A quick review of the M:Football Conference for you. This event happened yesterday at the Emirates Stadium. As much as being at the home of Arsenal FC sickened me, the state of the mobile industry seemed to be quite good and the buzz was extremely positive.
Although some of the case studies and presentations weren’t exactly brilliant there were alot of great ideas that football brands and sponsors should take forward. I will highlight the highlights…
Real Madrid – Pedro Duarte Gonzalez.
I think this was probably my highlight of the day. I have always wondered how Real Madrid fund their President’s love of over-priced Galaticos, now I know. The Real Madrid mobile set-up is super smart and something that should be copied, replicated, collaborated on by any number of footie brands.
The mobile revenue works on a franchise model. Real Madrid control all content centrally, but country based local partners pitch for exclusivity over the mobile contracts. This has led to a period of very rapid growth globally, with Pedro highlighting that all the markets they wanted to reach now have ownership from a local mobile provider.
The subscription model has generated 100,000 monthly subscribers who pay €12 a month. The only have an attrition rate of 1.5% per month which Pedro believes is down to the superb content available – goals, interviews – back stage access in reality. In total, Real have generated €4.5m worth of income through mobile.
I think Pedro also came up with one of the better quotes of the day with:
“Real Madrid has bet on the mobile media as a new channel to sell content, generate business, create a database and cross-sell”
Nike Bootcamp from AKQA
Although I felt the AKQA presentation wasn’t that great. Their final piece of the Nike Bootcamp was really strong. Its a superb piece of mobile content which allows young players to train like their favourite players.
The idea works across web and mobile but Nike&AKQA quickly identified that most teens, young adults are more on mobile than computer. It made sense therefore to create a mobile site and functionality which would allow players to quickly upload content and performances to their mobile. The mobile acts as a training guide and really encourages players along.
The second and third stages of development have involved getting some of Nike’s best known clubs and players on board. For example, stage 1 involved being coached by the legendary Pep Guardiola on “control” which also happens to be one of the facets of the Nike football boot. They also had individual training guides on control from Real Madrid’s… sorry I mean Arsenal’s Cesc Fabergas.
You can check them out at this link. I think its really fantastic work from AKQA and the developments they showed were also looking great.
OneGoal 1Goal – Chris Ward
The final highlight for me was a simple piece from Chris Ward on the OneGoal project. Involving footballers and football authorities from around the world, Chris Ward and the OneGoal team are working to make sure all children are able to get an education. Currently 75million children in the world do not have the chance to attend school and its the OneGoal project to make sure this happens.
I’m keen to get involved in this as its such a good cause and a great way of using football to unite around education. The speeches made, shown on video, were certainly emotional and I think its a great charity to help.
Thats about it really. The day was certainly brought together under one view. Don’t just use mobile to do the same thing you are doing in other channels. Make it a unique proposition, create great content and engage frequently and uniquely with your followers/supporters.
Here is to a successful 2010 for England and also OneGoal.
