#50 The Ballketing Letter
Discovering Coolligan, the impact of big transfers for sport brands, product design & customer reviews, the first #netzero game in EPL, optimizing your content distribution, & more!
Hey there Ballketers,
We made it to #50 chapters of this newsletter! We want to thank you for being on the other side and walking with us on this awesome journey. Hopefully, we can keep it going for a long time!
This week:
In the Ballketing Brief we deep dive into Coolligan, one of the most intriguing “sports-themed” apparel brands we know; they basically sell “retro-football” inspired streetwear clothes.
We don´t have as many podcast episodes this weeks, but make sure you listen to the one discussing the impact that big transfers have on sport related brands (and it is not about selling kits…). Also, be sure though to check the articles we share, they are great stuff to improve your business on a “tactical” level.
As always, we have updated our “Resource Center" in Notion and we are already above 450… All with the hope they help you manage your sport or fitness even better!
Let´s get down to business!
Luka Hocevar, owner of Vigor Ground Fitness, shared this amazing thought on "resilience" in his Instagram account. :
Courage overcomes but does not replace fear. Joy overcomes, but doesn’t not replace, pain.
And remember…
The magnitude of the challenge X the intensity of your attack = your rate of growthLuka Hocevar - Coach & Founder of Vigor Ground Fitness
Keep pushing, keep grinding!
Coolligan, the union of sport fashion and retro football
For this week´s brief we are diving deep into Coolligan, a Spanish eCommerce brand that combines classic football with casual streetwear, and one of the most intriguing sport fashion brands we know of.
Product & Pricing: Premium sport themed fashion
Coolligan was founded back in 2014 and it basically offers "retro-football" inspired apparel mainly in the form t-shirts, polos and sweaters, although it offers other types of products and fashion accessories. The uniqueness of their designs relies in the fact that they create a version of a given club´s retro kit (non official) and provides a specific name to it that identifies with the club. Essentially, imagine a Real Madrid t-shirt designed with a 1960s feel to it, or a replica of Brazil´s 1962 kit or even, a collection inspired on the classic film, Victory.
These would be some examples:
We also find their approach towards each "product-page" on their eCommerce to be quite unique. Rather than being "technical" about the features of the product, they actually tell the story that inspired each design. It is a more "brand" focused design (vs SEO performance based).
In terms of pricing, it pretty much is aligned to other high-end brands of the Spanish fashion landscapes and, as the majority of fashion brands do, they offer special discounts on particular items and push aggressively during key retail dates like Black Friday, Sales, etc.
Channel: From eCommerce to Omnichannel
What we find more interesting is their evolution from starting out as a pure eCommerce / D2C brand that has evolved into becoming an omnichannel brand with several points of sale. It currently has 3 fully owned stores in Madrid, Barcelona & Málaga and it also has a pop up retail corner in one of the major department stores in Spain, El Corte Inglés.
Promotion through digital channels: Fierce competition
With regards to promotion, it relies on several channels to generate awareness. Let´s break it down to the ones we find most relevant:
Social Media:
Like the majority of fashion brands out there, a big component of their content strategy goes through social media, and in their particular case, they are present on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The carry out an interesting combination of product-led content, classic football teams or moments and also try to foster user generated content.
Blog:
We really like the way they work around their blog. They basically share classic football stories like Brazil´s first superstar, the 1998 World Cup or about legends like Eusebio, Kopa or Sir Stanley Matthews.
SEO:
From an SEO standpoint, the brand really competes in a very challenging category as it goes against generic fashion brands but also vs sport retailers for varied terms like "men´s fashion," "retro football shirts," and so on.
Newsletter:
Coolligan also sends out a newsletter which it basically informs about product discounts & new arrivals.
Influence related techniques on the web:
We wanted to give a special mention to an "influence" related technique (based on the work by Robert Cialdini), in which it basically shows a pop up within the web page showing an item that some customer somewhere purchased.
Opportunities for the future: Content, purpose & customer experience
We have a deep respect for what the brand has been able to accomplish up to now but we wanted to end this section with a few ideas to foster further growth in the future.
Video & Audio: Coolligan does have a YouTube channel but they pretty much stopped working it a few years ago. We believe there is huge potential in video related content for their particular brand but more related to "classic football summaries" or "stories." In essence, it would be taking their blog or some of their social media posts to the video or audio space.
We would recommend a similar approach to their newsletter. Rather than focusing it solely on product or promotion, they could perhaps look to entertain users with anecdotes and stories. Without knowing too much about their customer (which should be the very first step before doing any of this), we would assume these are passionate football fans that always value a good "sport-nerd" related story to share with friends.
We believe Cooligan could also consider embracing other social media platforms. In particular:
Tik Tok: Not only it could repurpose some of its video content described above into short form video, we also noticed their website is built on Shopify, which has recently announced a partnership with Tik Tok to enable social commerce for users of the platform.
Pinterest: Coolligan has a very "visual & inspirational" product, hence it is a product pretty much made for Pinterest, which is one of the largest "image search engine" out there and it could be a great source of traffic. Besides, Pinterest seems to be rolling out a fantastic "Trends" feature that could help it understand potential opportunities within the brand (although for the moment it is only available for the U.S, Canada and the UK).
In store experiences & "Click & Collect:" These basically are two of the six opportunities we identified in the blog post we shared last week. But just like some sport apparel businesses are offering "fitness driven" experiences in-store...couldn´t Coolligan organize "penalty shootouts" for example? This would provide awesome opportunities for gamification, user generated content, etc.
