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Digitally Connected Kits Could Serve as Direct Connection to Verified Fans
Digitally Connected Kits Could Serve as Direct Connection to Verified Fans
March 29, 2023
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Digitally Connected Kits Could Serve as Direct Connection to Verified Fans
For the second time this season, FC Barcelona marked the El Classico by wearing a special-edition kit.
The Catalan club, which adorned a shirt featuring Drake’s ‘OVO Sound’ logo in October, linked up with another musician –Rosalia– for its March 19 showdown with Real Madrid.
The move to replace the team's usual sponsor logo with Rosalia's ‘Motomami’ logo comes as part of the $296 million sponsorship agreement Barcelona signed with Spotify in 2022. That pact allows the streaming giant to highlight a chosen artist on the kit, in lieu of its own logo, for certain matches.
1899 shirts were made available to fans via the club’s official store for $422.
Fans could buy an even more limited-edition version of both the men's and women's teams' kits (numbered to 11) that were signed by the players for $2116. Those have sold out.
For all the praise that the activation received, Matt Hymers (founder, Connected Fanatics) believes it reflects a missed opportunity.
“Through each piece of kit, [clubs] can drive a direct connection to a verified fan. [Clubs] can enable them to add memories to the kit, [clubs] can provide them digital versions of the kit, and [clubs] can offer all sorts of different experiences and access to things.”
Hymers suggests the tech integration can also benefit a club’s corporate partners.
"Imagine the value for a club sponsor in having a direct interface to the fans,” he said.
Remember, Spotify was reportedly disappointed to discover Barcelona only had 1% of its 350 million global fans registered (i.e. consent to share their name, phone number, email, and other personal data). That information is thought to have reduced the total amount the streaming platform was willing to spend to secure the front of shirt partnership.
Creating a digital connection through jerseys, a possibility beyond these special edition launches, would help clubs, sponsors and even players to know who is buying their products. They could then talk to the individual fan in a different way, build deeper relationships and gather valuable first-hand data.
It's not difficult to imagine Spotify offering fans access to playlists curated by the players, exclusive content and podcasts, or early access to music launched by the likes of Rosalia and Drake.
While Spotify recently rolled out token-gated playlists, Hymers was adamant that connected kits do not by definition require NFTs.
The collection of fan data and ability to consistently engage fans aligns with Spotify's focus on personalization.
The company's annual release of Spotify Wrapped, an in-depth look at the the user's year in audio, is widely embraced by marketers and fans alike.
Like sport, music is a discipline where people classify consumption as an extension of their personality.
Being in the top 0.5% of Taylor Swift listeners is a bragging right. The same is true for watchers of exclusive FC Barcelona content.
Being in the top 0.5% of Twinkies buyers at the local supermarket, not so much.
There is an opportunity for rights owners to riff on the Wrapped campaign and provide wearers of connected jerseys with the data which underpins their fandom, thereby increasing loyalty and attachment in the process.
While that functionality could take place via other platforms (see: Southampton FC, who launched a
using season ticket data), Hymers suggests the connection that can be generated through a piece of merchandise is different.
Team merchandise is a direct expression and symbol of belonging. It’s a direct line to the heart of the fan. And a line that is currently untapped.
Building an independent media brand is a heavy lift. We use this space to shine a spotlight on some of our favorite sports, media and finance content creators. We hope you will check them out.
The Albachiara Chronicle by Roger Mitchell
Roger Mitchell and his podcast AYNE look at the uncertain waters of sport and finance, to try and better understand the risks facing the business of sport.
Recent Story: Sport’s original sin: the B2B apple
Excerpt: Sport, through its laziness and hubris has thus pored its finest champagne into the ocean, allowing others to build tremendous businesses on-top. The newspapers, the media companies, the social media companies, shoe manufacturers, etc. In their dash for the minimum guarantee, the nice safe money up front, they have left too much to others.