A football club as a brand
Soccer: FC Basel aims to win the championship once again through professional marketing and is partnering with Favo to achieve this goal.
Football
FC Basel wants to become champions once again with professional marketing and is working with Favo to achieve this.
Football is a very emotional affair. Hinrik Wachsmuth has also realized this "as never before with an assignment" since the CD of Basel-based Favo has been working for FC Basel. The agency has been supporting its city club with smaller services for some time. Favo has now been the official agency of FC Basel since January. This is a novelty in Switzerland, because although the matches of the top professional clubs, including participation in the Champions League, involve annual budgets of 30 million Swiss francs, their spectacles have so far mostly been marketed in a more or less amateurish manner. Although the clubs have full-time marketing staff, the expertise of advertising strategists and creatives has been dispensed with. FCB, together with its marketing manager Numa Frosshard, now wants to change this. Football as an event for everyoneWith 20,000 annual tickets, the "Joggeli" is already well utilized by Swiss standards. But the new stadium would also have room for more people. Favo has therefore launched an initial campaign with the headline "Reserve your regular seat". The idea is that football matches are exciting sporting events. But they could also be stylized as a social event. The club around the illustrious patron Gisela Oeri should thus be opened up to other groups than just sports fans. To this end, Hinrik Wachsmuth and his creative team want to "strengthen FCB as a brand" and develop various measures to make the matches even more of an event for everyone.
Favo already has various ideas on how the two large screens in the stadium could create more atmosphere. The players' run-in is accompanied by an animated team line-up. At a free kick, there are musical and visual jingles.
Another task is the emotional connection to the team. In the past, FCB players with real local names like Karli Odermatt or Hakan Yakin had an "innate" relationship with their city. Today, almost all players are bought in from abroad. So that they not only score goals but also attract more fans, these stars have to be "sold" to their fans as local favorites.
The agency relies on an "attitude", which is also implemented visually in the various advertising subjects. "We are number 1" is the proud claim. This is not quite true in the current championship, but advertising thrives on beautiful promises. The positioning also goes back to the fact that FC Basel was one of the first clubs in Switzerland to be founded in 1893, two years before the Swiss Football Association.
The positioning as "number 1" is made easier in Basel because, unlike in Zurich, for example, the club can unite all its fans behind it, whereas GC and FCZ have to share their supporters on the Limmat.
Zurich "strangers "The fact that 1,500 people from Zurich have an annual pass for Basel as "strangers" is a joke, which the Favo also honored with a special poster "in the forbidden city". The provocation in Zurich was picked up by the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten and has since been a topic on the internet forums of both FCB and the Zurich clubs. However, FCZ does not want to counter with a similar poster campaign in Basel. On the other hand, the reigning champions are also considering calling in an agency, but then for a national campaign.
The posters were also particularly well received by the players pictured: all of them wanted to order prints for their own use. There is a special offer for fans with three posters. This is sold for 25 francs in a limited edition of 1,893 copies - the year FCB was founded. "On the first day, we received an order every four minutes," says Wachsmuth, delighted with this initial success for FC Basel. And the championship is far from over. In any case, the agency already has a very special idea ready in case the customer becomes champion.
Andreas Panzeri
FC Basel wants to become champions once again with professional marketing and is working with Favo to achieve this.
Football is a very emotional affair. Hinrik Wachsmuth has also realized this "as never before with an assignment" since the CD of Basel-based Favo has been working for FC Basel. The agency has been supporting its city club with smaller services for some time. Favo has now been the official agency of FC Basel since January. This is a novelty in Switzerland, because although the matches of the top professional clubs, including participation in the Champions League, involve annual budgets of 30 million Swiss francs, their spectacles have so far mostly been marketed in a more or less amateurish manner. Although the clubs have full-time marketing staff, the expertise of advertising strategists and creatives has been dispensed with. FCB, together with its marketing manager Numa Frosshard, now wants to change this. Football as an event for everyoneWith 20,000 annual tickets, the "Joggeli" is already well utilized by Swiss standards. But the new stadium would also have room for more people. Favo has therefore launched an initial campaign with the headline "Reserve your regular seat". The idea is that football matches are exciting sporting events. But they could also be stylized as a social event. The club around the illustrious patron Gisela Oeri should thus be opened up to other groups than just sports fans. To this end, Hinrik Wachsmuth and his creative team want to "strengthen FCB as a brand" and develop various measures to make the matches even more of an event for everyone.
Favo already has various ideas on how the two large screens in the stadium could create more atmosphere. The players' run-in is accompanied by an animated team line-up. At a free kick, there are musical and visual jingles.
Another task is the emotional connection to the team. In the past, FCB players with real local names like Karli Odermatt or Hakan Yakin had an "innate" relationship with their city. Today, almost all players are bought in from abroad. So that they not only score goals but also attract more fans, these stars have to be "sold" to their fans as local favorites.
The agency relies on an "attitude", which is also implemented visually in the various advertising subjects. "We are number 1" is the proud claim. This is not quite true in the current championship, but advertising thrives on beautiful promises. The positioning also goes back to the fact that FC Basel was one of the first clubs in Switzerland to be founded in 1893, two years before the Swiss Football Association.
The positioning as "number 1" is made easier in Basel because, unlike in Zurich, for example, the club can unite all its fans behind it, whereas GC and FCZ have to share their supporters on the Limmat.
Zurich "strangers "The fact that 1,500 people from Zurich have an annual pass for Basel as "strangers" is a joke, which the Favo also honored with a special poster "in the forbidden city". The provocation in Zurich was picked up by the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten and has since been a topic on the internet forums of both FCB and the Zurich clubs. However, FCZ does not want to counter with a similar poster campaign in Basel. On the other hand, the reigning champions are also considering calling in an agency, but then for a national campaign.
The posters were also particularly well received by the players pictured: all of them wanted to order prints for their own use. There is a special offer for fans with three posters. This is sold for 25 francs in a limited edition of 1,893 copies - the year FCB was founded. "On the first day, we received an order every four minutes," says Wachsmuth, delighted with this initial success for FC Basel. And the championship is far from over. In any case, the agency already has a very special idea ready in case the customer becomes champion.
Andreas Panzeri
