Sports Content Strategy with MrRichardClarke: Exploring sports content, journalism, digital and social media

TOPICS

Creating the first ad selling tickets for Tottenham in the mid-80s with “Mrs Riddlington and Peter Cook”

But “advertising can’t compensate for a poor product”

The story of Spurs in the Champions League last season

Is Mauricio Pochettino the fulcrum of the club?

The usefulness of an ‘English culture’ at the Premier League club

What is the ‘Spurs Way’ and is it a help or a handicap?

Assessing Daniel Levy

Why it is wrong to sell the naming rights to White Hart Lane

Why it is NOT wrong to treat your club as a brand

The strength of Man United’s brand and having the ‘Theatre of Dreams’

Why the football system is wrong and fans pay too much

The inmates, ie the players, have taken over the asylum, which is the Premier League

How Tottenham have bucked the trend on paying player wages and keeping a team together

The Man United v Manchester City comparison

Are local rivalries a distraction these days?

The news stories about the Champions League re-organisation and the need for change

“No-one cares about the second-rate clubs”

Why the German set-up could be the basis for a new Champions League structure

Why it is optimistic and unrealistic to expect sporting institutions like the EFL to change themselves in light of recent crises

Alex’s plan for regional football and why it will never be implemented

Does English sport have a particular problem is reforming itself?

TOPICS

What a sports agency does

How the “managed decline” of the newspaper industry has affected their business and the current situation

The increasing demand for video in the past decade

Are words important anymore in sports journalism?

Why the pay problem will lead to a lack of diversity

Has the route to a national newspaper changed?

The shrinkage of local newspapers

The new approach - making a brand of a sports news agency via YouTube and long-form documentaries

The growth of club media on the sports agency model

The assistance they had from the growth of fan channels. And might they expand to be accredited media outlets

The importance of relationships in the agency game and playing the long game

How best to handle scoop

The new generation of journalists who grew up with social media

The British system of embargoes and the US system of access

Gareth Southgate’s success with the media at the World Cup

What type of video content is being ordered from Hayters?

Has the social media age changed reporting orders from newspapers?

Do you have to be entrepreneurial at an agency

The model of buying in a star journalist and syndicating

The differences between US and UK sports journalism models

The personal qualities and skills needed by young journalists in this era

How video is presented for clients

TOPICS

What do we mean by the ‘Fan Experience’?

Why they are obsessed with families and use them as a catalyst

The concept of “emotional loyalty” and how it benefits clubs - “We can’t treat away fans well, they are the enemy!”

Is football trying a lot harder now?

Why women’s football should not follow the example of men’s game

The problem of getting fans to reconnect

The basis of a fan engagement strategy

Answering the question: what makes your club distinct?

The principles: club meaning, fan experience, reaching the community

The pillars: why, focus and feedback

Explaining the Net Promoter - a standard tool in customer-facing businesses

A special social media KPI - what percentage of criticism is defended. Feedback as a catalyst for change

The importance of visibility from senior staff on matchday- The touchpoints in a fan experience strategy, Finding info/ticket purchases, Social media, The last mile of the journey, Retail/Merchandise, Food&Beverage, Experience inside stadium - stewards/concourses/entrances

Two things a clubs who no money could put right now for free

What is the role of a Supporters Liaison Officer? Having the resilience to deal with the intensity of fans

The ‘first game’ schemes in the English Football League

How to make eSports part of the matchday experience

The potential split between the top six chasing the Champions League and the need for great sustainability outside it

Why Mansfield Town have removed eSports from their matchday experience

A glaring gap – upcoming and coming ‘growth sports’ are dedicated to building a matchday experience, is football? Will it get left behind?

TOPICS

Moving from academia to the practical side of football

How they started their CRM system

Where the data was stored in the early days?

Connecting established and disparate databases

What conversations did you need to have internally

Narrowing down the scope of your CRM

The specific issue: how to arrest a fall in season ticket sales.

Surveying

How do your message each segment correctly?

The relationship with the content teams

What other campaigns do you create

Who does the analysis?

Those ‘cheap early wins’ what were they?

What did not work?

When the critics jump and say: "look it won't work"

Demographics v sentiment segmentation

AZ's clustering campaign

The idea of promoting content, not just transactional campaigns

Using the fans for mutual benefit

How do you plan for scale?

What metrics prove success?

What about the influence of team performance?

