Digital Sports Media. Magazine TOPICS INTERVIEWS TABLES. PSG Handball, Gregor Schlierenzauer. Digital Sports & Entertainment, FC Red Bull Salzburg

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1 A RESULT Sports Publication November 2014 Digital Sports Media Magazine TOPICS Digital Sports & Entertainment, FC Red Bull Salzburg INTERVIEWS PSG Handball, Gregor Schlierenzauer TABLES 1 International Rankings of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ & YouTube

2 Digital Sports Media EDITOR S LETTER Contents Editorial Digital Sports & Entertainment Conference Summary Gregor Schlierenzauer The Austrian Ski Jumper in profile European top 25 Fan numbers of european Football clubs European top 25 Fan numbers of european Ice Hockey clubs European top 25 Fan numbers of european Basketball clubs European top 25 Fan numbers of european Handball clubs Red Bull Salzburg Austrians number one in austrian football explains their view on different platforms social media in china European football clubs in chinese platforms Social Media in Brasil An overview on the most followed clubs in Brasil PSG Handball Social Media and monetization NHL Fan numbers of the National Hockey League 23 NBA Fan numbers of the National Basketball Association 24 MLS Fan numbers of the Major Soccer League 25 Social Numbers ISL - Indian Super League and Formula one 26 Facebook Fan numbers on Facebook 27 Twitter Fan numbers on Twitter 28 Instagram Fan numbers on Instagram 29 Last but not least CR7 becomes CR

3 EDITORIAL Different Cultures requires a different attitude Our observations Dear Readers, welcome to the November issue of RESULT Sports Digital Sports Media magazine. The Digital Sports & Entertainment Conference in Berlin on September 29th 2014 has proofed to us, the strategic path RESULT has chosen is very well received. The Sport industry was very well represented, with speakers from Arsenal FC, FC Schalke 04, 1. FC Cologne, FC Ingolstadt 04 and the Beko BBL, but also the presentations from Oscar Ugaz, German TV channel Pro7 / Sat1 and the digital part of Germany s biggest printed Newspaper, BILD digital, were very detailed and provided us tremendously positive feedback from delegates and participants. A new edition in 2015 is absolutely secure! Within our last issue I referred to the sensitivity within the developments in digital media. This fact I would like to pick up in this issue again and describe some observations and experiences we made during a new market- & platform launch project. How easy and yet very difficult the work of managers in the digital sports media industry can be. Let s take a fairly well-known club, playing in UEFA Europe League, which has decided to setup and present his club in the Chinese market, in order to expand its awareness and brand to this market and region. The correct contact within the platform is identified, the newly created page receives its verification and the first postings have been made. And the fan numbers developing very well. Within a few days the club media manager observes the first thousand, after a couple of weeks, the first ten thousand followers gather on the new network. The responsible club media manager communicates the positive developments both internally and externally and receives everywhere very positive feedback on his efforts. A few weeks later the milestone of one hundred thousand followers is surpassed, still exceeding any expectations Suddenly the growth shrinks, from one day to another. The daily growth now counts only less than a hundred. The club media manager completes an analytical study and quarrels. He changes his approach, adopts a revised posting strategy, tried everything, but nothing really works. The point of contact at the platform recommends to consider advertising and / or finding a sponsor to invest in reach and further growth - almost a logical step, since it had been decided to enter this new market. And exactly this is the where many platforms start their (own) business models - paid coverage, grow your reach and the increase of fans by investing. If you decided at this moment in time not to follow the commercial path and continue further your analytical part, the results will become very interesting almost amazing. A deep dive into the existing community is completed. Interactions are analysed and the followers are checked. Evaluating the high DIGITALE SPORTS MEDIA MEDIEN Magazine 3

