Adoi Magazine wishes all readers a happy and prosperous 2011

With more than 30 years of experience in the finance and media industry, this passion driven Spaniard took the Barça brand global in less than two years. ADOI’s Andrea Mathew caught up with cool cat Joan Oliver i Fontanet, ex-CEO of FC Barcelona when he came to speak at the ‘International Herald Tribune, Alternative Investments in Asia’ conference in
Kuala Lumpur.



BREAKING THE TRADITION
Change is good while staying true to your identity

The defeat in the European Cup final in Athens in 1994 marked the end of a cycle for FC Barcelona or Barça. Then the controversial departure of Johan Cruyff’s in 1996 opened up a deep division amongst the fans and members which in turn had a great effect on the life of the Club. The sporting failures of the 1999 to 2000 season intensified the crisis.

After many years of trouble, the newly elected president of the Club in 2003, Joan Laporta, started the up trend to what will culminate into being ranked by UEFA the number one football Club of 2010/2011.

Under the leadership of Joan Laporta, Barça quickly gained global recognition when they rejected some €30 million worth of sponsorship and decided to adopt UNICEF as their main “sponsor” and pay them instead. The sporting Club unveiled its 2006 to 2007 jersey featuring the UNICEF logo on the front, the first time in the club’s 107 year history that a logo has been featured.

In addition to the UNICEF-branded jersey, Barça had also agreed to donate at least €1.5 million per year to UNICEF over the next five years to support UNICEF programmes for children all over the world. Breaking the trend, they proved Barça was not just another club. “Signing the UNICEF agreement in 2006 was a crucial element in growing the brand. It helped to preserve and explain the identity and soul of the Club and make us more appealing to fans and sponsors. Revenue is important but more pivotal is the message you send to the world. Money will follow once you become a powerful entity with thousands and millions of fans around the world.

“The thing about marketing is you have to be authentic. The problem today is many company’s CSR initiatives seem pretentious but the UNICEF sponsor proved our motto, ‘More than a Club’ because we represent many things and not just another money-making football club,” prides Joan Oliver.

AT THE HEART OF THE MATTER
They built their future from their past

Prior to Joan Oliver’s election as the CEO of FC Barcelona, the Club had already made a few good moves such as the UNICEF “sponsor” and the relaunch and renewed involvement of the fans and membership under the slogan “More than a Club”.

Joan Oliver and his team brought a new dimension to running the Club. They decided the crucial element to turn the Club into a winner was to preserve the Club’s heritage while commercialising the team. “The secret is three pronged. We have to be consistent in defending our identity, increase our resources which will subsequently increase our revenue and most importantly, manage the Club like a business. The combination of being coherent with our identity and managing the Club like a business is the key to success.” Entrenched in 110 years of history and tradition, the Club has no sole owner. It is the property of its 167,000 members and operates on a democratic system where elections are held to determine the board and president every term. But there was one essential element of the Barça identity, which brought the Club back to its feet. Re-discovering the Barça playing style was the first step in re-building the Spanish football legacy.

“When we re-visited our roots, we found the Barça style of playing was very unique and key to our past success. The Barça style originates in the mid-70s  and comes from Netherlands. The style follows a ‘total football’ game strategy. This influential tactical theory of association football allows any outfield player to take over the role of any other player in a team. The only player fixed in a nominal position is the goalkeeper. It arrived in Barcelona in 1973 when Barça bought Johan Cruyff, one of the greatest players from Netherlands. The Barça style has been the star of their success story. “After more than 30 years we produced a great generation of players. In the finals of the European Champions league 2009 against Manchester United, seven out of 11 players were from our academy. This helps players to be united by one style and one philosophy. Manchester on the  other hand, played with zero players from their academy.

“During the finals of the FIFA World Cup 2010, Spain defeated Netherlands with a 1-0 score. The goal scored for the Spanish team during the finals was by a Barça player. In fact the Spanish team used the Barça style as a framework.”

THE BUSINESS OF FOOTBALL
A football club should be treated like a real estate investment

To achieve success in terms of revenue, the challenge was to transform Barça, from a local brand into a global one. As Joan Oliver explained, they needed to become internationally competitive because in football, like many other industries, the competition exists at an international level.
“To compete against international clubs, we needed more resources. Barça has no sole owner as compared to Manchester which is owned by a very rich person with big pockets or Milan, owned by the Prime Minister of Italy. To obtain resources, we had to become global which in turn attracted sponsors and fans. Today, FC Barcelona has the most number of fans for an international sports club.”

The Club is also free from political interference and as a result gets no financial support from the government. As Joan Oliver explains, a football club is not a high capital business. “You don’t need lots of money to run a club but in order to grow a healthy revenue, you need to consistently follow a policy. The most expensive thing in managing a football club is the mistakes. Minimising percentage of mistakes is the secret.

“When I first came in, we built a business plan and obtained a syndicated loan. The power and leverage of a football club is really impressive. It is the most stable business in the world because the Club has links with the community and the community won’t allow the Club to fail. The community includes the banks. If a bank does not support the football Club, hundreds of thousands of people will be against the bank.”

