dZG - Marketing & Društvene Mreže Proposal 11: Emotional connection with oversea supporters
There is a large community of Croats all around the globe who are emotionally connected to
their homeland and probably also to Croatian biggest football clubs. In the 80-tis Dinamo
organized a tour to Australia which was a great success. In those days, schedules are very
tight and for this reason it was hard to organize such a tour but there are other things that
club should do.
Club should do the following strategies for engaging overseas fans (e.g. Australia)
1. Emotional connection
- For overseas fans club should enforce values that resonate with national
identity (that is already in club identity)
- Doing interviews with overseas fans
- Do the overseas membership program. Officially recognize and support their
fan clubs, mention them on social media, and give them special recognition
before the match or at halftime (the speaker could mention several members
in Australia, etc),.
- Do the regular online meetings where also some of the club recognize players
would be present
- Former club players that come from overseas (e.g. Marko Viduka and Joe
Šimunić from Australia) could help the club build emotional connections with
overseas fans.
2. Merchandise
- Providing them easy and fast access to club merchandise
Proposal 12: Friendly and proactive staff
Stadium staff need to be educated that they are an important part of the matchday
experience. Fans, especially families and kids must feel welcomed and therefore staff must
be friendly and proactive
Proposal 13: First time visitors lifetime memories
The most important part of building high average attendance is Retention (make sure that
fans return for the next match) - It is much easier to convince people to visit more matches
after they have already visited at least one.
Therefore it is vital to create lifetime memories for first-time visitors (especially families and
kids). Such visitors will not only return but will also become club advocates and convince
other families to join them next time.
This can be achieved in many ways such as:
1. Introduce a “Certificate” for first time visitors
2. Create lifetime memories for kids such as allowing them to help set corner flags
before the match,
a. Players that are not playing should be with the fans. Signing autograph before
matches, talk, etc
3. Collect first-time testimonies (kids and their parents), share them and inspire other
families to attend the match
Proposal 14: Club history
Due to the old stadium, the club does not have its own museum (probably the museum could
be somewhere around the stadium or in the city center).
Anyway, the club could create a series of (5 - 10 minute) long video series about the club's
history. Different club-related historians, journalists, notable fans, former players, etc. could
represent their anecdotes and historical facts - Such unique, educational videos are always
interesting and would create a deeper emotional connection with the club