"The global entertainment industry really only concerns a few European clubs" (Gregory Bolle)
Date of birth: 19/12/1978 View the profile in the directory
IMG - Premier League - © n/aThe genesis of the globalization of the football industry began in 1998 when IMG Media (overseas production partner) signed with the Premier League and became financially established in the 2000s. Since then, football has become increasingly universal thanks to the growing demand from global television channels, the spread of high-speed internet access throughout the world, and the multiplication of social networks. The true pioneers of the sport business, the English clubs, initially focused on marketing rather than sport, and generated the first global revenues. They were then joined by a few European follower clubs.
FAANGs graphic - © n/aBut this global entertainment industry really only concerns a few European clubs. The immediate effect of the FAANGs is largely beneficial to a group of "Global Brand Clubs" (for example, the top 20 or so biggest football clubs in Europe), which will further widen the competitive gap with the many "Regional Trading-based Clubs" (clubs whose business model is based on talent development and the sale of these players). We are witnessing the imminent creation and acceleration of the "Lucky Few" concept applied to the world of football (with the the Global Brand Clubs). This new phenomenon therefore implies a need for cultural revolution and profound changes in modes of sport governance.
Booking.com sponsorship - © Booking.comFor e-commerce platforms, the keywords are no longer just brand awareness and GRP (gross rating point), but rather conversion rate optimization. Consequently, the principle of ROI, already so dear to the current sponsorship package discussions, will increase tenfold.
Deliveroo / Uber Eats sponsorship - © D.R.
Juventus on Netflix - © n/a
Rakuten Cup - © n/aThe FAANGs are a glimpse into the future, of what the economy will value and what your customers will expect as super premium content. They have no strategic interest (vital need) to get involved in the speculative game imposed by the football media rights landscape. The FAANGs are not competing with domestic TV channels and national telecom companies, but rather battle for global digital/streaming dominance with the BARTs (Baidu, Alibaba, Rakuten and Tencent). Indeed, it is fundamental to understand that the FAANGs resonate more in terms of ROMI than ROI. Sports documentaries, or even live football streaming, are above all marketing obligations for the FAANGs to control the world digital economy. 
Premier League match on Amazon Prime VIdeoFor example, what happens when Amazon, or another FAANG with a significant rights portfolio, inevitably makes the next logical step, and starts offering the possibility for their users to buy individual games a la carte, or just parts of games and highlights? The users, who more and more are becoming more accustomed to being able to have exactly what they want (like the Netflix model), are only going to consume games involving the most popular and best marketed clubs. In the Premier League, this will obviously be the Big 6 clubs, but few of the others.
PSG - Nïmes OlympiqueAt this stage, we can ask ourselves some objective questions. How long will it take small and medium-sized clubs to restructure themselves to become truly active in the new contours imposed by globalization and entertainization? Will they ever be able to become a "Global Brand Club"? Will the clubs like Paris Saint-Germain (annual budget of €637m in a city with 12 million+ inhabitants) and Nîmes Olympique (annual budget of €27m in a city of 151,000 inhabitants) continue to have a mutually desirable common future? This same concept question applies to Real Madrid and SD Eibar in Spain, or Juventus and Sassuolo Calcio in Italy? There will need to be new alliances amongst large swaths of clubs in Europe.
"The global entertainment industry really only concerns a few European clubs. The immediate effect of the FAANGs is largely beneficial to a group of "Global Brand Clubs" (for example, the top 20 or so biggest football clubs in Europe), which will further widen the competitive gap with the many "Regional Trading-based Clubs" (clubs whose business model is based on talent development and the sale of these players). We are witnessing the imminent creation and acceleration of the "Lucky Few" concept applied to the world of football (with the the Global Brand Clubs)," stated Gregory Bolle (FRA), the former head of global partnerships and marketing at LaLiga, to News Tank Football on 06/01/2020.
"The football eco-culture in Europe is now a two-speed system. Leagues that only hold their main television rights and are solely responsible for distributing this income have been passed. The FAANGs have learned to overcome the obstacle of tendering based on the principle of territoriality to deal directly with clubs and then with players. Their marketing observation is simple: both national and international audiences come mainly from a few clubs and a few football stars. The FAANGs individual 'pick-and-choose' buying approach is provoking a new revenue distortion within the football industry," added Gregory Bolle, who has also previously worked at City Football Group.
