"We put together our 360 degree plan, particularly in terms of international activities. 360 degrees is a circle, which represents the game itself, the ball. This plan is split into two sections. The first 180 degrees is dedicated to the live games themselves: the broadcasting, the stadiums, the game, and the spectacle itself. The live games are the event; we should never forget this," stated Javier Tebas, CEO of LaLigaSpanish Professional Football League (formerly called the Spanish LFP)
, at the second day of the Première LigueUnion of presidents of professional football clubs in France, primarily top division, Ligue 1 teams, founded on 01/09/2015.
Convention of French professional football in Cannes (FRA) on 28/06/2016.
"The second 180 degrees is dedicated to connecting with fans, especially in the time between games. What do the fans want? What can we give them? We must give them reasons to keep connected to our league. This relationship must always be cultivated, and just as much for existing fans as with reaching new fans," added Javier Tebas.
Javier Tebas was the keynote speaker in a discussion titled "The International Development of LaLiga" on Day 2 of the annual French professional football event.
"You can't just send a satellite signal around the world and have success anymore. That time is over. You must invest in the engagement, the second 180 degrees, or you are not sufficiently driving your product. The competition in the sports industry is fierce. Viewers have an infinite amount of options of where they can give their attention," said Javier Tebas at the Première Ligue Convention on 28/06/2017.
"I have all the respect in the world for the Premier League, but they are also our main rival" (J. Tebas, LaLiga)
So to compete with these competitors, we needed a strong and clear strategy. We talk and work with other leagues, but it is important to understand that we are competitors. I have all the respect in the world for the Premier League, but they are also our main rival.
So we put together our 360 degree plan, particularly in terms of international activities. 360 degrees is a circle, which represents the game itself, the ball. This plan is split into two sections. The first 180 degrees is dedicated to the live games themselves: the broadcasting, the stadiums, the game, and the spectacle itself. The live games are the event; we should never forget this.
The second 180 degrees is dedicated to connecting with fans, especially in the time between games. What do the fans want? What can we give them? We must give them reasons to keep connected to our league. This relationship must be always be cultivated, and just as much for existing fans as with reaching new fans."
Broadcasting: "Three and a half years ago, we had to really look our television product"
So we went in and standardised the media setup at all the stadiums. Now we have a consistent production and signal coming out from all stadiums. The way we shoot the games is also different than other leagues. We continue to use aerial cameras, which are now installed in 10 stadiums. We now have towers outside of many stadiums to provide a consistent production image of our games.
Our competitor in this regard - the number of cameras, aerial views, and the quality of the signal - is the USA. The American sports leagues have a great model for production, from the director of the event, to the camera angles, immediate replays, commentary, etc.
I watch our games on TV, and I look at them as a movie. The pitch is the set, and one must truly consider how the pitch is set up as the basis of the entire scene. Without the pitch presented clearly, there is no stage for the actors. The players and managers, of course, are these actors, the main attraction. But sometimes in sports we forget about the behind-the-scenes production. Leagues must invest in this side as well. And just as with a movie, one must have great directors putting everything in place.
At LaLiga, the production now matches the colours of the teams involved in the match. This is a small detail, but now when a viewer turns on a LaLiga game, the graphics and flourishes now help to show which teams are playing. We can even match, to some extent, the advertising to go along with the club(s) involved.
Now, regarding our domestic viewers, we can say that they will stay around and watch our product, no matter the quality of the image, because they are invested in their local team. But at the international level, there is more competition. If the TV image is poor, the international audience will find other leagues to watch."
Engagement: "We have gone all in on digital strategies"
We utilize what we call 'social listening'. Microsoft helps us in putting our fan data into a useable format. To use an example in France, let's say a I watch a Saint-Étienne game. And then I want to know what a fan in, say, Egypt, is doing around this game.
With organised Big Data, I can find out if fans are talking about the game or perhaps only about one player, and I can find out exactly how the fans are engaging with the event. I can also find the fans in Egypt who are interacting the most with this game and the involved teams. This is very important: finding the local influencers.
