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As one of the Co-Managing Partners of D.C. United, one of Major League Soccer's most successful franchises, Will Chang has a strong voice and commitment to new digital media as the primary means of building a successful brand. . Will was nice enough to spare some of his valuable time with me recently and share his thoughts on the present and future outlook for Major League Soccer and D.C. United. Sports leagues traditionally are slow-moving when it comes to embracing new technology. How has MLS managed to be so nimble and proactive? First of all, we are a relatively small ownership group (only 14 teams) and there are certain associated advantages with that. When you have four or five people that are very in-tune with digital media because of their backgrounds, those people can make significant contributions and implement creative strategies. Secondly, as a single entity it is much easier to effect change and have the ability to impose league-wide mandates with respect to new technologies. How is D.C. United, as an example, reaching out to its existing and potential fans with new technologies? The average attendance at our games is 21,000 with 6,000 of them being season ticket holders. There are over 300,000 kids playing soccer in D.C, Maryland and Virginia, the areas that we draw our fans from. Recognizing that there are parts of those areas where geographically it may be difficult for people to attend, let's say that we could draw from a universe of 150,000. If you were to multiply that number by 3, which would represent a conservative number for those in a family, the potential base rises to 450,000, roughly speaking. So, how do we reach them?? We believe that traditional media (print, radio and TV) is both ineffective and cost prohibitive. The rise of social networks and soccer club websites represent a much more cost-effective way of reaching our audience. When you combine that with the 400 player appearances that our players make each year we are able to much more efficiently convert these player touches into fans. Specifically, with respect to new media, what initiatives have you undertaken or will be considering? The league and all of its teams launched Vortexes from Real Time Matrix in December 2007 with success dependent on the degree to which they were promoted. We are committed at D.C. United to do more because we see and understand the benefits of reaching out to our fan base in social networks. We are in the planning stages of implementing a major campaign to accomplish this. Clubspaces which is an online hub for managing a soccer club and communicating with other members is a great tool for us to reach our potential fans as there are already 50,000 kids in our market playing soccer and on Clubspaces. Clubspaces partnership with AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) also extends our reach. As just those two examples indicate we are much better able to target our potential fans by incorporating these new technologies. When utilizing these new technologies how important is driving new ad revenue versus building a brand? For us, driving ad revenue is secondary to converting players to fans and season ticket holders. At our stage of development building a brand is paramount. If we build the brand properly the revenue will come. What effects will the changing landscape of digital media have on soccer? There is no question that kids today are consuming content in much different ways than previously. Combining streaming content, mobile quality and the improvements in bandwidth, TV advertisers are becoming more disenchanted especially in soccer. They will be forced into making some tough decisions as to where they spend their money and re-allocate their budgets to address this changing landscape. It is absolutely imperative that owners of sports franchises understand how to reach their audience with geographic and personalized relevance with new media. Those who don't will fall hopelessly behind.
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Content Marketing