Crossing Continents: Football Vs Football

The NFL has launched its second season of ‘Game recognise game’ syndicated video content, in which players from NFL and Premier League / Bundesliga clubs face off and get to know each other via a series of skills-based challenges.

LA-based Englishman Henry Hodgson, NFL VP of international marketing, gave Sport Industry Group the background to the campaign, and explained how it fits with the broader strategies of all the rightsholders concerned…

What are your objectives with the ‘Game recognise game’ content?

One of our challenges, internationally, has been ‘getting the helmets off’ our star players and giving fans of other sports a chance to see their personalities. We figured this was a good way: to get them together with peers from other sports. And when we spoke to the Premier League about it, we also hit on one of their objectives, which is about making their [Premier League] players more recognisable in the US, so it was mutually beneficial.

And the fun thing, which we learned along the way, is that the two sets of players really appreciate each others’ sports and the skills that are involved, so having some lightweight athletic challenges really got their competitive juices flowing and also brought them together.

Why partner with the clubs and not the leagues?

We used the International Champions Cup (US pre-season tour event) as our opportunity to bring the players together, so last year it was mainly Premier League teams that we had some kind of a relationship with and had worked with previously on smaller projects, for example, jersey swaps, which had all got a bit stale.

In the UK, our relationship is really much more with the teams as opposed to the league, but in Germany we have a good relationship with the league and we’ve also developed a very strong relationship with Bayern Munich, who have been a good partner for us on various different marketing initiatives.

Was there a broader rationale for selecting the football clubs and players to feature?

The International Champions Cup has been the key driver but we also wanted to have a strategy to partner with teams that would have a lot of reach into fans around the world. Man United, Man City, Spurs and Bayern all obviously have that kind of great global reach. We also wanted them to be interested in what we had to offer and it certainly helped that they were playing their games in NFL stadiums as part of the International Champions Cup.

How does this initiative fit with your broader international marketing strategy?

It’s very coherent. We want to position ourselves as a sport that is global – that can be part of the sporting mix that fans around the world enjoy. You know, you can be a fan of the New York Giants and Bayern Munich at the same time. And we also definitely want to bring our players to life a bit more. The helmets and the pads maybe dehumanise our players a little bit, so having them in these scenarios, mixing with others, helps bring them to life.

What kind of crossover do you see between soccer fans and NFL fans?

At the NFL, we’re looking for sports fans. We’re not going to convert people who aren’t fans of sport already. In most of the main countries we’re focussed on in Europe, soccer is going to be up there as the top one or two sports among general fans. So there’s a heavy crossover and we’re obviously keen to draw some parallels between some NFL teams that share certain types of history with specific soccer teams as well.

No concerns about eating into each other’s market over the long term?

I don’t think so. The way people are consuming sport now means it’s possible to be wearing your City jersey one day and your Giants jersey the next. People are able to switch between two sports and be fans of both. One doesn’t cancel the other out. That’s certainly my opinion and also what our research is showing us as well – that it’s part of a mix of sports that people are into.

When you look at soccer rightsholders – clubs and leagues – trying to undertake the journey you’ve been on to conquer the transatlantic market, who do you think is doing well?

I can only really speak to what they’ve done with the ICC, which has been very successful over here. Obviously it’s only pre-season. We [the NFL] made a big effort to bring regular-season games that really mattered to London and to Mexico. But I can only tell you the buzz and the excitement of these [US] soccer fans to see Manchester United or Barcelona in the flesh when they’re used to having to get up early to watch them on TV.

As sport becomes more global, whether it’s the Premier League gaining in popularity here or the NFL in the UK, the demand for these kind of events is only going to grow. I love the idea that LaLiga had of a US regular season game. I’m not sure where that stands right now, but we’d say the thinking is exactly right, obviously, because it’s what we’ve been doing for 10/11 years in the UK and the last three or four years in Mexico.

Any other advice for rightsholders doing the reverse journey to yours?

Well, I’d say these type of [‘Game recognise game’] partnerships are helpful in terms of getting your club, players and brand out in front of fans of other sports, and can be a beneficial way to make it more local to fans in other places.

Finally, which do you think will come first: a UK NFL franchise or a Premier League regular season game in the US?

[Laughs.] That’s a tough one to answer as I’m not sure of the Premier League position but our ambition for a UK franchise is as strong as it has ever been and we continue to see great results. I’m not sure we’re in a race on that front and I couldn’t give you a timing on the Premier League’s efforts but certainly both are goals that [the respective sports] have in mind.