Sports Marketing: where the fan comes second!

The Premiership season is about to kick off in England and the excitement amongst fans is palpable.

Season tickets have landed, new shirts are unwrapped and ready to be paraded, disappointment about what is likely to happen to your team during the season is, for the moment, has been pushed to the back of your mind.

The nervousness and excitement is also happening inside the clubs. In fact, it is even more nerve racking.

You see the thing with working in sports marketing is that you are a sports fan, with ingrained passion, that also has to run a business in a sensible way. Trying to balance your irrational logic as a fan, with the very real business needs of any sports club is, well, a game of two halves!

When The Island first started working as a digital agency in sports clubs we saw for ourselves how hard it was to make good commercial decisions when you know full well that any fan may not agree with your decision – say, for example, on season ticket prices.

You know the club needs to raise them to survive but you also know how you would react to receive the communication, that you have just designed, and how it would potentially anger you.

In effect you have to constantly make decisions which irritate your own ingrained passions for a club and the sport itself. You also know you need to make those decisions as sport, at all levels, is fickle and solid decisions around finances and commercials are key to ensure the fans come back and complain at you again next season.

Read more about our sports marketing work by clicking here