Ehsen Shah: Marketing the modern footballer
We are told these days that athletes are “brands”.
Digital and social media has given them unprecedented tools of direct communication. So does that mean you can just find your audience, tell your story, engage your followers and then sponsorship dollars will roll in?
Ehsen Shah, MD of B Engaged, is guiding some major footballers through this particular opportunity/problem.
What they have to do, how they have to act, who they have to listen to and how they react to ‘haters’ or tough times on the pitch?
Topics breakdown
1.48 Ehsen Shah introduces himself
2.07 The principles he applies to building a player’s brand
2.45 Handling different personalities like Mesut Ozil v Hector Bellerin
3.30 The background to B Engaged
4.34 How important is a player’s social media game?
5.30 Why even Cristiano Ronaldo needs social media skills
6.01 Coping with non-believers in sports social media
8.30 How the conversations with agents have changed
9.40 How Gareth Bale got ahead of the game
11.08 What analytics are sought by brands
13.02 The org chart of B Engaged
14.45 Why a commission approach leads to bad deals
16.02 How you contact a brand about sponsoring a player
17.37 Fitting a player with a brand. Taking the conversation beyond an email
18.52 The best players partnership he has done - Bang & Olufsen
21.19 The timescale for the deal
22.20 The ROI. Driving from social media to the purchase point
23.19 Helping players cope with hater on social media
25.01 Posting for players v players posting themselves
28.04 Why Instagram is taking over in players’ minds. And why they ignore Twitter
30.45 The Andre Santos example
31.15 How the posting by players has changed because “no-one cares about the truth”. Threats to their family
33.10 Fans, the media and the changing nature of the sporting narrative
34.26 Coping with “focusing on football” and not going out
36:16 Filtering out the signal from the noise. Breaking down the sentiment analysis
37.32 Whether players will become competitive to brands and so should they share content?
40.20 Dealing with a club’s communications staff. What those conversations entail.
43.17 The future for player’s social media and marketing. What content will be produced? Netflix, Amazon etc
46.15 The platforms. Their strength and the problems of fitting in Snapchat 48.41 Where B Engaged might go and the countries they will develop into. Offline v Online opportunities.
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