Barcelona’s digital tactics
October 25, 2017
Colin Mann @ Sportel
Roger Gastó, Head of Digital Products at FC Barcelona, has admitted that the football club needed to adopt a strategy of diversification and consolidation and develop digital products to achieve its goal of becoming the most loved sporting institution and reach revenue targets.
Speaking at the Sportel Media and Marketing Convention in Monaco, Gastó told delegates that the club formulated a strategy in November 2015 that included sporting excellence through winning trophies, social impact won by fan satisfaction, creating a legacy through building and outreach projects and improving the global positioning of the brand which would see the club achieving €1 billion in revenue by 2021.
The club’s 2016 revenue was close to €700 million and in order to drive that figure to the goal of one billion, a new strategy of diversification and consolidation has been put in place. “We were very aware that we needed to develop digital products that have genuine global appeal,” he advised.
“So, in 2016 we instigated a digital strategy review which took three months and came to the conclusion that we did not have a strategy, and that our digital department was fragmented and that our content lacked emotion. So, our first move was to bring all the people working on digital together, and alongside that we adopted a new approach with clearly stated goals and a unified direction,” he added.
The club has developed a new website and a new app, but Gastó said that it recognised that it had to develop “world-class content and products” admitting that it wasn’t sufficient just to re-design the site and the app. “We also now constantly monitor emerging areas such as VR and eSports.”