City reach out To fans via digital media
Besides a fantastic set of players and a great coach, one of the aspects to be successful in football is to gain fans from all over the world. Several football clubs have been trying to extend their brand and connect with audiences this way. How clubs win
After spending the most money in the latest transfer window of the English Premier League, Manchester City, the world's richest football club, is trying to make itself the world's best-supported club. They recently invested in numerous free digital services for fans.
The free content provided for fans are RFID chips, augmented reality season tickets, online data toys, video, connected TV channels, Foursquare, mobile remixes and more, the club's digital head Richard Ayers said.
Like most English and Scottish clubs, City earlier had previously charged fans a monthly subscription to watch its online video through newly-listed Perform's service. But it tore up that strategy after Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan's acquisition. Instead, they contracted Endemol to produce behind-the-scenes and highlights videos for free through its Poke-built Website.
"You never forget about the football, but we are focusing on audience growth," Ayers says. "We don't charge for content - we were the first and may even still be the only club that gives away all our content."
According to paidContent, Arsenal have started to give away some content for free - but, for 99 per cent of clubs, it's all locked behind a pay-wall.
Since the change, on-site dwelling time has risen from two minutes to an average three minutes and 40 seconds, according to paidContent.
Although the Premier League itself is locked in a court battle with YouTube over highlights posted by users, City last month started its own YouTube channel with CityTV's behind-the-scenes videos. One video, of new striker Samuel Nasri's arrival at the club, clocked 100,000 views in just 10 hours.
City can even post match highlights from midnight on the day after a given game, after Sky Sports' and ESPN's TV window expires and after Yahoo's initial exclusivity on online highlights expires.
The club is also seeking a syndication manager to sell much of its footage overseas and will begin implementing geo-IP blocking. And from the sounds of it, City is likely to launch CityTV on the new range of internet-enabled TVs hitting the market.
The club now has application on iPhone with Android and mobile web versions will follow. It will also be rolling out a music remix mobile app that will let fans produce their own versions of tracks, including its club anthem Blue Moon.
Moreover, City's new site comes with an Arabic version and more languages are on the way.
The change of their strategy is seen as an excellent idea as it will certainly bring fans closer to the club. Fans will be impressed that the club gave something back to them after taking money for season tickets and club merchandise.
With various multimedia channels and digital content, City, now in second place in the league (before last night's match), are certainly winning more applause from fans than their red-shirted United rivals, now top of the table, whose fans have to pay up to £45 (Bt2,150) per year to get MUTV Online.
But who will do better on the pitch? It depends on the performance of the players not the content.
