Digital Marketing and Club Licensing was the focus on day two of the OFC Executive Programme for General Secretaries workshop in Auckland earlier this month.
The two-day workshop held at the OFC Home of Football ‘Te Kahu O’Kiwa’ was funded by UEFA through the English FA.
The day featured presentations from OFC Head of Commercial & Communications Steffi Ah Yuk on Digital Marketing with Football Australia deputy chair Jackie Lee-Joe presenting a case study on the Australian Women’s team the ‘Matilda’s’ extraordinary success achieved through digital marketing campaigns.
The Digital marketing session fostered discussions on the benefits of Digital Marketing to Member Associations (MAs) and the role of the CEO or General Secretary in this space.
“The bigger picture here and what speaks to our CEOs is the question ‘Why digital marketing?’ Fundamentally MAs want to host competitions with sold out stadiums, enhance fan engagement by creating that sense of community and ultimately increase revenue by attracting more sponsors. The best way to do this is through digital marketing” Ah Yuk said.
New Zealand Football CEO Andrew Pragnell says digital marketing is a huge area of focus for his organisation.
“Digital channels continue to grow for us, they are arguably our most important tools to reach fans and connect with our partners and sponsors and get out the key messages that we want to push into the football community.” Pragnell said.
Lee-Joe discussed the extraordinary success the Matilda’s achieved not only because of their on-field performances at last year’s FWWC 23, but through digital marketing campaigns to promote the team, by telling their stories.
“Our players are the perfect role models for many women and girls. Their stories from returning ‘back to work’ after children, of being a First Nations women representing Australia, of the challenges of balancing relationships whilst straddling a professional international career – are relatable, aspirational and inspiring.”
Lee-Joe had some sound advice to General Secretaries over the sort of tactics they can employ to generate engagement.
‘Building channel partnerships with the likes of YouTube, Meta, Twitter and TikTok – who value engaging talent and sports content. Leveraging collaboration with other digital partners, clubs, players and influencers – will help to grow audiences, subscribers and followers.” Lee Joe said.
OFC Clubs and League Manager Steven Dillon held an interactive session on how MAs can embrace Club Licensing to make an impact in their Association.
(Photo Credit OFC Media)
“The outcome was to provide a refresher information session on the impact of the ongoing development of Clubs in respective national domestic leagues for men and women.” Dillon said.
The session outlined the benefits that a development focus in this area would have on the standards of football in country and how the role of the General Secretary is important in setting up the association to help establish or refine Club Development further, continually supporting their member clubs along the way.
“It’s an important area, especially with the domestic league. One thing I have learned is by improving your domestic league you also improve the performance of your national team, so we need to improve the administration level of the clubs in the league.” Solomon Islands General Secretary Leonard Paia said.
OFC will continue to engage with the General Secretaries and the next workshop is planned for October.