Thanks MLS!
Does anyone else feel like MLS is kind of stupid about marketing itself? I got an e-mail this morning from MLSnet.com telling me to "Tune in to MLS First Kick 2008 presented by Dick's Sporting Goods!"
The associated image is here:
Beckham? Fine. Josie? Fine. (Except that he plays for the MetroBulls...) But Mr. White? Huh? He scored 4 goals in 14 games last year (0.29). Emilio scored 20 goals in 29 games (0.7). Hell, even Gomez scored 10 in 27 (0.37)!
I don't want this post to come off sounding like pure DCU bias (even though I am strongly biased towards DCU), so I'll go out of my way to point out that He Who Must Not Be Named, the friggin captain of the USMNT, plays in this league (0.32). How about him?
Discuss anti-DC bias in the comments.
UPDATE: In response to skippy in the comments: You mean something like this? :)
posted by Bob @ 9:45 AM
11 Comments:
I'm no fan of MLS marketing, but I'll speak up for it in this instance. Remember the three target audiences Garber mentioned in the Fox Business interview? ("Target" meaning audiences not fully reached yet, so no disrespect meant for us hardcore.) Beckham: Euro-posers. Mr. White: Mexican-Americans. Altidore: Kids and their parents. And note the logo, one word for each target: "Football. Fútbol. Soccer."
Blanco is the "Fútbol" representative. If they had shown Emilio, they would have needed to change the slogan to:
Football. Futebol. Soccer
You know, because Brazilians speak Portuguese.
:)
OK, so that's a good answer to the post. So I guess all I have left in my DCU bias.
As far as the TV interview goes, I was too distracted by the interviewer to glean any actual information from it.
Am a DCU fan but have to admit that Blanco is a bigger star than all the DCU Spanish (and Portugese) speakers combined not so much for what he's done in the league but overall. Think the league is wise to market him while he's here and playing well.
Maybe they can squeeze in a pic of Emilio and make it Football. Fútbol. Futebol. Soccer.
-K
Yeah, I'm with the first two commenters. It's all about targeting the Mexican and Mexican-American audience.
I think it goes without saying that putting Bianca's husband on that would be counterproductive.
Not to mention that the three players are from NY, LA, and Chicago, the three biggest markets.
Also:
LA-CHI-NY.
Marketing to the biggest markets is hardly a soccer-only phenomenon.
Or, what kinney said.
I have to agree with the others. Its not like DC players never appear. If the MLS went through their advertisements without showing last years MVP and top-goal scorer or maybe the all-time leading goal scorer, then maybe I could get behind you. But while we love Emilio, he doesn't seem to have drawn the imagination of the country in the same way as the others, including Blanco. Maybe Emilio needs a semi-retarded camera pose after every time he scores. Sorry, sorry, Chicago gets under my skin.
Anyway. Its Landycakes's absence that is more noticeable, but I suppose you don't want to show two players from the same team, which would really feel like bias. Also, notice no players from the league champs either; surely Houston have a star or two to offer.
So, whatever, DC has the team with the proudest history and the best players. Let the other cities have SOMETHING, even if it is just heavily cropped photos in advertisements.
We had that kid a few years back who got his share of marketing. What was his name?
you might want to make note of this:
http://www.behindthebadge.com/
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