How to take Celtic to the North American television market

The impact of television on football grows ever stronger with the events or panic through the summer largely arising from fear that an SPL broadcasting deal would be decimated.

Those fears turned out to be unfounded with the motives of Neil Doncaster and Stewart Regan called into question. The uneasy relationship between football and television has intensified with Celtic fans facing 12.15 and 12.45 kick-off’s in the highlands over the next few weeks.

Finding a way of harnessing television income without unduly damaging the live support at matches is a massive challenge for clubs who look on wondering how they can tap into overseas supporter markets in the Far East and North America.

As an insider in the television business I frequently work behind the camera and do business with the likes of the BBC. This means I need to keep my rants and opinions anonymous.

I understand TV and I understand how to package and sell TV programming. This is why I constantly tear my hair out at the lack of ambition from Celtic in our broadcasting. This is particularly true with our backward thinking in our global (non UK) output.

Celtic’s current concept consists of milking the expatriate fans in other countries for the opportunity to watch streams of live games at horrible hours of the early morning.

“We have X fans globally. Let’s milk X for all it’s worth and assume that Y will support Man Utd.”

The concept is completely redundant. It’s an appallingly stupid approach to an open market. Looking at the USA exclusively- lets examine the facts:

1) The USA networks are currently desperate for football coverage due to the boom in popularity

2) The main USA sports organisations don’t view foreign soccer leagues as competition.

3) The USA fans are currently happy to watch the MLS -which is fairly poor. This proves that the USA soccer fans aren’t worried about the quality of play, but more the natural competition. (This solves our problem of marketing the SPL.)

4) SPL could be watched alongside the EPL and not be seen as direct competition. Many Irish fans support Celtic alongside a Premiership team.

5) USA television laws are different to the UK. Product placement and in-program advertising is happily accepted. In fact, most sports coverage is seen as advertising space.

The Dallas Cowboys are seen as “America’s team” in the USA. This is due to the fact that the Cowboys had large amounts of national coverage in the early days of Television.

In sporting terms, these are the early days of football coverage in the USA. We should aim to make our club America’s soccer team.

Instead of milking our global fanbase for pay per view subscriptions, we should be aiming to plaster as much Celtic coverage on USA networks as possible. We should (if needed) go as far as PAYING for coverage on American sports networks. This is how WWF wrestling became a TV phenomena in the 1980’s.

Celtic pay for Television time from the network, recoup money from the excessive ability to advertise on USA TV and will have the opportunity to further develop an audience and fanbase in the USA.

Each Celtic game should be seen as an advertising feature to an open audience. Celtic should produce the match program in-house and have the commentators follow the game from a Celtic perspective.

This isn’t anything new in the USA. Most major cities have their own ESPN channel that broadcast the game from the hometown’s perspective. The audience is made aware of ticket sales, merchandise and other commercial opportunities during the programming.

Celtic should spoon-feed the audience facts about the club and give the audience reasons to support Celtic. Each handy fact can be “brought to you by…” a particular sponsor.

With such an ability to advertise within content, Celtic would probably generate twice their current TV income from investing in coverage in the USA while further developing a fanbase.

It was also be ridiculously good practise for Celtic to purchase both a high-profile USA and Mexican international. The team could be the successfully plugged to Irish, Scottish and Mexican communities in the USA as well as the USA national team supporters.

Joint merchandising with sports teams

In recent years Manchester Utd made the move of a joint merchandising deal with the New York Yankees. This is an excellent idea for their club. Both are huge brands with massive followings and neither is in direct competition with the other. The link exposes both brands to new audiences. In truth Man Utd will benefit from the link more than the Yankees as it’s more likely the USA will adopt soccer than the other way around.

Celtic should aim to follow with merchandising deals with high profile east coast USA teams. The basketball club in Boston would be an obvious marketing match. Philadelphia Eagles would also be a good shout. Philadelphia is a huge sports town with a large Irish and Scottish community.

Both teams wear Green and White and both teams are seen as having the more passionate followings in their respective leagues. Throw in the newly established Philadelphia Soccer team and it seems a fairly perfect match.

The next step from a joint marketing and merchandising deal would be for Celtic to get a regular slot on Philadelphia sports networks. A link with the likes of the Eagles would help this.

It seems obvious that we will be conducting more of these tours and the East Coast of the USA is easily the best choice of location. Establishing ties to sports franchises in the big tim towns of the east coast (Philly, New York/ New Jersey and Boston) would be hugely helpful in creating brand awareness.

Making exhibitions in the USA a carnival atmosphere

Fans have complained that previous trips have often been a missed PR opportunity for Celtic. It is important for Celtic to make such exhibition games an experience for the fans. Many of the people attending the games won’t support Celtic. It should be Celtic’s aim to convert these unbiased spectators to fully-fledged Celtic fans.

American sporting events are very different from the cold, grey and frequently hostile matches we experience in the East End of Glasgow. Spectators are not treated like criminals at such events. Instead fans are treated as paying customers out to have a fun experience with their friends and family.

The American sports teams are smart enough to realise that if the spectators have a good experience, they come back…. if they don’t, they won’t.

It’s important for our current board to understand that these aren’t supporters who will come back out of loyalty due to the club being in their family for generations. Celtic needs to work hard to win these fans by creating a carnival experience at every game. The USA fans expect tailgating (BBQ cookout party seen at USA sports events), entertainment (such as live music acts), merchandise giveaways and other PR events.

The best thing Peter Lawell could do is to attend the NFL’s yearly game at Wembley Stadium. The NFL is big business and knows how to market and promote itself to a new audience. Celtic would definitely benefit from following suit.

The long and short of it

We need to market a Celtic for the new American fan rather than offering an attitude of “take it or leave it”. If we fail to turn such pre-season tours into a successful advertising tool, it would further the argument that such trips are a waste of resources.

Hopefully Lawell and co will understand that such tours are a huge opportunity and the Celtic support in the USA will be treated to a great event.

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Part 1- Celtic and the North American deam

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