Haircuts between games: Welcome to the marketing world of the Baller League
Plus: Marketing news and updates from social media
By Charlie Fox
Baller League is a German export to the UK, the genesis happening in late 2023 and launching in 2024. A collaboration between German entrepreneur Felix Starck, Mats Hummels, Lukas Podolski, and a disused aircraft hanger in Cologne saw the series born. Twelve teams fight out to be in the top four come the end of the season, with those making it past the regulation games fighting it out in the Final Playoff to see who emerges victorious.
The UK version is headed by Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji, better known as KSI, one of, if not the definitive face of new media in the UK. The season kicks off with a draft, with 160 players up for grabs. These players come from all pedigree, former Premier League and Football League experience, non-League journeymen, futsal stalwarts, all up for grabs.
"Who would have thought that this little idea I and my wife had at the kitchen table could potentially change football forever?" - Felix Starck
Making the selections are the managers of the teams, who, just like the very players they're selecting, offer a cross-section of the online and sporting world. Arsenal invincibles, Premier League winners, four million plus Twitch followers, faces of the women's game, one of the most recognisable TV presenters in the UK, creator of one of the most desirable streetwear brands of the century, a platinum-selling artist and a Ballon d'Or winner.
As for the game format, this is the closest you will see to Powerleague televised. 30-minute games, 15-minute halves, no corners and rolling subs. Gamechangers contain a mandated three minutes of chaos at the end of each half. A lucky dip format flip, manifesting in many forms, 3v3, only passing forward and long-range goals counting as double.
At 5 PM GMT every Monday, a six-hour stream (available on YouTube and Twitch), and an average of one million views per night has been the early result so far . The combination of the world's favourite game and UK's favourite people has, to no shock, proved to be a popular one. A situation that was pre-empted by Sky Sports, who snapped up the rights to broadcast live on their TV channels.
The early snapshots that are available reflect that the reception is positive, and can be illustrated solely by engagement with the content.
From just YouTube figures alone, via SocialBlade, it is calculated that by this time next year, Baller League will have generated more than 150M views. Views are the aim of the game for any sports league, with more eyes meaning more revenue. Current figures are just as impressive, generating just short of ten million views from fewer than 200,000 subscribers, demonstrating the power of names attached to the project.
This is not just a YouTube-specific win, with Instagram showing an equally promising set of stats. Baller League sits at a 4.9% engagement rate to date, dwarfing any other football league within the UK. The Premier League account sits at a 0.13% ER with the EFL account not bettering that result by much, on a lowly 0.31%ER. Even the Champions League are failing to match the numbers, with Real Madrid and Barcelona fans propping up a 0.22% ER figure. (SocialBlade).
Whilst being counted as a vanity metric, engagement is a strong pillar of a successful social media strategy, a point amplified by Rochi Zalani of Buffer.com, "After all, engagement makes social media “social” in the first place. You want to reach the right people, spark conversations, and help each other. Which is why a social media engagement strategy can be incredibly helpful for achieving your social media goals".
Baller League is an example of the power of authority figures in both old and new media. Both offer the same kind of validation of the concept, whilst being able to amplify it to different areas of the media landscape that it may not have found before. The pivotal part is that they find different audiences and appeal to the cross-section of society.
Blue-chip productions require blue-chip sponsors, and Baller League is no exception. Both UK and German iterations have brands taking a unique opportunity with both hands.
The roster that the Baller League has is a wide-reaching one. With a selection of brands with various marketing strategies and plans. Vodafone, Nike and Citroen can be visible in German production, whilst the UK has FootLocker, Pepsi and Cupra. The striking bit about them is that they are universally consumed across all demographics, a clear message that BL is for everyone.
Philips, via its OneBlade product, is taking full advantage of the innovative format, potentially more than others. Players receive the barbershop treatment live on stream, as a captive interviewing opportunity for presenters and to further demonstrate the capability of the product. The backdrop is plastered in boxed razors, clippers and assorted shaving products, and although they are never referenced directly, it is abundantly clear that it's product placement. The whole thing is slightly bizarre, which further adds curiosity to the proceedings.
@neveroutinregardless Live scenes from ballers league match day 1 😂 #specsgonzalez #ballersleague ♬ original sound - NeverOut Clips
However, it isn't too far detached from Philips's venture into social media as a whole. The Philips UK account uses influencer collaboration as a sort of crutch for the channel, in addition to giveaways and expert testimony. Philips UK and Ireland began posting Baller League content at the beginning of April and have seen their biggest month of growth as a result; 343 followers have been acquired over the last 30 days, a rise of around 1.5% overall.
When the Baller League signed Cupra as 'Official Automotive Partner', Starck stated "A forward-thinking approach to the game requires a pioneering partner, and CUPRA’s vision for performance and innovation perfectly aligns with our philosophy.” And that is the key theme, innovation.
The Baller League wants to position itself as a new era of football. It is one that fans who are disenfranchised with the state of league football can find themselves more related to. This new era will be dominated by brands that can closely relate to the path that BL is on, that of innovation and forward-thinking.
Serie A's reddit adventure gets off to a flat start
Last month I discussed how Serie A have become the first professional football league to have an official account on reddit. I've been watching their progress with interest, given I know of a couple of other teams and leagues who have been exploring the platform.