"If a small club’s access to the FAANGs is only through a league-wide agreement, then it’s actually a false dawn for these types of clubs. For example, what happens when Amazon, or another FAANG with a significant rights portfolio, inevitably makes the next logical step, and starts offering the possibility for their users to buy individual games a la carte, or just parts of games and highlights? The users, who more and more are becoming more accustomed to being able to have exactly what they want (like the Netflix model), are only going to consume games involving the most popular and best marketed clubs," stated Gregory Bolle in part one of a two part interview with News Tank Football covering topics such as the arrival of data-focused companies into sports sponsorship, the FAANGs and their objectives in football content for marketing purposes, and the challenges for football clubs in the global entertainment sector.
Part two of this interview, covering the FAANGs and their relationship to traditional football broadcasters, the arrival of Mediapro to France and the corresponding opportunity for French clubs, and a football eco-system ripe for disruption, will be published on Monday 13/01/2020.
"The football eco-culture in Europe is now a two-speed system. Leagues that only hold their main television rights and are solely responsible for distributing this income have been passed. The FAANGs have learned to overcome the obstacle of tendering based on the principle of territoriality to deal directly with clubs and then with players. Their marketing observation is simple: both national and international audiences come mainly from a few clubs and a few football stars. The FAANGs individual 'pick-and-choose' buying approach is provoking a new revenue distortion within the football industry," added Gregory Bolle, who has also previously worked at City Football Group.
"If a small club’s access to the FAANGs is only through a league-wide agreement, then it’s actually a false dawn for these types of clubs. For example, what happens when Amazon, or another FAANG with a significant rights portfolio, inevitably makes the next logical step, and starts offering the possibility for their users to buy individual games a la carte, or just parts of games and highlights? The users, who more and more are becoming more accustomed to being able to have exactly what they want (like the Netflix model), are only going to consume games involving the most popular and best marketed clubs," stated Gregory Bolle in part one of a two part interview with News Tank Football covering topics such as the arrival of data-focused companies into sports sponsorship, the FAANGs and their objectives in football content for marketing purposes, and the challenges for football clubs in the global entertainment sector.
Part two of this interview, covering the FAANGs and their relationship to traditional football broadcasters, the arrival of Mediapro to France and the corresponding opportunity for French clubs, and a football eco-system ripe for disruption, will be published on Monday 13/01/2020.
Grégory Bolle
Date of birth: 19/12/1978 View the profile in the directory| Career |
|---|
| LaLiga Head of Global Partnerships |
| Manchester City FC Regional Director for MEA region |
| Maxus - GroupM (marketing and consulting agency, Dubai) VP and head of strategic planning |
| Value Partners (consulting agency, Dubai) Senior advisor TMT |
| Wunderman (advertising and marketing agency, Dubai) Regional business development director |
| Carat Sponsorship Managing director Carat Sponsorship - Middle East |
- You’ve managed international marketing for Aegis Media, WPP, City Football Group and LaLiga, among other places in European football, and yet, today, you see a marketing system that is at real crossroads of disruption. Can you explain what you mean?
IMG - Premier League - © n/aThe genesis of the globalization of the football industry began in 1998 when IMG Media (overseas production partner) signed with the Premier League and became financially established in the 2000s. Since then, football has become increasingly universal thanks to the growing demand from global television channels, the spread of high-speed internet access throughout the world, and the multiplication of social networks. The true pioneers of the sport business, the English clubs, initially focused on marketing rather than sport, and generated the first global revenues. They were then joined by a few European follower clubs.The FAANGs revolutionized the advertising sector, and then they revolutionized the entertainment sectorMeanwhile, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft (often known as the FAANGs, with Netflix in place of Microsoft) are becoming the five largest listed companies in the world. All marketing consultants theorize the new domination of the economic phenomenon linked to "Big Data", without anticipating the combined domination of super premium content and the advent of new global media such as YouTube, Netflix, Prime, Hulu and Tencent. The FAANGs revolutionized the advertising sector, and then they revolutionized the entertainment sector. In fact, as their technological solutions progress, entertainment must constantly reinvent itself to meet the new expectations of Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z consumers. The sudden adoption of the Twitch and Mixer platforms is a challenge for leaders in the media, entertainment, advertising and football sectors.
