaker/

http://www.mem-2010.com/conference/speakers2