4 number of followers is intense, but important, since you should know your opinion leaders. But in this scenario the results uncovered were very interesting: The followers gathered soon after the launch had hardly any follower, most of them nil and never made an own posting - did the platform supported the start with an artificial boom to reach their business model faster? Which way is right? As we know from other sportsmen and teams, this was not an isolated case. And anyone familiar with the Chinese mentality, know that this is seen in the best sense of the local culture as a positive support for the customer - what may at first be regarded as something strange. See the initial follower flood in a win-win scenario. There are digital game or platform rules which you have to accept. At this moment in time, you have cleared the first hurdle for the successful work there. We recommend that this step not to go alone, but to be accompanied by experts for the Chinese market. Manage expectations focus on interactions, not on total amount of fans all this will help your own work. With these thoughtful words, I find the way back to our current November issue, which again provides a wide range. We had some interesting discussions with your colleagues in our expert interview section: We spoke to FC Red Bull Salzburg and PSG Handball about their experiences in digital sports. In addition, we talked to Gregor Schlierenzauer, ski jumper in the Austrian Ski Federation, receive his insights into his digital strategy and summarize the Sports & Entertainment Digital Congress for you. Enjoy the reading With best regards, Mario Leo & the team RESULT Sports ADVERTORIAL I SOCIAL MEDIA We are glad to present the Digital Sports Media magazine to you and we hope the shown content and informations are assisting your daily work duties. For further informations feel free to connect with us and stay up-to-date with tables, graphs and other relevant digital sport business insights

5 REPORT I DIGITAL SPORTS&ENTERTAINMENT Content, Interaction and Storytelling on the way to success Richard Clarke, Arsenal Football Club, made it quite clear Tablet is our new TV. Arsenal is the only club amongst the top Premier League teams operating without an in-house TV channel. The Gunners believe in Web-based content. The Digital Sports & Entertainment conference in Berlin on September 29th highlighted 200+ delegates current trends and developments in sports and the media industry. Twitter, FC Schalke 04, 1. FC Cologne, Bild or Nike were amongst the speakers and agreed: Boredom is prohibited! ill. Richard Clarke (Arsenal, left), Mario Leo (middle) and Tobias Schmist (Schalke 04, right) during the Club Media Panel Direct (fan) dialogue & engagement, spontaneous interaction, creative content and authentic insights are benefits of Internet video and social media networks. Large and successful clubs allows the shift of marketing and communication channels into the Internet a significant international reach. This enables new marketing possibilities, which cannot be covered by linear TV programs. The challenges, as Richard Clarke, Managing Editor, Arsenal Football Club and Tobias Schmidt, Head of Media Club, FC Schalke 04 agreed, are the same for all. These are first and foremost bridging the language barriers while accessing new markets, understanding the content requirements in these markets and identifying opinion leaders among the fans in these regions. FC Schalke 04 for example, signed Japanese player Atsuto Uchida in And Uchida, as brand ambassador of the club in Japan, enabled Schalke to reach the third largest Japanese Twitter-Channel amongst all top European clubs with 78,000 followers. The player was a critical strategic value before and during the entrance into the new market. 5

6 REPORT I DIGITAL SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT Monetization of digital rights Awarding all media rights of the German Beko Basketball League to Deutsche Telekom means for Jan Pommer, General Manager Beko BBL the best media rights situation of all time. The positive evolution year after year of the league enabled this step now. Last season the highest German Basketball League registered 21% more spectators (Ø 4675), a 48% increase in revenues (to cast. 88 million) and 57% more viewers on Sport 1 (Ø 135,000 per game), the broadcasting channel, compared to 2009/2010 season. Approx. 20 million Deutsche Telekom customers can follow, free of charge, all 350 Beko BBL matches with the start of the 2014/ 2015 season across all channels, including mobile devices. Non-customers of Deutsche Telecom can order monthly or annual subscriptions. The Basketball broadcasting package, in combination with one additional free to air TV game per match-day, enables new marketing potential. We noticed a significant increase of interest for the Beko BBL, stated Pommer. Daniel Poelkemann, General Manager Sport, at BILD Germany stated, the hardest-rights fight against eleven competitors to gain the German Bundesliga digital rights paid off. The aim to create a new interactive football world for the fan, covering all platforms, was the start point. Evaluations have shown, the BILD-Bundesliga offering, particular during the weekend, achieves a very high relevance ,5 minutes of moving images on BILD-Smart TV and 924 goals later, approximately 50,000 new paid customers were acquired. And especially the marketability of existing BILD-Online-Platforms was improved by free-to-air broadcasts. New Formats arise and marketing opportunities emerge. The biggest difference between TV and web-based content was described incisively by Lukas Klumpe, Managing Director, Athletia: On TV, it s all about reach. On YouTube its all about engagement. Athletia is largest YouTube Content Partner in Europe and Lukas Klumpe introduced marketing opportunities for the largest video platform in the world (1 billion users). ill. Oscar Ugaz, former Digital Business Manager Real Madrid C.F., inspires the audition with his presentation. 6

