Dan Gargan and a Box of Crayons: The Marketing and PR Thread

As some of you know, Brendan Hannan, who had been the top executive in charge of marketing and communications for the Galaxy for almost 8 years, left right before the season began. Looks like his replacement has been hired from the Philadelphia Union:

Personnel News: Doug Vosik, former CMO at the Philadelphia Union, has been named CMO of the LA Galaxy. It's a new position altogether for the club. He'll oversee marketing, comms, broadcast and fan engagement, among other areas.

— Mark J. Burns (@markjburns88) July 14, 2021

 

^Wait. They didn't have a CMO? For a club with our history?

I kinda don't get it.

I guess we didn't want to pay for a "c" level. Well, now that we do have a CMO, I no longer expect to see chamipons.

I do want to see champions.

 

I get your point but for me it is just a name of a position (but of course can be linked to salary/power). Nevertheless, I am wondering that it took so long till someone new was hired (who gathers the responsibilities) as it is a highly important position (to generate money/represent the club/standing).

 

Ah come on Berks you get it. A decade-plus of a marketing department run by folks who knew how to tweet and had to wing all the traditional stuff. No chance in hell a CMO would approve a kit launch with a camera phone and awful Photoshop let alone allow it to reach the public.

 

Jury is still out. I want to see how good this new person is. I mean, not like the Union were setting the marketing world on fire.

I'm a little disappointed they went with someone from another team rather than experimenting a bit. I dunno, I expect a little more from our club.

That said, maybe he's great! I sure hope so.

 

Chris Thomas leaving as well.

Some personal news: Today is my last day at @LAGalaxy. It was an incredibly tough decision but I feel like I’ve accomplished all I can at the club and that it is time for a new challenge. pic.twitter.com/d7i4soMNHy

— Chris Thomas (@ChrisThomasFC) August 19, 2021

That was not the farewell message of someone happy with the current state of things.

Ultimately I’d say while there may have been lots of metrics showing the success of social media, awards from MLS and kudos from peers the ultimate metric for an MLS marketing team has to be butts in seats and COVID aside that’s been pretty stagnant for a decade.

This new CMO might well be status quo or worse, but the previous team hadn’t achieved much success in that department.

 

I may be misremembering, but the only thing I recall related to Chris Thomas is the infamous Chamipon moment and also him coming here into our forum and belittling some posters. I'd also like to think that he was the inspiration for Barroldinho to start this thread.

 

Attendance is lagging and the marketing of the team is nearly non-existent, besides the ephemeral social media. We rely too much on star players and the small numbers of the SGs to create a buzz and bring new people.

There have been some marketing slogans this season, like Community and Family. But, there’s relatively little there, there.

There are lots of fans who love the team for what it is. The greatest team in the world! But, Galaxy marketing is doing, and has been doing, a poor job of adding to that loving fan base.

 

Quintessential example of someone resting on their laurels too much. Whenever I hear the phrase, America's premier soccer team, I always feel it's like half trolling everyone.

Video dept normally kills it though and the community kits this season is pretty sweet.

 

Agree 100%

 

I like how facts have become legend... and they’re all true (mostly). Dan Gargan and a Box of Crayons: The Marketing and PR Thread

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Big soccer Galaxy Forum remembers our beloved Chris Thomas, who gave us countless hours of enjoyment ridiculing his efforts. Genius deconstructionist marketing or monkeys with typewriters? Discuss.

 

I thought their (his?) efforts got much better in recent years. Seems like quite an FO exodus this year. Would be very Galaxy like to finally get their shit together on the field just to become a gong show off it.

they certainly are struggling in the sales department and need more reps and more ideas. Lots of turnover there too.

 

This team needs a marketing makeover, and I'm glad to see them attempt it. Good luck, Galaxy.

And I remember all the Chris Thomas discussions. Suffice to say I didn't find him a kindred spirit - at times his professionalism could have used some work. But I'm sure there were some good times and I wish him well.

 

Sounds to me that perhaps that's why he's leaving. Management may be tying his hands (by limiting funding) from doing things he thinks are needed to improve.

edits:
Or could be resting on laurels, as was also suggested.

I just get the impression that the direction from the top is to cut costs. We therefore end up with young DPs at $2.5M per year rather than aging stars at $10M per year, and no more billboards all over the place. If attendance takes a bit of a hit, no problem, because the Galaxy is still probably ahead of the game, budget wise. Not sure I favor this approach in principle, because in the past we were the team that spent our way to success and it was lots of fun.

But Vanney seems to be doing well so far with the new model. We are just one of many teams using this model, so will probably be harder to win championships. Though with 30 teams in the league, that is a given anyway. Could be a very long race for seis, though.

 

I love you guys.

So much.

 

Honestly pretty happy to see those two gone. They really had no idea what Southern California was actually about, they did a pretty bad job.


I would love to see the jobs go to people who ACTUALLY WERE BORN AND RAISED here. People who actually get So Cal culture. Maybe then all our marketing wouldn't be a joke. Plastic FC marketing beats the crap out of ours.

 

Chris, be careful- don’t let the dore hit you in the but when you leve.

 

Very clever. Put me in the group of people that aren’t particularly sad to see him go. His attitude about stuff (particularly the big soccer escapade several years back) just rubbed me the wrong way.