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And yet, for all its global adoption, the vast number of soccer clubs around the world struggle to make ends meet. The “whales” of Manchester United (@ManUtd) and Real Madrid (@RealMadrid) may not worry about finances, but the ROI for the “minnows” is often too little to survive.

The rapid adoption of social media in marketing is a testament to its ease of use; it is far easier to post to Facebook or tweet than to develop a data-driven email program. However, your brand’s ROI from the “easy” channels may not be as great as that of the whales in your industry. To survive, therefore, you must play more than one game.



Fortunately, there are a lot of games called football. Soccer may be the world’s game, but there’s also rugby football, Gaelic football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, and American football. They play with different balls, rules, and uniforms, but the objective is the same: Score more points than the opposition. The lesson for marketers is that the game you’re best at—the marketing channel that delivers the greatest ROI—may not be the most popular game in the world. Popularity, however, doesn’t matter. Profitability does.





The Many Ways to Accommodate Your Audience


And one final lesson from 5,000 years of football: You don’t have to do it all at once. As an American, I’m brainwashed by our professional sports franchises to believe that they all need huge, new stadiums every few decades or so to stay competitive. And yet, when you travel to the Mecca of world soccer—Manchester, England—you see something very different at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United.

Old Trafford isn’t a bright, shiny new stadium. It opened in 1910, was bombed in World War II, reopened in 1949, and has been renovated incrementally ever since.5 Today, Old Trafford is sold out every game, and serves as the foundation of the global marketing juggernaut that is the Manchester United Football Club.

Manchester United could have built a new stadium years ago, but they opted to stick not only with what worked but also what kept their FANS passionate—a connection to over 100 years of history. Meanwhile, the team found other means of revenue—kit sponsors, television, in-game advertising, and its website—to grow its global presence and revenues. It did all of these things incrementally, on the back of its success on the pitch.

This isn’t the only path to success. Just across town, United’s bitter rivals, Manchester City (@MCFC), opened a new stadium in 2002. In 2012, City won the Premier League title. And in 2013, United swiped it right back. There are many paths to building a winning club—and that’s the faith that keeps many of the 6,998 or so smaller clubs all around England literally building upon success—adding to their stands as their budgets and FAN growth permit.

As you contemplate how to evolve your PAD efforts moving forward, know that there’s no one right way. If you’re a brand with deep pockets, then perhaps you can have it all in the form of a fully-staffed PAD Team and individuals to manage each channel—emerging or otherwise. However, if you’re like the majority of companies and have to make tough budgetary decisions, then rest assured that your “PAD stadium” can evolve more slowly, growing section by section, success upon success, and enlisting the help of your SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, and FOLLOWERS as needed. After all, they are just a push button away.





The Next Big Thing


The game of marketing today is so complex because it is not one game, it is many—each with a set of rules evolving in real time that serve to confuse the uninitiated and drive up sales of Excedrin (@Excedrin). We are literally marketing today in wet cement—new channels so fresh that there are no mentors to show us the way only early adopters who plow ahead without knowing if they’re on to the next big thing or a huge waste of time.

At such moments, I cling to things that I know will matter now and always—and I encourage you to do the same. Personally, those things are the moments I share with friends and family. Professionally, as a marketer, those things are brand, content, product, sales, service—and now, Proprietary Audience Development. Channels may rise and fall, but SEEKERS, AMPLIFIERS, and JOINERS will always be assets that the smartest companies build, nurture, and value in order to beat the competition.

So perhaps the next big thing in marketing isn’t a thing at all. It’s the hard work necessary to embrace all that Proprietary Audience Development has to offer your company.

It’s the game that never ends.d

a For this reason—and for clarity—I will refer to the international game of football as soccer from here on out.