Social Media and the Beautiful Game

The growing presence of social media has deeply influenced the game. Each of the ninety-two English Football League clubs have an official Twitter account – with many non league teams also having one. The impact of social media on Football has gone all the way from clubs having designated ‘hashtags’ on Twitter to having a ‘hashtag’ on the seats at their stadium. Fans can follow their favourite players and interact with them; whether its to praise or condemn.

Southampton were the first team in the country to (controversially) add a hashtag to their stands

It is entirely useful for Football Clubs to be on Twitter. For example, should the team win; supporters who were at the game will laud the performance on the site – making supporters who couldn’t attend want to go the the next game, therefore increasing revenue for the club. This is better known as ‘Word of Mouth’ which is effectively free advertising for a company should they provide a good product/service. Clubs can interact with their supporters to tell them if they can pay on the day to maximise the potential attendance until hours before the game which is useful to attract ‘floater’ fans – who may only go to bigger games for the thrill, rather than spending money they don’t want to on a season ticket.

However, Word of Mouth on Twitter does work both ways…

Social Media is a key tool for all football clubs to use to enhance their sales through increased attendance and merchandise sales, which can be advertised for free through their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Therefore it is no surprise that all of the top teams are now on Twitter as well as having a Facebook page for fans to interact with the club easier than ever before.

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Advertising Opportunities in Football and has Sponsorship of the game gone too far?

A play on words at Burnley’s Turf Moor

There are many ways to advertise through football clubs to get a company’s name out to the masses. Pitch perimeter advertising hoardings (like the example above) are a great way to broadcast a business to a large audience. From a gun merchants to local fish and chip shop, any business can advertise around the pitch. Depending on the size of the club, pitch perimeter advertising can be very useful based on the number of people who watch the team and whether they are on television. Different opportunities around the stadium have different prices – a board at the side of the pitch where the cameras face during a televised match costs more than one in the top right of a stand that is rarely featured on Sky, BT and BBC cameras.

However, it can go wrong…

English Football sponsorship has evolved since 1982, where the League Cup became the first competition to have a title sponsor (Milk Marketing Board). Every league and cup competition in England had a title sponsor for the 2013-14 season, from the F.A Cup with Budweiser to the Johnstone’s Paints Trophy. Barclays’ sponsorship of the Premier League ends after the 2015-16 season where it is likely another multi-million pound sponsorship deal will come in – distributing money to the clubs. It has been argued that sponsorship deals such as Barclays and the Sky Sports deal have formed a gap between the top teams in England to those below – one which cannot be bridged.

£40 million a season for three years is what Barclays paid to be main sponsor of England’s top flight

Sponsorship of a football club not only benefits a club with money going into the club, but as with advertising pitch side; it gets the brand name out there. The majority of football clubs have an ‘official betting partner’ from Manchester United and BWIN to Huddersfield Town and BetBright. The way that the football industry has changed has meant that football clubs are being run more like businesses than ever before – so as much money coming in as possible is important. This means clubs have partners from all corners of business – again using the example of the multinational brand Manchester United they go from their principal partner AON to having an official Global Noodle partner in the Nissin Foods group.

From a business perspective all advertising and sponsorship in the football industry is vital for clubs to be able to compete within their respective divisions. But in the minds of fans – clubs having hoards of official partners and sponsors must seem absurd to somebody who has put their money into the club all their lives; to some it will seem as if sponsors and partners are more important than the core supporter.

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