Hence the emerging rhetoric that European football clubs must now become an integral part of the "fast-moving" entertainment industry. However, very often due to a lack of budgetary visibility, this marketing staffing remains woefully inadequate.
FAANGs graphic - © n/aBut this global entertainment industry really only concerns a few European clubs. The immediate effect of the FAANGs is largely beneficial to a group of "Global Brand Clubs" (for example, the top 20 or so biggest football clubs in Europe), which will further widen the competitive gap with the many "Regional Trading-based Clubs" (clubs whose business model is based on talent development and the sale of these players). We are witnessing the imminent creation and acceleration of the "Lucky Few" concept applied to the world of football (with the the Global Brand Clubs). This new phenomenon therefore implies a need for cultural revolution and profound changes in modes of sport governance.Football as an entertainment product is at a crossroads or tipping pointThe spectacular arrivals of sovereign wealth funds and hedge funds such as QSI, Elliot Management, CMC Capital Group, Orient Hontai and Silver Lake confirm this new era, as did the partnership between Sony and Microsoft in 2019 and the imminent creation of an African Super League announced by FIFA. The globalization of football as an entertainment product is at a crossroads or tipping point.
- And you are specifically interested in the entry of, what we can call, data-focused companies such as booking.com with UEFA, Airbnb with the IOC, and even the entry of Deliveroo and Uber into the football sponsorship space?
Their arrival is a real blessing for the football industry. These global brands are technological champions born in the e-commerce era. They are immersed in a 2.0 corporate culture and have a fresh perspective on how to optimize their advertising and sponsorship budgets. Football clubs, consulting agencies and rating agencies will have to rethink their partnership solutions and modus operandi.
Booking.com sponsorship - © Booking.comFor e-commerce platforms, the keywords are no longer just brand awareness and GRP (gross rating point), but rather conversion rate optimization. Consequently, the principle of ROI, already so dear to the current sponsorship package discussions, will increase tenfold.Partnership departments will need to be trained in data marketing, multi-touchpoints strategy, marketing allocation and trackingFor the coming seasons, club partnership departments will need to be trained in data marketing, multi-touchpoints strategy, marketing allocation and tracking. In a few years' time, let us hope that each starting point for sponsorship thinking will no longer be only brand awareness and brand affinity (indirect ROI), but the real capacity for business conversion (direct ROI). I thought that sports betting brands would be the first to create this path and “train” clubs to this data-based approach, but their marketing approach has too often remained primitive.
Deliveroo / Uber Eats sponsorship - © D.R.Football industry to move more quickly into the era of digital advertising optimizationI am confident that the Expedia, Airbnb, Uber and Deliveroo brands will be much more demanding and enable the football industry to move more quickly into the era of digital advertising optimization and rationalization.
- But you think these types of companies, and any type of entrance of the FAANGs, will only want to partner with the big global brands? What effects will this have in football sponsorship?
The FAANGs have understood that they will have to go it alone since the short-term approach of football leaders is often at full effectThe FAANGs' business model is intended to be based on a mass marketing and cross-border approach. Therefore, as it stands, the FAANGs have relatively limited choice in football. Few football clubs or leagues have the right characteristics and/or resources to develop “win-win” strategies that appeal to the FAANGs. With football, the FAANGs have understood that they will have to go it alone since the short-term approach of football leaders is often at full effect. Football invests little or nothing in the new technologies at its disposal. In Europe, sporting results always take precedence.
Juventus on Netflix - © n/aIt does not escape anyone that technological innovation/adoption in European football is, most of the time, a public relations exercise. The FAANGs know this. In this way, they prefer to focus their investments on the safer values of global football clubs and leagues in order to develop new solutions. Without a common digital policy between clubs and leagues, the FAANGs investments and technologies into mainly the biggest football brands serves to further widen the already large gap between the "Global Brand Clubs" and "Regional Trading-based Clubs" I mentioned previously.
- If, as you say, only a few clubs, notably the current top global brands of the top 20 European clubs, are prepared for this disruption of football becoming an 100% entertainment and content-based business, how does this affect clubs across the full spectrum?
The FAANGs individual “pick-and-choose” buying approach is provoking a new revenue distortion within the football industryThe football eco-culture in Europe is now a two-speed system. Leagues that only hold their main television rights and are solely responsible for distributing this income have been passed. The FAANGs have learned to overcome the obstacle of tendering based on the principle of territoriality to deal directly with clubs and then with players. Their marketing observation is simple: both national and international audiences come mainly from a few clubs and a few football stars. The FAANGs individual “pick-and-choose” buying approach is provoking a new revenue distortion within the football industry.
