Subject: Marketing

Topic: Chelsea FC & 750 Online Advertising Man City

Introduction

Online advertising has become an important tool in modern marketing strategies. In fact, it has been considered an efficient method of reaching out to the masses, regardless of the distance between the marketer and the customers (Soderman 2011). In the United Kingdom, soccer companies have increasingly taken the advantage of the internet technology and e-commerce to reach out for customers and fans through online advertising and ticket sales. According to Plunkett (2010), over the last 15 years, most English football clubs have developed sophisticated online advertisement and ticket sale systems that allow them to compete for number of ticket sales and club membership. In fact, the internet has allowed these organizations to go beyond boarders in search of membership, with a large number of club members registering from outside the United Kingdom (Chadwick & Ham 2012). The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the Chelsea FC & 750 Online Advertising Man City for the two leading clubs in the United Kingdom as an example of how clubs are increasingly investing in online advertising.

Chelsea Online Advertisement

In 2011, it was reported that Chelsea FC was intensively hunting for a digital agency, several years after it first launched its online portal. The purpose of the digital agency was to devise a football competition not only on the field, but also in terms of global membership and ticket sales across the United Kingdom. During this period, the club was intensively approaching a number of agencies directly to discuss the deal, which it expected to last for several decades. With this initiative, the Club expected to create fantasy in the game, an interactive and virtual competition in which the club would be able to manage its professional players against its rivals in the United Kingdom and across Europe (Gratton et al 2011). At the time of the search, most clubs, including Chelsea, lacked a dedicated digital agency. In fact, they were forced to handle their digital activities in-house, which was quite cumbersome and costly. Looking at the case of Chelsea FC, the club had been working with Space, the digital agency that supports Samsung international. It is worth noting that Samsung international is the official sponsor of the club. The deal between Space and Chelsea FC was primarily based on a campaign dubbed “experience football”.

Chelsea has also launched an online TV portal, which contains new and exclusive context on the Chelsea FC, the club’s official channels on Sky News. The maintenance and production tasks for the TV portal have been accomplished by Perform, the renowned sports media specialist. The Club’s online TV channel contains a number of features that aim at reaching out to the masses through the internet. For instance, it is rich in news related to the club, its current issues, future expectations and fans online discussion and contribution. Interviews, behind-the-scenes features and live press conferences on the club are provided daily on the online TV portal, which has become popular among clubs in Europe.

This online initiative has benefited the club in reaching out to and communicating with the stakeholders, including the remote fans across the world. This was quite impossible in the previous setting, where the content from Chelsea TV was only available to subscribers of the Sky Company, a pay-TV Company. With this model, there were inefficiencies in communication and socialization between the club and its remote members as well as between the remote members.

From the Club’s online portal, a large volume of information regarding the club and its activities is present and duly updated with time. This includes the Club’s performance in the current season, including the number of times it has won, drew and lost to other clubs in the premier league, FA Cup, League Cup, Full Mem Cup as well as the UEFA championship. In addition, the portal has a list of matches the club is set to play within the current season in all the aforementioned leagues. The portal further portrays the club’s history, current signings and current activities related to the club, its players, officials as well as fan clubs. It is also worth noting that the portal provides the public and members with a ticket price list, from which a person can choose to pay online or physically. In this context, it is clear that the club has established different ticket price lists for the 2012-2013 season based on the league. For instance, the FA Premier League has the highest prices for tickets, with the club charging some £64 for an adult member and £25 for junior. This is comparable to FA Cup and Europa League, where an adult has to part with £30 and £25 respectively.

Online Advertising Man City

On its part, Manchester City Football Club, one of the largest and successful clubs in the United Kingdom, has a complex but well developed online advertising system. First, the club has an attractive and informative website that provides the members, fans and the public in general with a wide range of information regarding the club. For instance, the website, known as the Manchester City (mcfc.co.uk) has a number of pages that provide information to the searchers. The first priority is given to the news section in which all news updates are provided within the shortest time possible. In this section, match report, features and match highlights seek to update the fans and the public on the on-field related issues for the club (Humphreys & Howard 2012). This includes such news as the club’s performance on the field, player performances on the field and the highlights on previous and immediate appearances on all the four leagues. In addition, it contains updates on the future appearances for every week and a timetable of the events the club is set to play within the current season.

In addition, the club’s portal emphasizes on ticket sale in its “Ticket and travel” section. In this page, the prices of tickets for every match the club plays are shown arranged and grouped according to three categories. The first category is the Blue Membership Tickets that allows members to join the club as fans and pay reduced prices once a registration process has been validated. Members of the Blue Membership category are given the first priority when purchasing tickets for every match a well as any travel event with the club. In addition, they are set to benefit from reduced prices, but the registration process for blue membership requires a higher price (Wagg 2012). Secondly, the club offers ordinary membership tickets for every match and travel, with the fans having to part with some amount of money determined by the nature of event and the popularity of the league in which every match played is managed. For instance, according to the advertisement on the portal, FA Premier League tickets fetch higher prices than those sold during other events such as the EUEFA.

In addition to the website, Man City Club owns and operates a TV channel- the City TV. Like the Chelsea TV, the City TV is designed to meet the public and members’ demands with regards to timely updating on the issues and events related to the club. In particular, the online TV is available on the internet through the club’s official website. In addition, it is available on the Sky pay TV.

In both the online TV and the website, Man City club has an intensive advertisement system, especially in terms of tickets and travels. Both channels aim at reaching out for the masses, with the intent technology encouraging and allowing the public to join the club membership as fans and friends of the club from wherever they are in the world (Rosner & Shropshire 2012). In fact, since the launching of the online advertising, it has been reported that the majority of the members, friends, shareholders and the public access the tickets and membership through the online system. The initiative has greatly reduced clogging at the outlets that previously served as the main sellers for the club’s tickets. Prior to any event, the club develops intensive advertisement on its online programs both on the City TV and the website to increase the amount of sales and membership subscriptions.

References

Chadwick, S & Ham, S, 2012, Managing Football: An International Perspective, Routledge, London.

Gratton, C et al, 2011, The Global Economics of Sport, Routledge, London

Humphreys, BR & Howard, DR 2012, Business of Sports, The: Volume 1, Perspectives on the Sports Industry, ABC CLIO, Cambridge, UK,

Plunkett, JW, 2010, Plunkett's Sports Industry Almanac 2009, Plunkett Research, London,

Rosner, S & Shropshire, K, 2012, The Business of Sports, Jones and Bartlett, London.

Soderman, S, 2011, Football and Management: Comparisons Between Sport and Enterprise, Palgrave MacMillan, London.

Wagg, S, 2012, British Football & Social Exclusion, Routledge, London