FC Dallas: We Are NOT Spectators
I’m all for MLS marketing to supporters as well as to spectators, and encouraging the culture of soccer that everyone who is reading this blog probably appreciates the value of already.
FC Dallas obviously have a serious deficit of such supporters, and given the success of Seattle’s marketing campaign, they and many other MLS teams have wisely chosen to try to appeal more to your active soccer fan. So they’ve launched a new season ticket campaign targeting supporters, and good for them.
That’s not a photoshop job, folks: I swear on the Brimstone Cup. They ARE FC Dallas!
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Tom Dunmore is the founder and editor of Pitch Invasion. Follow him @pitchinvasion on Twitter.
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Yeah, they look like Cowboys fans too.
/disgruntled ‘Skins fan
Good concept, bad execution. MLS club marketing departments have to get past their urge to dumb everything down. Then again, it is FC DALLAS.
I’m just glad there’s no pic of a minivan or wasp family – nice to see an appeal to different demographics
It’s a good concept…But as Jason says, it’s bad execution, and this isn’t rocket science.
The overall concept is good, it’s squarely aimed at attracting the type of supporters that make football unique, the loud. vocal, passionate supporters that will create an atmosphere and if your atmosphere is good success in other forms will follow.
BUT….. and it’s a huge BUT…. why did they go and ruin the whole ambience of the poster with four ‘actors’ in cheesy poses? A skinhead shaking his fist? Come on.
In my view it can be fixed in one simple move, remove the four ‘imposters’ and replace with a real shot of FC Dallas supporters in full flow, preferably in the supporters sections and better still with flags, banners etc in the shot. Atmosphere is a natural phenomena, it can not be manufactured. The four imposters stink of manufacture, where as an actual crowd shot can never be acused of that.
Finally apologies if any of those four are actual FC Dallas fans but they look far too happy in those poses to be anything but professional actors / models!
Can we ever get from marketing MLS/MLS teams as part of the ‘world’s most popular/biggest sport/game?’
It’s sad when you have to resort to tactics which are essentially the equivalent of ‘everybody else is doing it so should you’. I’m pretty sure any and every who attends an FCD fixture already knows this ‘fact’. By doing so, essentially FCD marketing is saying their brand isn’t a quality product and they’ll use the fall back of the sport to sell tickets/sponsorships.
Highlight the team, not the fans…and the fans will then come!
I’m a spectator. They’ve alienated me.
I’m just shocked they were able to gather all of their supporters in one place at the same time for a photo shoot. Glad Houston Dynamo don’t (have to) do stupid ads like this.
I think this is a great idea. i hope it works for them and others follow.
Great concept – and the videos are very cool (my fav is video 4).
I think the target market for these ads are people who like soccer already, but have not invested in FC Dallas yet. I also think it is designed to appeal to a young adult (i.e. college, twenty somethings) audience, rather than just kids or families.
Bilingual, mixed media, new target audience, bold colors, flags, face paint, scarves – I like it!
Yikes.
Great idea could be a lot less cheesy. With the success of Seattle, the MLS is finally realizing that the only way to grow the sport and to grow fans is by getting passionate and educated soccer fans more involved rather then filling the stadium with soccer moms and dads. Expect more teams to be releasing marketing campaigns targeted at educated soccer fans, hopefully, the those campaigns won’t be cheesy.
This is a much more honest version:
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/9704/dallascampaign4.jpg
Kinda funny, but sometimes reality is funnier than satire. I think the original is better.
Any picture on the planet would have done better than that one. That is the definition of manufactured.
However, they do get major credit in my book for the Good Shoes songs in the videos. One of those great English indie bands not many folks here know about.
“Great post, very useful for a beginner like me”