Purpose driven sponsorship: A few years we ago we actually gave a Coolligan product as a present to a relative that has special needs and he loved it! (He is actually a huge football fan that participates in "Paralympic sport" competitions). Couldn´t Coolligan explore commercial partnerships to provide "streetwear" apparel for some of these teams? It would be a fantastic method to raise awareness around the challenges for Paralympic athletes...
To sum up, and if you noticed, most of these tactics can be summarized around three critical areas:
Content marketing
Improving performance across the middle and lower funnel
Reducing friction along the customer journey
As we share a further down below, these are some of the realms that GAP´s Head of Strategy believes that fashion brands should focus on; be sure to check that out if you want to learn from one of the leading brands out there.
From our side, these would be some of the main ideas that we would look into but feel free to share more that come to mind!
Digital transformation lessons from GAP
Insightful lessons from GAP´s Head of Strategy that any sport apparel brand can learn from (regardless of the size). He discusses the role of content, the agility in developing that content, the type of content you need to develop to attack the mid & lower funnel, the role of the store in the future and the need towards reducing friction in the purchasing process.
Understanding the real business impact behind the Ronaldo & Messi´s transfer
How many times have you heard a transfer will be paid after a club sells X many shirts? Well, that reasoning is wrong; listen to this awesome episode of "The Unofficial Partner" podcast to understand the real business impact behind Messi & Ronaldo´s transfer this summer.
They discuss the impact from a licensing, sponsorship, branding and even geopolitical point of view.
On that note, Fanatics (which is Manchester United´s retail partner) reported record-breaking sales of Cristiano´s jersey after it was known he will wear his iconic #7:
Fanatics, United’s retail partner, has revealed that in just four hours following that announcement sales surpassed the highest day of sales ever on a single sports merchandise piece site outside of North America. The first hour of sales alone surpassed the best ever full day for United Direct, the club’s official merchandise platform.
How sport organizations can attract top tier brands like HSBC
Sport brands are always on the lookout to generate additional sponsorship revenue. And contrary to what it may seem, brands are willing to invest! The thing is that sport businesses need to understand the value that they are looking to obtain from a partnership. This episode of SportPro Media´s podcast can be a good starting step. It discusses the topics of activation, leveraging first party data, engaging the younger audiences and more, all through the lens of HSBC.
Product design through customer reviews as a source of growth
Brand loyalty has been decreasing for the past 10 to 15 years, and the pandemic has accelerated this shift. Consumers are now more willing than ever to try new brands, including those recommended on popular sites. In this fluid landscape, a product’s price and online feedback may be the primary factors that customers consider when making purchases.
McKinsey shares this and more insightful research in this article discussing why brands should embrace customer reviews within the product design process. Take a look for instance at the evolution of customer reviews in the sporting goods industry but you could probably assume a similar dynamic in sports or fitness...
Tottenham looking to host the first Net Zero in English Premier League
The sports industry has a unique ability to unify around powerful causes...We need more initiatives like this one from Tottenham Hotspur Football Club in our journey towards becoming net zero. In essence, they will look to create an action plan in their game against Chelsea that raises awareness around the climate challenge we are facing. Sports is a team effort and, in this game, we need it more than ever.
Everything you need to know about content distribution
You may be awesome at creating great content but without being good at reaching your intended audience, you will not go far...Not to worry though, this CMI article as you covered; it is a very detailed guide with everything you need to know about content distribution. It divides in 3 sections:
Evaluate your distribution options
Develop and document your channel plan
Promote your content and amplify its impact.
Tik Tok shares they keys to successful ads on its platform
Tik Tok is one of the platforms where sport and fitness businesses witness major engagement but at the same, it gets harder each day to stand out. This why we believe this article from the Search Engine Journal can be of use as it includes 7 aspects for your brand to succeed when advertising on the platform:
Video resolution
Vertical aspect ratio
Use of audio
9:16 ratio
Use an offer
Change the scene
Include close captions
The Les Mills 2021 Global Trends Report
This is a "must-read" report for those of you working in the fitness industry. Les Mills shares 7 trends supported by insightful data that will shape the near term of the fitness industry. Among others, the discuss the new landscape, the split between "brick & mortar" & "virtual," or emerging segments embracing fitness. In our blog we already covered 5 moves for fitness businesses in a post pandemic world and how to design an omnichannel experience so if you want to dig deeper, feel free to check that out as well.
Brand relevance, Quality of Live & UX: Taking your ASO to the next level
Do you have a fitness app you are interested in launching to the market? Or a sport based app game? Whatever you may have, your "got-to market" strategy needs to consider an ASO strategy. You can earn the basics in this CXL article but in essence, make sure you have brand relevance, you tackle "QOL" (Quality of Life) of your users and look into creating an app that has good UX and drives retention.
Elevate your Lead Generation game across the entire marketing funnel
Amazing post from Andy Crestodina with almost 60 tips to improve your Lead Generation efforts. These include tips for optimizing the content of your website across all the elements of the funnel from the awareness phase (the blog), consideration (service page), trust (about page), conversion (contact form). It goes into full detail and we are sure it can help your sport or fitness brand drive higher conversions on your web!
And that does it for The Ballketing Letter #50! Thank you once again for reading and “being on the other side.” We hope these resources are helping you thrive during these challenging times. If you have any feedback, let us know so we can keep making this newsletter more useful and help you take your sport brand or fitness business to another level.
And, if you know about somebody that could enjoy The Ballketing Letter, feel free to share it out with them!
Keep safe.