So this geo-localization of what and how our fans are engaging is a big focus of ours. Microsoft helps with this tremendously, as do Twitter, Instagram, etc. Facebook has these metrics too, but they make you pay quite a bit for them. But one must invest in these metrics, and embrace Big Data."
The LaLiga Global Network: "If LaLiga has 100,000 followers in Morocco, then our rep knows how to connect with the five or ten most passionate interacters of this community"
Our young representatives really made a difference. If LaLiga has 100,000 followers in Morocco, then our rep knows how to connect with the five or ten most passionate interacters of this community, and help develop engagement using these top LaLiga fans in the country.
Fans talking about only Real Madrid and Barcelona is not enough. Real and Barça certainly have their own outreach strategies, and we must consider that. But we have to assist the other clubs.
Yes, there are disagreements (between clubs and with the league) about the international strategy, but it our job as a league to make sure the clubs are talking to each other. But I will protect our rights at a league level as best I can. This is my top priority, because this collective approach is the only way to develop internationally.
For example, for the Africa Cup of Nations, our representatives spoke about the LaLiga players in the tournament. In Tunisia, we even worked in some local dialects! If we can identify the five major LaLiga influencers in every country, then we now have a network of over 1000 persons.
So this is what the LaLiga Global Network is here for. Yes, we have the clips and highlights of the matches, the clubs are making more and more activations and promotions every day, and so forth. But at LaLiga we decided to make a very strong financial commitment to helping communicate these things to local audiences, with a very local perspective. And Microsoft helps us tremendously with this by giving us presentable social listening data which can help us specifically target our product to our fans all over the world.
This is the short summary of our international strategy. First, improve the TV product, yes of course. And we continue to work on this. But we also invest heavily in localising the product in every market around the world."
Big Data: "Investing in how to use Big Data is just as important as investing in the data itself"
Facebook -
"So what we're talking about is Big Data. But we have to know how to use this data, or it's useless. And Microsoft helps with this. But we have made a big investment in human resources. We now have the former director of Facebook in Spain at LaLiga.
We brought in a person from Netflix. He doesn't know much about football - but he knows how to reach viewers (who pay for content), and this outside knowledge is vitally important. We are adding another person - an important person, whom I can't name yet - but we want the best people who know these new technologies, who can apply their knowledge to our product.
Investing in how to use Big Data is just as important as investing in Big Data itself. And this is expensive. But, with Microsoft, we are building a department at LaLiga dedicated to social listening and the localisation of our product. And our database in this regard is improving dramatically every day.
When I arrived at LaLiga, we were 47 employees. We are now over 400 people in only three and a half years.
You can't just send a satellite signal around the world and have success anymore. That time is over. You must invest in the engagement, the second 180 degrees, or you are not sufficiently driving your product.
So we have invested heavily in manpower, in a large part to drive engagement. But it's not enough. The NBA, for example, has over 1500 employees. Our entire staff is 400. The competition in the sports industry is fierce. Viewers have an infinite amount of options of where they can give their attention."
Courage: "We have doubled the value of our international TV rights since changing the time slots"
LaLiga logo -
"We had to be courageous (with our international strategy). When we changed the match time slots (to better align with key international markets), they wanted to kill me all across Spain! From the Canary Islands to Barcelona...
But that was two years ago, and we have doubled the value of our international TV rights since changing the time slots. But these decisions do take a certain amount of courage."
Javier Tebas, CEO of LaLiga, at the Première Ligue Convention of French professional football in Cannes (FRA) on 28/06/2016
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Spanish Professional Football League (formerly called the Spanish LFP)
, at the second day of the Première Ligue
Union of presidents of professional football clubs in France, primarily top division, Ligue 1 teams, founded on 01/09/2015.
Convention of French professional football in Cannes (FRA) on 28/06/2016.
