OK...all of this baseball strike talk is making me sick everytime I hear about it..especially considering the average player earns more than total salary cap for an MLS team. And with all of the voiced frustration towards MLB...I say MLS should cash in and let America know we have players living off of 25k a year....just to play the sport they love in their own country. It would make MLB look even more ridiculous...and I think it would help the players gain respect.
It's a double-edged sword. This also opens up the possibility of people focusing on the league's struggles, i.e. they have to pay $24K because they are losing money. That leads to the league being accused of not having the cash and interest to survive. My guess is that they have thought of it, but the rewards do not outweigh the risks.
People often wrongly associate the cost of something with its quality. If our guys were getting a million a year, people would assume they MUST be superior atheletes. The fact that they only get paid 24k may simply reinforce the perception that soccer is deservedly second tier in the United States. My marketing campaign would center on sex appeal. I'd push for an MTV targeted campaign that had shirtless guys like Donovan, Cobi, McBride and Mastroeni playing soccer on the beach and which emphasized ripped abs and legs. Back it up with Brazilian carnivale theme music and end it with the guys walking off with hot women. Tag line: MLS... it's hot.
That's not a bad idea...except you might piss off a bunch of borderline soccer fans who are worried their woman might walk off with Pablo after the game! Personally, though, I don't see anything wrong with MLS using its more attractive stars to attract more female fans. Sorry, you can't be in it, Steve Ralston. The borderline male fans might show up then, too, because they have a chance of picking up the jilted Landon groupies!
If it was done right I think people would give it more respect. If they criticize it b/c players get paid too low...its rather hypocritical. Not to say they wouldn't. But it would be possible to use someone such as Landon....who makes the max. Im guessing. Which is still a 4th of what the average MLB player makes....and a 4th of his value he could get by going back to europe....however he's content to stay in MLS and help the league prosper. Bottom Line is that if/when baseball strikes....MLS needs to make an attempt to cash in. Back to the superior athlete topic. If someone doesnt already respect Donovan, McBride, Beasley, Mathis... etc as a superior athlete...after helping our country to a quarterfinal world cup run and 9th world ranking.......then those people arent gonna be converted anyways most likely.
I think using the high-end guys in comparison to what the other leagues make is viable. But their accessibility is the key. Don't just show how much they make, show how much they give back to the community and show how they do it because they enjoy it, not because the team tells them to or because it will help their own foundation which is a nice tax break.
Didn't the USNT already try something similar to this by wearing really tight shirts and pants in a fashion shoot for some magazine or something? You know the one wear Donovan drinks out of the water fountain and McBride is um...holding onto a pole? I think that one got more people from the gay community to get out to some games. Anyway, the beach thing isn't not a bad idea if it's done right.
Yeah...that was universally reviled... I'm not suggesting that Landon prance around in a pink sarong... The message would be: Soccer players are good looking, hip and get chicks, girls should want them and guys should want to be like them. The message of the photo shoot was "watch me bend over."
Fabulous idea. Who the heck is that going to attract? I thought this was soccer. Not even MLS marketing would take a 2nd looks at this. MLS needs to attract season ticket buyers. They aren't going to go for that bubble gum crap. At least, not in my humble opinion. Sell the game: goals, tackles, saves, crowd and player celebrations.
Nortside Rovers is right. But Maybe if we could show a great goal, crowd going wild, and a big celebration on the field by the plaayer taking his shirt off then you make the commercial relivant [sp?] and still get the sex appeal.
MLS has to be cool to attract the young. Is that why you like it? No. Is that why I like it? No. You probably think the cheerleaders at football games, basketball games, the girls on the podium at NASCAR races and who walk the ring between rounds at fights "detract from the purity of the sport." My god... they use sex to sell Tequila.
They might be ahead of you. My girlfriend said she received her "W" magazine (women's fashion) in the mail and there is a "provocative" fashion spread of shirtless Landon Donovan. I have not seen it and cannot comment on it. She seemed too, um, flustered, to comment on it intelligently.
I think you can make it "cool" without leaving out huge chunks of the market. MLS goes with one theme. They don't have commercials that air on only certain channels, so they need a commercial to sell the sport to as many people as possible. What does a soccer player walking off with a hot chick have to do for soccer? 15 - 19 year olds do not buy season tickets. A sex-based marketing campaign is juvenile, asinine and will be short-lived. Ask the XFL. You wanna throw in Landon or Carlos Ruiz ripping his shirt off after a goal - no problem as long as you show the goal first. But I sure as HELL wouldn't make it the foundation of an ad campaign. Actually no. I like cheerleaders in the NFL. And I don't give a rats ass what those other 3 things do that you named. What's your point? Sex sells alcohol, no doubt. I just wouldn't use it sell a sport. Certainly not one I care about. Name one sport that has done that successfully.
Sex sex sex Yes, sex sells. But usually it's used as part of an overall "branding" campaign, just to create an image in people's minds. MLS needs more of a call to action. Yeah yeah, put in shirtless, hairless guys, and maybe that'll get the heart racing. But selling the sport itself is really the way to go. What they need to do is target the markets where that call to action can do something (like make people head out the door on a Saturday night). As for discussing salaries... yeah, talking about how little some players make won't make them seem noble and sympathetic. It'll make them seem like chumps. (Sympathy might get them a free stay in someone's converted garage, if they offer to mow the lawn every weekend or something).
Ideas There was actually a similar thread before the crash of BS about this. Someone suggested an ad with the usual tackles, goals, celebrations, etc... with "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" as the background music. Now that would be good.
thats a real interesting take. however i think it would smack of beign classless and in its first two years didnt the MLS players attempt to form a union and sue the league for a collective bargaining agreement. plus just no one wants to see a strike, i dont think at the year anniverary of sept. 11th mls really needs to be engaging in mean spiritedness.
Re: Ideas damn thatd be just about perfect. heh ill pass it along to my friend who works for NYC's biggest ad agency, maybe we can get something done! heh
this might border on parody but that new Nelly song would work even better "iiits gettting hot in here...so take of all your clothes...!"
this is a great idea! if you wanna sell soccer in the US, you have to be radical in your marketing approach, the only problem: it will make the players to look like pussies (sissies), and that's something that really pisses me off of US soccer, that all family-suburban-children friendly atmosphera, ....instead, i will the target the product by hiring some hollywood stars who love soccer to promote the sport, i will create tv commercials NFL type, you know with that tailgate-frat-house party atmosphera, and i will change the logo of the league, i will put an eagle with a soccer ball with the red ,white and blue colors as background, just like the MLB or NBA logos, i will work to make the sport more urban appealing i.e. promoting Da MArcus Basley, it's marketing, you know..in a few words: i will make the sport to look cool, suave and urban on tv and magazine ads.