There's not really much to report back on just yet. In the five or so weeks since the partnership was announced they've posted 14 times and left six comments. So far their activity has been posting highlights videos and running an elimination campaign where commenters can vote out former players.
It's not been the most encouraging or innovative start. There's been no actual fan engagement from the league, save for a couple of replies early on, and none of the promised AMAs (Ask Me Anything) have materialised yet. As the season draws to a close, maybe it's something that will ramp up again from July onwards.
Interim results from this year's State of Football Social Media survey
I'm nearly there with this year's State of Football Social Media survey. If you've got a spare five minutes to add your thoughts then you'll make the results even more useful to teams all over the world.
Here's what I've discovered from results so far:
- YouTube and Instagram are the most widely used social networks among football teams.
- Most clubs say Instagram is their most important social media channel, replacing X since last year (which is now in second place).
- 19% of clubs don't send at least one email a month to a mailing list.
- 38% of teams worked with an influencer in 2024.
- Facebook is the most popular platform for clubs to advertise on, followed by Instagram.
- 48% of teams are using WhatsApp Channels, with more planning on launching this year.
- More than 50% of teams don't have a documented social media strategy.
Want to make the results even better? You can contribute to the survey below. If you've already completed it, I'd appreciate it if you could share the link with colleagues at other clubs. It's entirely anonymous, and the results are always interesting.
Scott Goodacre
Making fans feel part of the celebrations
Two examples here from recent league wins and promotions.
First up, Port Vale - or (P)ort Vale as they're now known on X - recently secured promotion to League Two. And the media team have decided to have a bit of fun with it.
They've been leading the way in terms of digital fan engagement for a while now, specifically through the amount of time they spend responding to comments and interacting with people. And they've taken this up a notch since they won promotion.
We've seen them join in with the banter.
Leave tongue-in-check comments to fan questions.
And - in a move that is surprisingly rare for professional football clubs on social media - actually thank people for renewing their season tickets.
While the two things aren't related, and on-pitch success is a big driver, they've also revealed that they're up to 4,000 season tickets sold ahead of this weekend's deadline. And 18% of these are going to first-time purchasers.
Promotion and winning leagues is one thing, but I'd imagine that feeling valued by the club for your commitment is another motivating factor behind some of the purchases.
A few leagues higher, and Liverpool were crowned winners of this year's Premier League. This gallery of photographs of their fans was a really nice addition to the general celebratory posts.
I'm a huge fan of seeing other perspectives of things, and the collection of photos shows people from all walks of life supporting the club. It's a really stylish additional viewpoint of the league win.
THAT selfie
Speaking of Liverpool's title win and getting the fans involved, Mo Salah took a selfie with supporters following his goal. He grabbed a phone from a pitch side photographer as part of the club's ongoing partnership with Google Pixel.
It was a great moment that looked completely natural in the moment, but it'll be interesting to see whether the leagues or broadcasters clamp down on these kinds of sponsorship activations in future.
If they do then it'll be a bit of a shame. They create great viral moment and make fantastic memories for the fans involved, and at least it's not plastered with logos.
Awards, events, and podcasts you might like
FBIN Marketing Excellence Awards
This year's FBIN Marketing Excellence Awards are now open for submissions. I'm pretty chuffed to have been asked to join the judging panel for these. You've got until the 6th May to get your entries in.
Life with football legislation: Preparing meaningful fan engagement and consultation
Think Fan Engagement are hosting an event in May to help people in football understanding the emerging statutory requirements of the new football regulators. The session will help you plan and implement compliant fan engagement and fan consultation activities.
Kevin Rye
Increasing attendances among teenagers
A recent edition of the Fan Experience EXPERIENCE Podcast with Exeter City's Supporter Liaison Officer Richard Knight touched on an interesting problem for clubs.
They can do a great job attracting in junior supporters when they're young, who also enrol their own children decades down the line, but there's a big gap in the 12-18 age range where clubs struggle to engage with fans. They join different social groups, do different things, and maybe don't follow their club on the terraces as much as previously. The issue is trying to find activities and entertainment that cater to them.
As host Mark Bradley said:
I wonder how many clubs are asking groups of young people to come to a game and sit down with them afterwards and ask "what did you think?".
We probably all know what the answer is. But your fans are the best source of feedback possible. Speak to them, find out what they do and don't like, and make changes where needed. If you're not proactive, you'll never know.
You can listen to the full episode below.
Marketing and social media news and updates
A quick round-up of the headlines.
- Instagram's new free video-editing app, Edits, is now available. My early impression is that it's a bit like a version of CapCut with the stabilisers on.
- X has had a 10.5% decline in EU users since August 2024 (NB: This doesn't include UK users).
- Posting videos to LinkedIn? They've recently updated their guide to video specs for the platform.
- If you've spent time moving to cookie-less tracking, Google's actually abandoned their remaining plans to remove third-party tracking from Chrome.
- Instagram is experimenting with a Storylines feature, which will mean you - and people who follow you back - can post to a collaborative Story. An app research discovered the test. This could be a nice match day feature.
- TikTok have renewed their media partnership with MLS.
