As we come to the end of 2020, football like the rest of us has had a weird yet, but one thing has stayed the same – football marketing, albeit marketing teams have had to adapt to challenging times of Covid in 2020. There has been periods with no football, with full stadiums, with no fans, with up to 2000 fans, all games broadcasted on TV or only a selection. It has a been a year for football marketing, and before we get to the football marketing highlights of 2020, here is what has happened since the middle of November!
SOUTHAMPTON FC
The Saints and the Saints Foundation have just announced their partnership with Solent NHS Trust. The partnership aims to launch a range of health focused initiatives, by using the collective expertise and reach of the two most recognisable organisations in the Southampton area.
CHELSEA FC
Chelsea FC have launched their FIFA Personalities as a build up to the clubs’ involvement in the ePremierLeague, with a brilliant video showcasing the different types of Fifa players. Take a look at the video here.
Unlike previous years, the annual Junior Blues Christmas Party was unable to happen at Stamford Bridge. Instead the Chelsea marketing team put together a host of activities in a two week digital detective hunt for Junior Blues all over the world.
Chelsea FC have also launched a new content partnership with India’s leading sports broadcaster, Star Sports. There will be an exclusive monthly Chelsea FC show across the network helping to unlock new audiences and bringing Chelsea fans from India closer to the club.
Brought to you by Greenroom Digital, the marketing agency have created and delivered an excellent activation between Chelsea FC and MSC Cruises in ‘Which Chelsea FC player are you… on holiday’. The campaign gives Chelsea fans the opportunity to win an exclusive video call with a Chelsea player of their choice, through answering a series of questions about their ideal holiday.
Chelsea FC have also teamed up with their official partner Three and the Central Saint Martins Fashion College to help to ‘reimagine’ football for the modern connected generation. Students will be presenting their work in January 2021.
MANCHESTER UNITED
The #ILOVEUNITED event put on by Manchester United brought together fans around the world for a virtual experience for the Manchester Derby. Fans were treated to a unique experience and access to club legends, and first team players. In the spin off and very popular podcast UTD, cricket heroes and united supporters Yuvraj Singh and Rohan Gavaskar were guests on the show. Catch the highlights here.
PETERBOROUGH UNITED FC
Taking inspiration from Joe Wicks, Peterborough United have launched an initiative to help children stay active this Christmas. With the help of their mascot Peter Burrow, every morning in the week leading up to Christmas children will be treated to PE with Peter every morning at 9:30. On Monday the channel saw over 900 views.
AFC BOURNEMOUTH
AFC Bournemouth have renewed their partnership with Strategic Solutions Financial Services for the 7th consecutive season, and continue to be the club’s highly successful official partner of the academy for the younger age groups. The club have also extended their stadium naming rights with Vitality.
CRYSTAL PALACE
If you can’t use social media for some fun, when can you! Crystal Palace used their official Twitter account to have some fun with their branded partner eToro, and you can see the tweet below.
With the recent popularity of Netflix’s the Queens Gambit, Crystal Palace created the Eagle’s Gambit, a live chess game between keen player Martin Kelly and non time British Champion Jovanka Houska. The whole purpose was for entertainment, and you can watch the game on YouTube.
LIVERPOOL FC
Liverpool FC and official kit sponsor Nike have teamed up with HARD, with Liverpool’s official training kit, as the era of football, fashion, music, tech and gaming are all coming together to create an exciting new era.
Teaming up with Cadbury and Mondelez International, Liverpool are bringing Christmas Cheer to local residents as part of their Secret Santa campaign. Alongside Red Neighbours and LFC Foundation, more than 15,000 people are supported by a network of food banks set up by the Trussell Trust. This year they will all receive a chocolate treat in their food parcel.
REAL MADRID
Real Madrid have recently named Therabody as an official sponsor.
ARSENAL FC
Arsenal FC and official kit sponsor / supplier Adidas have come together once more for another incredible campaign. The Then or Now series is available to view on YouTube now.
FULHAM FC
Fulham FC have welcomed ClearScore as an Official Principal Partner and Sleeve sponsor until the end of the 2020/21 season.
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR FC
We all know Jose Mourinho can be a bit dramatic, but it also provides excellent entertainment. Tottenham Hotspur have recently launched Mourinho Cam, a unique look at Mourinho during some Tottenham matches, and are some of Spurs’ most popular videos on YouTube. The latest Mourinho was from Spur’s 2-0 win over North London rivals Arsenal, the video already has a million views compared to interviews and training videos published at a similar time of around 200k views. However, to add a little bit more fun to their channel, the club have been putting out videos with players including Christmas No Laugh Challenge with Bale, Hart, Doherty and Hojbjerg, and Out of Context Spurs with Son, Lloris and Doherty. Head to the Spurs YouTube channel.
For the Tottenham match against Liverpool, the club went Live on Twitch for their first match watch along on Twitch.
PREVIOUSLY IN FOOTBALL MARKETING
FOOTBALL MARKETING #1 – Football MTV Cribs, New Shirt Sponsors and Beckham Teams up with Tottenham Hotspur
FOOTBALL MARKETING #2 – Shirts for Heroes, Wolves Fan Mosaic & Chelsea ‘Breaking Barriers’
FOOTBALL MARKETING #3 – CityTV Restart, Virtual Matchday’s & Heads Up FA Cup
FOOTBALL MARKETING #4 – 2020/21 Kits Launched, New Shirt Sponsors, and Arsenal Women get Creative on Social Media.
FOOTBALL MARKETING #5 – Dare Walk, New Signings Announcements and National Shirts.
FOOTBALL MARKETING #6 – Cadbury’s Football, New Sponsors & Twitter Player Announcements
FOOTBALL MARKETING #7 – Pink for Breast Cancer Now, Chelsea Go Spanish and Liverpool gets the travel bug.
FOOTBALL MARKETING #8 – Arsenal UN & Sustainability, Southampton Stop The Count & Turf Moor is a Happy Place.
Life of Alicia 