1:45 What is soft power? The good cop v bad cop analogy

3:20 How is this used in soft power? The British example

“it is not unusual for the Dept of Trade and Industry to take people from Premier Lcub clubs on business trips”

4:05 The Qatar example

5:45 The concept of Nation Brand. The use of airlines in sponsorship is widespread

8:50 What PSG’s shirt tells us about soft power

PSG ‘overpaid’ for Neymar and it was soft power statement

11:50 “You cannot compete effectively without a social and digital presence”

13:12 The Qatari content around their brand message and how Saudi Arabia has responded

14:55 Is the China strategy - is that soft power in the same way?

18:23 The genesis of China’s sporting strategy, the reporting problems

21:10 Has China’s first five-year plan really achieved its aims

24:54 The two part of the strategy - investing in bring players/coaches and clubs overseas

Why the Chinese government were upset with the initial gold rush around Chinese football

28.32 The link between the Chinese economy and football. Especially given that Trump is spoiling for a trade war with China

31:45 The more considered approach to China rather than the boom or bust

30:50 What are the markers of improvement for Chinese football?

33:54 F1 - the 70’s heyday and the “Eastward pivot”.

37:35 Why Vietnam is the epitome of the change in F1

38:20 How far F1 were behind and how they have caught up

40:52 Is F1 ‘Out of Time’?

42:03 What about the Olympics? Does recent history suggest we need state involvement to bid to host an event

45:24 Could we see a shift of football club currently owned by Americans, moving into Asian hands

47:51 Fan disenchantment and the dangers of disengagement from British-owned clubs because they just can’t compete in modern sport

49:20 The need for a ‘climate change’ summit in football

50:43 The problem of vested interests

51:23 The British government and EU have done nothing to regulate their Leagues. Hence the need for a football parliament.

Topics

2:30 Looking back on the publicity when she became the first female commentator on Match of the Day

“I didn’t want to be a celebrity, I did not want to be a token. I did not want to be different to any of the men”

6:52 Being a role model

8:18 Her advice to young female sports reporters

10:45 The effect of social media to sports reporters, especially female reports

14:30 Taking on the ‘trolls’ - how, when and why

18:10 How social media has exposed more sexism

21:31 The effect of motherhood on her career

25:45 The pressure to change yourself

28:45 Why cricket appears more accepting to women broadcasters

33.35 The recently appointment of the first female chair of the Football Writers’ Association

35:20 The Women in Football movement

39:25 Subtle sexism v overt sexism in the workplace - which is worse

41:30 The problem of women not having the confidence to apply

42:50 The heroics of Rachel Heyhoe-Flint, athlete, administrator and journalist.

47:30 Women’s Super League: the progress from 200 in the stands to 2,500 inside 10 years

“When Faye White was little, she did not know there was an England team.”

53:30 The next step: Operation Bums-On-Seats

54:10 Finding a market for women’s football in the UK

59:40 The opportunity in the Women’s World Cup this year

“If England were to get to the final, I think the game would explode in this country.”

1:02:34 What is needed in the future? What will show the development of women sports broadcasters/journalists is on the right track

Topics

Outlining Zenit’s multi-lingual strategy. How many languages and why they started in Persian

Why they don’t use agencies and decide to employ their fans

How do you manage 15 fan blogs “It is about building relationships and talking to people”

“The first the multilingual was more opportunistic, now it is about strategy”

Changing the story for different markets

Giving the bloggers some autonomy

How do measure the success of each blogger

‘Issues’ and how to manage with them

The social media trends in different countries

The size of his team

The content strategy in a nutshell

The role of Zenit TV

How highlights are used “The only way to watch the Russian League abroad is google”.

Exporting the Russian League is the “hottest topic” right now.

The rebranding of the League last season

TV - “It is easier to watch the Dutch League than the Russian League but we are No 6 ranked country in the world”

The confidence of having a fine World Cup

Working with VK/Telegram

The strength of VK - “better than Facebook and great engagement”. The weakness of VK - Piracy

Telegram - the usage of it channels

Using Foursquare/Swarm, Yandex (a competitor to Google), OK - big in the provinces and the home of the the Classico in Russia

The tone of voice - talking to fans and clubs, like digging out Chelsea

“Art v Humour”

The small Russian club who have pushed their way into the national media through social

Attacking the issue of racism in Russian Football and Zenit St Petersburg

The source of new ideas

The best teams on social media in Russia

The problems of slow internet reaction

Flares for the Zenit bus for the Fenerbahce game and why it got 22m views

Other successes - the G Drive show. A sponsored show that received excellent engagement.