7 INTERVIEW I SCHLIERENZAUER Values for my fans Gregor Schlierenzauer, although only 24 years old, is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, thanks to 38 victories in ski jumping and 14 in ski flying at World Cup events. He succeeded twice in the overall World Cup, won six gold medals at World Championships and Olympic silver in Socchi and gold in Vancouver. Digital Sports Media spoke to Schlieri during his preparation for the upcoming season about his activities on Facebook and other platforms. ill. Schlierenzauers personal best is: 243,5m (Vikersund 2011), Picture: GEPA_Red Bull Content Pool Good Day Mr. Schlierenzauer, where do we reach you and what are you currently doing? At home, in Stubai Valley, Austria. I just resumed individual training after recovering from flu. Our magazine does focus on digital media and you are quite active throughout the year. Since when are you active on Facebook, and how satisfied are you with your current nearly 200,000 fans? I started my Facebook profile in November 2011 and personally for me, the number of fans is not that important. I am satisfied when my messages reach my fans. Facebook and other platforms are ideal for this. Really? Your Austrian team mate Thomas Morgenstern currently counts 255,000 fans surely you want to pass him, like the challenges during a ski-jump session, right? Not at all! What I really want to achieve is providing my fans an insight and to keep them up to date. No, I don t want to enter a competition in digital. Are you taking care of your profile by your own or do you get support? In principle, it is my account and I take care all by myself, but there are exceptions, where I require support from friends. For example, if I want to post something going on very quickly, but do not have time or cannot get online access. But these scenarios are very seldom. 7

8 INTERVIEW I SCHLIERENZAUER Ski-Jump is a winter sport. Is it especially important to keep your fans up to date during the summer, when winter sport is not featured in any media? Personally spoken, it is important during the summer just as it is in winter months, because what I post inside my profile, the insights, behind the scenes footage and so on, can rarely or never been found in mass media. Let us take a closer look into your profile - do you know, for example, currently 96,000 Schlierenzauer-Facebook fans come from Austria (49.4%). Followed by fans from Poland (54,000 fans / 27.9%) and Germany (16,000 fans / 8.2%) in 2nd and 3rd. How interesting are such details for you? Basically, I am very satisfied for every fan who supports me and who keeps his or her fingers crossed. Whether from Austria, Germany, Poland or wherever my fans are coming from ultimately it is important to have a connection and interaction with each of them. In regular intervals we can witness external content on your Facebook page, for example promoting guest posts. To increase traffic for your website, Facebook is a perfect means, of course. Is this and the interactions with your fans the main motive for an active community management? you have to support this channel, place unique content and interact with the community. I have chosen carefully and I believe at this moment in time, two profiles are fully sufficient. What do you think personally, regardless of any activities with fans, about the evolution of social networks? As long as people do not forget to talk in person and social networks do not affect the values of any society, I find it personally absolutely fine. It s like almost everything in life, it comes down to intensity and values. Let s take a quick look at the upcoming season: What are your goals for the winter 2014/15? I want to jump very well and with great passion. To achieve this, it is important to enjoy the maximum of fun. Thank you, Mr. Schlierenzauer, for the insight into your digital life. There are activities, which I support and fully believe in. And for those I use my platforms, either homepage or Facebook. But first and foremost all digital activities are for my fans. Social Media platforms bring them closer to my personal habits and me. You are also quite active on Instagram (21,200 followers) - how do your differ in the content between Facebook and Instagram? 8 Instagram is primarily a visual platform and I love to take pictures. Therefore the focus of the pictures I place on Instagram are imagery. Of course, I also place picture on Facebook too, but here the added text becomes also a special meaning. Athletes are more and more adopting Twitter, but we could not find your profile. Do you focus on two platforms and will a third one become too difficult? What are the reasons? First of all, I am an athlete and not a networker. I fully believe, once you decided to use a social media platform, ill. Schlierenzauer lives in Fulpmes near Innsbruck. Picture: Rasmus Kaessmann_Red Bull Content Pool