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Josh Sklar explains on how online brands could quickly reach a “cult” status these days compared to the decades it took offline counterparts like Diesel, Apple, and Harley Davidson

Ogilvy & Mather China took home two of the most coveted prizes in the Greater China sub-regional categories at last night’s 2010 Campaign Asia Pacific Agency of the Year Awards. Shenan Chuang, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Greater China, was named “2010 Agency Head of the Year/Greater China”, while Anthony Wong, Managing Director of Global Brand Management, O&M China, claimed the title of “2010 Account Person of the Year/Greater China”.


Shenan Chuang, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Greater China


Anthony Wong, Managing Director of Global Brand Management, O&M China

Ogilvy PR/Shanghai was also shortlisted in the Specialist Agency of the Year category for Greater China.

Now in its 17th year, Campaign’s Agency of the Year competition recognizes inspired leadership, management excellence, outstanding business performance and overall achievements in the advertising and communications industry in Asia Pacific. The new sub-regional categories allow local offices and individuals to compete within their sub-regions. Last night’s awards gala was held in Singapore.

Full list of winners: http://www.aoyawards.com/general/Winners

One of the most awaited announcements in the global branding field is the annual rankings of the world’s most valuable brands. Interbrand along with Business Week evaluates the financial worth of brand equity of some of the largest global brands.

These days, like the old days, it’s all about the numbers. The difference now is we’re talking about opportunistic digits for advertisers and marketers in the tens and hundreds of millions; not just dollars, but

Youth, Generation Y and now known as Millenials, they are not only one of the most sought after consumer groups of present but they will also shape the society, culture, markets and business of tomorrow. That is to say if they are not doing it already now!

The whole approach of Marketing to this group needs to fundamentally change - from Brands to Individuals and from Marketing to having a Conversation with them. And you can converse with someone successfully only if you are either Jay Leno or you know them well, and since you are reading this article I can assume you are probably not Jay Leno. Therefore, this article tries to share few key facets of their personality and lifestyle that could come useful while trying to strike a conversation with them.

(1)     Getting into their minds is not enough…you need to be on Top-of-Mind: I call this Power of Attention. Information overload in this era where there is an increased exposure from various sources and devices is making it difficult for them to remember you as an individual. Hence it is imperative you are firmly rooted in their minds (and lives).

(2)    They are all similar in one belief…that each one of them is different: The Power of Individualism. They are unique and what is very important to know is that they know that as well. So if you are dealing with them and if we do not come across as recognizing and addressing that, then you have a hope in hell!

(3)     Being Famous is not everything…it is the Only thing: Power of Media. Andy Warhol famously said, "In the future everybody will be famous for 15 minutes". This was in late 60s but this could not have more true than today and what lies ahead. The hunger to become famous, being recognized, being appreciated is very strong with youth and now with the power of digital media at their disposal they have the ability to achieve it themselves. Digital is not only the means of communication for them – but also their means of expression, creation and promotion. We have to ask ourselves, how are we enabling this or helping them achieve this.

(4)    Don’t always design for them…let them craft: Power of Co-creation. I don’t mean you stop producing services and products for them. What I mean is let them play a co-role in the acts of conceptualization, creation, delivery, consumption. They are willing to come and help you do that and I'm sure anyone would be foolish to ignore help and services from such an over enthusiastic and helpful lot.

(5)    They don’t listen to just anyone…they follow their mates: Power of Peers. We often get confused that youth are best impressed only by big celebrities and stars are their only role models. It is true but not entirely true. A very powerful influencing force around them is their mates, their peers. What they do, how they do, what they like and consume have quite an effect on them as well. They live amongst their role models by default. So if we can recognize this and leverage it well then without spending millions of dollars we can still have some of the biggest role models working for us.

(6)    They are not just smart…they are Very smart: Power of Knowledge. Imagine this scenario - downloading music from a specific site - getting it on the handphone - composing a new music piece mixing it with personal notes - creating a customized design for their own first album - publishing it on their own Facebook page. Well, you might think that ‘ok, it’s cool but today most of them are doing it so what’s unique about it’. Well, the unique thing is that I am not talking about a 17-year old here; you would be surprised that all of this is true for an eight year old kid of a friend of mine. I am sure you can very well imagine that if it is true for an eight year old kid then what about our Millenials. They are very very smart. So they can take more then what we can imagine and at the same time they can’t be fooled, so don’t even try.

(7)    They aren’t good at one thing…they are good at many things: Power of Multi-tasking. A lot has been said about the supermanlike powers of this young group, well it amazes me to keep on learning by observing them and seeing how skillful they are – not in terms of juggling balls but in terms of juggling multiple activities and interests in their lives. They are far more multi-skilled then many of us would believe. This could be a boon or a disaster depending on how we look at it and how we can use it our advantage.

So next time when you look at this group, don’t see it is a group. Try to find that individual person in it, treat him as an equal and strike a conversation. You will end up learning more!

Paras Sharma is Senior Director, Marketing & Corporate Communications at ESPN STAR Sports.