The following is a guest post by Brad Smith of MySoccerImage.com

WPS Problems Start in the Boardroom, Not on the Field

The latest announcement from the FC Gold Pride and the Washington Freedom has sent panic around the WPS.  This has come on the heels of the Los Angeles Sol folding, and the mid-season St Louis Athletica debacle. The recent failings are beginning to remind people of the WUSA, and that’s not good.  The WUSA, the world’s first women’s professional soccer league, blew through $100 million dollars in just 3 years of existence.

If the FC Gold Pride goes down, then the WPS effectively becomes a regional league. The LA Sol situation was a complete disaster.  LA Sol was a great team located in a huge, passionate market that’s a soccer haven in Southern California. Not to mention the endorsement of AEG, one of the biggest brands in U.S. Soccer. Despite on-field success, the LA Sol lost more than $3 million in one year. Obviously something is wrong here.

So what do the FC Gold Pride, Washington Freedom, Los Angeles Sol, and the St. Louis Athletica all have in common? (Besides terrible names?)

Failure by Design

The WPS has secured some of the best women’s players in the world, are bringing in top young talent and providing an entertaining game for the fans. However the teams are only as good as the WPS.

The WPS, like the MLS, is a top-down organization. The league is heavily involved with dictating how teams will be run. Unfortunately, this is the only model the U.S. has had any success with in professional soccer.

The problem though is that they fail to recognize that the WPS is a start-up company, and should be run with a viable business model. A major part of this includes developing a strategy that will acquire new customers (passive fans), and transforming them into loyal supporters (brand evangelists).

Before and After

A recent article by Virginia Online Soccer News pointed out the top 3 obstacles for WPS future success:

Not surprisingly most of them pointed out the following three areas the league will need to focus on immediately:

• Increased ticket sales
• The need for major sponsorship deals
• Increased TV/Media coverage

Now let’s analyze these 3 obstacles and find out how we would expand on each one:

• Increased Ticket Sales (Marketing/Advertising)
• Need for Major Sponsorship Deals (Marketing/PR)
• Increased TV/Media Coverage (Marketing/PR)

So it’s safe to assume, the biggest issues to WPS success and sustainability is improving league-wide marketing.

The WPS recently announced reorganization. Here are some of the moves they made at the end of July:

The positions cut include New Media Manager, League Office Manager/Assistant to the Commissioner, in addition to jobs in marketing. The release also points to consolidation within operations and shifting some of those duties to the team level… and WPS Communication Executives.

So while the largest obstacles to WPS success are largely dependent on marketing and public relations, they decided to shed jobs in marketing and public relations. Brilliant!

Everyone’s favorite satirical blog, Fake Sigi, had this to say in regard to WPS marketing at the beginning of last season:

I'm also going to question WPS marketing efforts right here, right now. Longtime readers know I've been unimpressed with WPS executives dismissing marketing to young girls and women. While it's not appropriate to go into a long discussion of the issues here, the collapse of the Sol only heightens the pressure on the rest of the league to get their stuff together in regard to reaching their strongest demographic.

So can this be fixed?  How do we improve our marketing efforts to not only acquire new customers, but also retain them and turn them into passionate supporters?  In a league pouring money down the drain, are traditional TV commercials and billboards advertisements going to effectively accomplish this?  I may not have all the answers, but the short answer is a resounding “No”.  So how do you reach consumers directly, and spread the “good news”?

Enter Social Media

One of the most dramatic effects of the rise of the internet and worldwide broadband connection has been the acceptance of social media’s ability to connect people.  Social media is a broad range of sites including blogs, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg Delicious and many more.  On Facebook alone, there are over 500 million users that interact as friends, share information, post funny thoughts, and “Like” things on a regular basis. In February of this year, Nielson reported that people are spending an average of 7 hours per month on Facebook, more time than on Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, YouTube and Wikipedia combined.

It’s clear that social media sites are providing low cost, but highly effective marketing channels for companies. Some of the biggest benefits include branding, lead generation, promotion, customer support, and the “viral” spreading of links, news and information. However perhaps the largest benefit is being able to listen to your customers and react or respond to them in real time.

Survey Says: Social-media use builds fan avidity

Another recent study measured the impact of fans social media sites interacting with their favorite sports teams.

The results show that 61 percent of MLB fans and 55 percent of NFL fans consider themselves bigger fans of the respective leagues since they started following their favorite teams on Facebook, Twitter and similar sites. In addition, more than half of MLB fans (and 43 percent of NFL fans) said they spend more time watching and following the league now than they did prior to their social-media engagement.

Marketing 101 says it’s much easier and cheaper to keep an existing customer then to acquire a new one. It’s such an important concept that they’ve coined a term to demonstrate this: the Lifetime Value of a Customer.  It’s difficult to get a fan to attend 1 game.  But the biggest issue is how do you keep them coming back, buying merchandise, and having them spread their enthusiasm to their network of friends and family. 

The Proof is in the Pudding

One leading innovative marketing company, Razorfish, released a report in 2009 reporting on how digital social interaction affects companies. Here are some relevant excerpts from that report.

Digital is not simply an “awareness” play; it’s a customer-creation play. According to our study, the overwhelming majority of consumers who actively engage with a brand (e.g., follow a brand on Twitter or enter a contest) can evolve from passive reactors to advocates almost instantaneously.

On average, 97% report increased brand awareness; 98% show increased consideration; 97% will likely purchase a product from the brand; and 96% may recommend the brand to their friends.
Engagement equals affinity.

Moreover, brands that use digital to drive awareness also drive sales: 64% of consumers report making a first purchase from a brand because of a digital experience.

In fact, according to Forrester, if you are 45 years old or younger, you spend significantly more time using the Internet than watching television. We believe that this trend signifies the rise of “digital primacy,” where consumers are turning first and foremost to digital to help them navigate, connect, and make sense of the world.

Google and Facebook are experiential brands, as are Zappos, Twitter, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Starbucks, and Nike. These companies understand that we are living in a world where consumer preference isn’t formed in reaction to a message, but through a series of experiences over time. Ultimately, it’s a dialogue of interactions that’s stunningly effective when done right.

As Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, has been known to say:

Your brand is formed primarily, not by what your company says about itself, but what the company does.

 Experience, as we will see, not only matters—it drives results to the bottom line.

The Bottom Line 

Today in 2010, the most effective (and cost-efficient) ways to directly reach consumers and spread information is through social media. Using these methods effectively, any company (or professional soccer league) can increase customer acquisition, but more importantly develop relationships (bonds) between existing fans. This social media phenomenon turns passive spectators into interactive partners. Following your favorite sports team on Twitter or Liking them on Facebook creates a new bond and gives you a vested interest in the success of that brand.

It is unacceptable to ignore this impact and the repercussions of these actions. It should be a huge red flag that the WPS reorganized and shed jobs in marketing, new media and communications when the biggest hurdles for their success are improving their customer acquisition and retention. Because it’s not just their financial position their damaging. They’re letting down the teams, players, fans, and millions of young female athletes who pray for the chance of playing professional soccer someday.

*Brad Smith is the author of College Soccer Recruiting 101, a free e-book on how to be a top recruit. He is also the co-founder and President of MySoccerImage.com, which provides college soccer recruiting information and education for youth, club, and high school soccer players.