9 European Top 25 Football 9 *the numbers have been compiled on November 1st.

10 RANKINGS European Top 25 Ice Hockey 10 *the numbers have been compiled on November 1st.

11 RANKINGS European Top 25 Basketball 11 *the numbers have been compiled on November 1st.

12 RANKINGS European Top 25 Handball 12 *the numbers have been compiled on November 1st.

13 GlobalSportsJobs A cooperation between Result Sports & GlobalSportsJobs The specialist digital media & talent platform for the International Sports Industry Dear Readers, We are delighted that we will be able to offer a selection of very interesting international jobs in cooperation with our partner GlobalSportsJobs. For any questions please contact GlobalSportsJobs directly. Tobias Trombik +49 (0) or Head of International c Media Relations c Vice President Partnerships EMEA c Head of CRM/ Marketing Paris, France Europe Munich, Germany Digital Manager c London, UK c Head of Client Services Oman c International Sales & Account Manager Lucerne, Switzerland Event Training c Manager Nyon, Switzerland c Director of Sales & Marketing Ontario, Canada c Corporate Sales Executive Leicester, UK and receive automatic Jobs by Mail. INSPIRING EDUCATING INNOVATING Do you want to publish a job? 13

14 INTERVIEWI RB SALZBURG THE DIGITAL FC RED BULL SALZBURG WORLD FC Red Bull Salzburg tends to lead the Austrian Football Bundesliga by quite a margin. But the next step, entering the UEFA Champions League, was missed once again very narrowly. But thanks to solid digital presence and a tailored first team strategy, the Mozart-City club established an international fan base. ill. On the top. In Austria Football no one counts more fans than FC Red Bull Salzburg 14 For few companies only, the advent of digital media was of similar gain as it was for the sports industry and above all for sports clubs. Their status within the population had been largely dependent on the goodwill of journalists, who filtered the information as gatekeeper and passed it on to their related newspapers, TV or radio stations. Only when Facebook and other social platforms appeared, a direct contact between club and supporters in terms of reach compared to traditional media (and beyond) was possible. FC Red Bull Salzburg particularly benefited from this phenomenon. The club is generally limited in terms of reach, because of the rather regional market in Austria. With approx. 300,000 Facebook fans (as of September 23rd 2014), the Mozart city team is the one to match in terms of fan base, followed by record champions Rapid Vienna with about 155,000 Likes. But already in the geographical analysis for these two teams, the first major differences can be observed. While the official site of SK Rapid Wien is mostly addressing an Austrian audience (currently 72,5% of fans reside in Austria), the international fan base of Salzburg is rather impressive. For example, Peru ranks - with nearly 50,000 fans in second place, which is primarily related to the signing of a specific young talent from Peru, who already was a nations fan favourite in his country, Yordy Reyna (Yordy is currently on loan at SV Groedig). In addition, FC Red Bull Salzburg played some impressive games in UEFA Europe League in recent years and achieved an international reputation, which attracted the interest of fans from different countries abroad. The club offers dedicated content for these international fans. Through targeted news, images or specially shortened links ( / XY) the fans are directed to the

