The big news this morning was the announcement by The Football League that Carling would no longer be the title sponsor of the League Cup.
Carling have held this sponsorship for over a decade and, in my opinion, done a pretty good job of it. This has included some decent PR, some interesting digital activation incluindg the iPint app and some clever digital signage. Although lets gloss over the failure to use spell check before pushing the go button…..
But that is no more. And this departure throws up a real opportunity.
The League Cup is at a significant crossroads. Interest from high-profile managers seems at an all time low. A couple of managers have even stated publicly their delight that their teams have been knocked out of it early. A distraction. An inconvenience. A nuisance.
Attendances are pretty low, and early rounds are notable for rows and rows of empty seats watching over two reserve teams.
So, why would any sponsor want a piece of this? Well I’d argue that this crossroads is, in fact, the ideal time for a big, significant brand to get involved. But with certain conditions attached. Here is my vision for it.
Repositioning the League Cup as the family tournament.
As successful as the Carling association has been for the League Cup, it has somewhat inhibited its ability to reach out to the family market – at least overtly. I think this has to change.
As families get priced out of going to the “big” games, there is a real opportunity for a sponsor-led revolution of the League Cup. Get a family brand on board and make everything about the experience tailored to bringing families to the games.
This can be done in a number of ways – how about these for starters (and thanks to @nathjones for his suggestions on Twitter this morning):
– Earlier kick of times. How about a 6pm start so that you can take the kids and get them back to bed at a decent hour? Give the kids their first experience of a game under floodlights (one of the magical experiences of my childhood was Ayresome Park for evening games with my dad).
- Deals for schools. Local deals for the local kids to go and watch their local teams. Get seats blocked out by youth clubs, after school clubs and schools of all types.
- Events in and around the ground. Mascots, face painting, experiential stuff – the stuff that football does so badly (but cricket does well). With the right kind of sponsor on board this kind of stuff could really work. And if the sponsor was, for example, Asda, this could be reciprocated in store at a local level throughout the build up and aftermath of a match.
- Associated schools five-a-side tournament. Local finals before local games, and the eventual final before the League Cup final itself. Lovely extended PR possibilities from something like this, again on a local and family friendly level.
- Family pricing. £20 for a family, or more radically (as @nathjones suggests, so hammer him please…) Pay What You Want. Clubs, the sponsor and the League could really hammer this in the build up to the matches – try to make it an impulse buy, an exciting after-school treat for the kids that is affordable, fun and easy. Y’know – like it used to be.
- Embrace the future stars. The nature of football these days means it is unlikely that first teams will be sent out to the League Cup games all the time. The new sponsor should embrace this. Negotiate more access to the future stars who will be playing – get them involved in the pre and post match activation. Really max out the communication about future fans supporting the future stars.
I think there is a real opportunity here – for the competition and the sponsor itself. Local activation for a strong British brand.
I’d bet my hat, however, that we’ll end up with The BIG BAD BETTING COMPANY CUP though. That would be a real shame.
Some good ideas, much better than those F365 put forward last week, certainly more youth/family friendly. But as you say, money talks, and I can imagine it’d sooner be the Gaddafi cup than the Pokemon Cup (or whatever kids are into these days)
Do the sponsors have any control over ticket prices/kick off times though? Plus I’m a season ticket holder at Manchester United and fans are forced to by Carling Cup tickets as part of their season ticket, if they want to be able to apply for away games, so early kick offs would really penalise them and could lead to more empty seats!
I don’t see these plans working. What you have here is a check-list of things that would be good for football but not advertisers.
The main draw for the sponsors are not the people in the ground but the TV audience and the association with a popular sport and big names. This suffers in the League Cup as the big clubs don’t tend to put out first team players which damages TV ratings and the reputation of the competition as being something that is worth winning. Only one of the above points helps address this issue, that is the place for the ‘future players’. It’s certainly something Arsenal exploit in their marketing for their games (they also have cheap tickets).
Events around the ground will only appeal to the few who go the games, and it will always be ‘a few’ in contrast with the wide audience that TV brings. A 6pm kick off will also be poor for TV, less people would watch, less appeal for sponsors (Again).
In short, while each idea is noble and would be good for the sport, I don’t see how they benefit a big name company.
Hi
Thanks very much for taking time to read the post and add a comment.
I take your point. And a central theme of a lot of my blog posts is about how football isn’t for the fans in the ground – it is a TV show first and foremost and brands and sponsors latch onto that more than anything.
But, I think the League Cup, more than anything, needs its title sponsor to think differently. If it is simply considered a cheaper option for brands than the FA Cup and the League sponsorship it is doomed to fail, and in the short term.
What I am thinking is a sponsorship more akin to the recently-ended Race for Life sponsorship by Tesco – local community-driven activation but with a national profile.
As with anything, it depends on how the sponsor judges success of a sponsorship program. Engagement with communities, traction within youth groups and schools and a general sense of “doing some good” may be KPIs for certain types of brands – and looking at the sponsorship of the League Cup could be just the way to knock some of these deliverables out of the park.
I may be wrong of course – but I think that more-of-the-same just simply isn’t an option. Or, at least, shouldn’t be.