Taking on the Daily Mail

The emphasis on branded content and how they approach it

TOPICS

Bringing top talent in Asia to J.League

Why focus on Thailand

How the league helps the clubs sign players. “It’s a bridge between the club and the league”

The impact of the major players coming in Iniesta, Podolski, Torres

The DAZN deal and its strategic role "DAZN is a partner to develop the League together"

The split between free-to-air and DAZN

The digital asset hub/ consolidating assets in the club and opening up.

Learning for the NBA and other leagues over the use of highlights

The importance of the relationship with the clubs

Why the 2011 earthquake was behind the international expansion strategy

Using tours as a tool for international expansion

The most popular European League in Japan

The possible boost of the Olympics and Rugby World Soccer

Using data from the DAZN dealing

The typical J.League experience and demographics. Has it been planned or organic

The women's league being organized differently

The importance of the national team in the growth of the league and part of being the best team in Asia

The initial vision for 100 pro clubs. How they are looking to expand the leagues

Helping J.League clubs win the AFC Champions League

Cricket, lovely cricket.

England's national sport has been under pressure for many years, with the four-day County Championship widely perceived as the domestic competition in the most precarious position.

However, there has been genuine hope in the blossoming audience for a relatively basic video streaming service synced with the traditional radio commentary.

Ben Warren, Somerset CCC

It is a League-Wide scheme developed by the England and Wales Cricket Board but Somerset CCC have been at the forefront. Digital marketing & communications executive Ben Warren runs the service for the club.

Like many county devotees, he is fiercely protective of a game that is overlooked but far from unloved.

With a controversial new franchise-based tournament starting next season and threatening to take attention from the longer-form game, the pressure is on.

But can digital media really help save county cricket?

1:48 Content strategy in a nutshell and how it has evolved

3:50 Live streams of the four-day games - the proposition and the surprising popularity

6:14 The quality of our video product "far away from a TV product"

9:37 500,000 views in 35 days last season and 100,000 for the first three days in a pre-season friendly

13:34 Whether the new digital product is a lifeline for county cricket?

16:01 Early thoughts on monetisation

18:31 "The product is not a level where we would expect a fee"

22:21 Would sponsorship be possible when your product is using BBC commentary teams

24:43 Tapping into the passion of the Indian subcontinent

27:01 Engagement patterns and utilising wifi at the ground

29:35 The different cadence of county cricket. The value in being 'quality background noise'

30:31 Fulfilling the expectations of the crowd for a live experience

31:32 The digital team at Somerset and covering away games

32:19 The in-play clips of boundaries, milestones and wickets. The popularity (around 10m view last year) and the system that creates them.

33:45 Has the new digital content really brought in new spectators

36:01 Don't put paid-for walls around a new product

37:10 What will be the effect of the Hundred?

41:24 Taking lessons from the franchise model in cricket and starting from scratch

44:43 "IPL is the perfect scenario for content"

46:20 The trick of getting fans engaged in new stories

47:50 Who creates great content in county cricket

49:34 Somerset's developments in the upcoming season

Ben Warren Twitter | LinkedIn

Somerset CCC Web | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Highlights package created from live stream footage.

TOPICS

3:00 The Rockies content strategy in a nutshell

3.50 The targeting and segmenting

5:00 Coping with that huge number of games

7:10 Turning a ‘chip on the shoulder’ into a positive

8:30 Creating content around that

9.40 Interacting with the fans and, when necessary, standing your ground

10.51 What tells them that fans want their attention

11.16 Buy-in from the top on reacting to fans

13:02 Creating continuity of voice

15:07 How they staff a game

17:07 The advantage of having a dual role – social media and player relations

19:40 The ideas that have worked… and the ones that have failed.

20:52 The KPIs they look to

22:31 Why “be interesting” is not enough as content strategy. It must be attached to a Rockies feel

24:02 The analytics tools he uses

25:10 The relationship between MLB and the clubs

26:25 The legacy of MLB Advanced Media and its digital/ social media innovation

28:44 MLB’s rules changes and the Facebook deal

31:34 Publications strategy, is it worth it?

33:45 The value of very long-form content

37:45 Why still images can be > video

39:45 The move towards monetisation

42: 34 Cultivating creativity

44:16 Does being an ex-pro athlete help his role?

46:37 The content emphasis placed on the home opener

48:12 His favourite MLB content teams

50:01 Looking outside of sport for inspiration

52:13 The difference in tone and voice for college teams vs the pro teams

53.03 Where to take sports digital and sports content

54.15 Will there be an EVP or SVP of content