15 INTERVIEWI RB SALZBURG relevant news articles, in their mother tongue, on the website. All fans will be served with the most important and relevant news around the team on all active media channels, selectively supplying also live streams, but predominantly with pictures and clips, which are frequently created a little wild for the younger fan audience. The interaction with and within the community is based on specifically social media compliant content, which is (also) being distributed by FC Red Bull Salzburg squad player, directly from their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, G + and YouTube profiles into the online world - a multiplier to tap into other/ new target groups to enable future fan growth. The current Austrian double champion (championship and cup) connects the various channels into a single medium, evaluates the content to enable relevance and value for the steadily growing fan base. The approach is fan centric and the fans are taken particularly important. As an example, a fan can post directly questions to the players, which are answered after the games or a press conferences in dynamic and vivid video form. Facebook This platform has assumed a central role for FC Red Bull Salzburg and its communication. Facebook aims to meet all needs of a football fan of FC Red Bull Salzburg, who wants to be always up-to-date and be entertained (Picture and Video content). Twitter Twitter is the LIVE channel for the bulls. Actual and short messages (tweets) are sent to the Followers and the Hashtags of FC Red Bull Salzburg are clearly defined: #RBS #BULLE12 Instagram Instagram is the visual platform. Picture messages are tagged with the Fan-Hashtag #BULLE12 (like our 12th player on the field = the fan), distributed to the community and shared within the community. Fans can take atmospheric images and share them within the community. A special during match-day, selective pictures are shown on the video-wall inside the stadium and the connected screens in the stands. Google+ More detailed postings are published on this communication channel. Important wording is highlighted through the hashtag and posted with the means of search engine optimization. YouTube The official YouTube channel of FC Red Bull Salzburg brings the fans close to the squad. Videos via Handycam are published here quite frequently with a funny background. Especially new signings, interviews directly after the games, as well as some special goals of our ill. Tumblr - the interactice blog of RB Salzburg 15

16 INTERVIEWI RB SALZBURG players - for example, the 60 meters against FC Schalke 04 from Martin Hinteregger - are the favourites here. Vine Short, funny videos from our match-days are being shared on this channel to our Followers. Tumblr Just few clubs operate Tumblr blog, FC Red Bull Salzburg is one of them. Pinterest Images, Pictures and Graphics of highest quality are published on this communication channel. These are quite often a birthday album from our players, emotional images of our fans or capturing the emotions and drama on a match-day. Main focus for the content is the match-day itself - from preliminary reports to special theme posting and the Social Media Score Service should not be missed. The user should be able to look behind the scenes - both on national and international games, home or away. It is all about creating a proximity to the team despite geographical distances. All public online content (on Twitter and Instagram), which are marked with #BULLE12 are channelled and available to all football fans on the club website. The contact with our spectators will be intensified at home games through this access point, since congratulations, motivational statements and emotional photos can directly be sent to the players in the mixed zone - this content will be shown in a life-size fan called #BULLE12. FC Red Bull Salzburg is also quite active in the mobile segment and offers a free iphone and Android App (including an English version). Current News, Videos, Schedules, Ticket informations, Live Scores, press conferences, ical calendar events, as well as current training schedule are thus always at hand on the fans smartphone. In addition, the push notifications can be categorized by user-definition, so each fan receives the desired content. Overall FC Red Bull Salzburg offers to all interested a complete digital package with all the trimmings and hopes, after the bitter exit in the playoffs for the UEFA Champions League, to ensure a few surprises during UEFA Europe League campaign. ill User follow the Austrian double champion 16

17 RANKINGS Social Media in China 17

18 RANKINGS Social Media Brasil 18 *the numbers have been compiled on November 1st.

19 INTERVIEW I PSG HANDBALL Social monetization is the key The French Cup winner PSG Handball isn t just sucessfull on the field. Bruno Martini, Generel Manager of PSG Handball in conversation with RESULT Sports about their social media activities and the way to optimize the ROI. ill. Facebook page of PSG Handball with likes Hello Mr. Martini. How are your experiences about social media so far? Our experiences have been really exciting so far considering the fast growing development of our club. Because of the new standard of the team, we had to raise a brand-new digital platform starting from almost zero back to June This situation has been extremely memorable for our passionate employees and of course our new fans! With a little more focus on Facebook. When did you launch your profile? Were Goals & Objectives set before entering Facebook and have they been reached? We took over the fan page of the previous entity Paris Handball and this was branded PSG at the launch of the new club. At first, the main objective was to raise awareness about the new project which has been reached easily thanks to the famous athletes we signed in a short while. Then we identified some business opportunities for tickets sales through Facebook ads where we had real ROI and sold many season tickets (I will come into details further) Which department is responsible for the activities in Social Media and do you coordinate internally activities across the departments (e.g. ticket sales, marketing activities, press statements, etc.? All activities are managed with the football organization and the marketing department is taking care of Social Media working closely with CRM, Multimedia and Brand section of the department. One professional is dedicated for handball digital operations, overviewed by the handball marketing manager. Thanks to this organization, inputs and projects are shared through all departments since Marketing is very connected to Ticketing and Sponsorship departments. Have you implemented any internal Social Media Guidelines (e.g. for players, staff, etc.) at the club? We are pretty fortunate with our roster since the athletes are quite fans of social media practices and are kind individuals. There are really active online and sharing 19