Rakuten Cup - © n/aThe FAANGs are a glimpse into the future, of what the economy will value and what your customers will expect as super premium content. They have no strategic interest (vital need) to get involved in the speculative game imposed by the football media rights landscape. The FAANGs are not competing with domestic TV channels and national telecom companies, but rather battle for global digital/streaming dominance with the BARTs (Baidu, Alibaba, Rakuten and Tencent). Indeed, it is fundamental to understand that the FAANGs resonate more in terms of ROMI than ROI. Sports documentaries, or even live football streaming, are above all marketing obligations for the FAANGs to control the world digital economy. Sports documentaries, or even live football streaming, are above all marketing obligations for the FAANGs to control the world digital economyUnderstandably, to strive for this global supremacy, the FAANGs are focusing their marketing efforts on the top "Global Brand Clubs" and a few “Global Football Stars” to deliver a superior customer experience (CX) with super-premium football content. Smaller clubs with only a limited regional/domestic reach will have a lower interest to them, as they only offer a niche market, except when packaged together in a bigger league-wide purchase.
Amazon, and all the other FAANGs and BARTs, want to become a fully 360 degree digital eco-system, where their users can spend the majority of their daily online consumption within one space that will have all the premium content the users want.
Of course, Amazon in particular has made some of these recent, league-wide content/partnership purchases, such as with the Premier League, which in theory helps the smaller clubs to have access to the FAANGs and what they can offer. But if a small club’s access to the FAANGs is only through a league-wide agreement, then it’s actually a false dawn for these types of clubs.
Buy individual games a la carte?
Premier League match on Amazon Prime VIdeoFor example, what happens when Amazon, or another FAANG with a significant rights portfolio, inevitably makes the next logical step, and starts offering the possibility for their users to buy individual games a la carte, or just parts of games and highlights? The users, who more and more are becoming more accustomed to being able to have exactly what they want (like the Netflix model), are only going to consume games involving the most popular and best marketed clubs. In the Premier League, this will obviously be the Big 6 clubs, but few of the others.- Will current small and medium clubs ever be able to grow significantly? Or are we looking a future football landscape of 20 global brands and then a wide swath of clubs that will become more regional, and more “stuck” in their level?
The disparities in economic maturity between clubs are already too greatThis is precisely the issue that is dividing the football industry today. It is a complex subject because there are many divergent interests. However, I note that the speeches and the various solutions envisaged almost never include the new needs of football fans. The fans’ satisfaction (customer experience) is rarely part of the conversations. All the actors want to take full advantage of the effects of globalization and the entertainization of football, but any consensus seems no longer achievable. The disparities in economic maturity between clubs are already too great. And it’s fair to question whether clubs even have the ability create larger, meaningful partnerships with other clubs to make themselves more attractive.
PSG - Nïmes OlympiqueAt this stage, we can ask ourselves some objective questions. How long will it take small and medium-sized clubs to restructure themselves to become truly active in the new contours imposed by globalization and entertainization? Will they ever be able to become a "Global Brand Club"? Will the clubs like Paris Saint-Germain (annual budget of €637m in a city with 12 million+ inhabitants) and Nîmes Olympique (annual budget of €27m in a city of 151,000 inhabitants) continue to have a mutually desirable common future? This same concept question applies to Real Madrid and SD Eibar in Spain, or Juventus and Sassuolo Calcio in Italy? There will need to be new alliances amongst large swaths of clubs in Europe.European professional football currently applies the same mantra as Bernie Ecclestone: "Formula 1 is not equal, has never been equal and will never be equal. To win you have to be rich, very rich even."As it stands, the ever-increasing gaps (vision, human resources, stadium, marketing, digital and technological) between clubs seem to force small and medium-sized clubs to capitalize only on the sale of their players, effectively condemning them to play subordinate roles in their respective leagues. European professional football currently applies the same mantra as Bernie Ecclestone: "Formula 1 is not equal, has never been equal and will never be equal. To win you have to be rich, very rich even."
Part two of the News Tank Football interview with Gregory Bolle will be published on Monday 13/01/2020.