20 INTERVIEW I PSG HANDBALL to each other all contents has become really common, which is now a real guideline. For specific promotion (new campaign/contract signing/etc.), we always warn them before they can post any content to make sure we have the priority and we can optimize the project. They know that they must answer when we interact with them through Twitter for instance. No needs to remind them the stakes about inside information and personal standpoints related to results! Do you focus on fan growth or are interaction rates (e.g. responses, likes, etc.) most important in the dialogue with your fan base? We believe both goals must be covered. Let s keep in mind that interaction may lead to fan growth and vice versa. Thanks to various principles that we have defined and keep adjusting according to social trends, we are always attempting to reach new fans and strengthen our relationship with current likers and followers. Can Facebook or Digital Media in general, become a revenue generator for PSG Handball? If yes, do you plan to implement? Monetization is a key concern right now. First point is to identify how much the brand management on social platforms can drive fan consumption, a process which is still very complicated to implement for research experts. We generate tickets sales through Facebook ads and regular promotion of our products but we do not directly sell tickets on the fan page. We also collect data about our fans thanks to some applications on the tabs, data to be used by our CRM department and our call center to sell ticketing products. Finally, we noticed that a strong fan base on Facebook is clearly appreciated or even necessary in some cases with sponsorship opportunities. Which Content works best for the online community fans of PSG Handball? We are releasing a full range of application for mobile uses. Thousands of fans have downloaded them and figures seem to be much higher than international handball teams were used to so far. iphone and Android application are available while the one for ipad is coming up. We prefer to work on mobile applications than mobile version of the website for optimization of contents and enhancement of the brand. Do you see a great adoption of your fan base for Mobile and Social Media (i.e. Check-Ins, etc.) and do you already offer any special contests? Social networks are cool and very useful tools for setting any kind of promotional operations. It is often used for leveraging a project since new technologies provide so many opportunities. A nice operation this year was featuring an editorial project during the world championship where our head coach was recording sounds on soundcloud to share his inputs on our players performance during the competition. We were storytelling the posts on Twitter and using an application on Facebook to make easily available all sounds directly on the fan page. Did the growth on Social Media channels impact the traffic (visits, page impressions) on the website? If yes, how? It is. Since our Facebook fan base is extremely huge considering our sport and newness, it actually takes fans to our website which is currently less visited. Can you believe that we are already ranked number #2 in the world as handball club on Facebook? We actually use Facebook to promote some of the content from our new official website that came out by March. It sounds weird but it is a reality. PSG Handball has established a great team over the past two year. How is your experience on the correlation of fan growth in your social media channels and sporting success (ie. new player signings, great matches, sporting success, strong ticket sales, etc.)? 20 Live content, inside clues, promotional campaign with fans rewarding and images (vide or photo) with uncommon situations on/off court are definitely chased by our community! Does Paris Saint-Germain Handball provide any mobile offering (Apps, etc.) to the fans? The correlation is more than significant. Last summer, we finalized the roster while the Olympics were going on. The French team caught the gold medal while we had 3 players within the squad. At that time, it was an incredible period of sales for season ticket whereas fans were joining us on Facebook like never. The cherry on the cake came with the signing of the world best player (Mikkel Hansen) where we add thousands of fans in a week.