Written | Li Jianli
This season's Chinese Super League has ended, and in the era of the epidemic, the league lacks a lot of highlights. It is undeniable that in the past few seasons, the culture of Chinese Super League fans has been continuously improving, and the construction of club culture has also improved to a certain extent. But in the two years of the epidemic, many things have come to a standstill.
The club that pays attention to cultural construction can be described as a leader in this season, the 4th round of the Chinese Super League, the deep foot released a poster to comfort the small fans before the game, with the text "One word is certain", the story of the deep foot and the small fans is touching, but at the level of club culture, it can be understood that this is the exploration of the Chinese Super League club in cultural construction.
The deep foot poster embodies humanistic care
From the breaking of the circle of the official announcement video to the humanistic care of the club, this season, Shenzu has done enough work in the construction of the club's brand culture. In the past few years, the brand image construction of the Chinese Super League club has continued to advance and explore from the poster style led by Evergrande, to the video official announcement launched by Huaxia Happiness, and then to the importance of shenzu on the humanities.
Brand equity is one of the club's most important intangible assets. A good club brand can be more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in the fan group and deepen the fans' sense of identification with the club. The Chinese Super League clubs have the problem of brand lack of personality, lack of clear positioning, and even the poor brand image of some clubs. Shenzu has set an example for chinese Super League clubs in terms of cultural construction.
Official propaganda videos form cultural output
The first Chinese Super League club to try to officially announce players with a video movie was Huaxia Happiness (Hebei Team) Club, according to the club staff, "In the era of social media, poster official announcements are too old-fashioned, so the club thought of some innovations." ”
As the Internet enters the era of short videos, the dissemination effect of short videos is far beyond the traditional graphic and text effects, "We also refer to the practices of some foreign clubs to integrate this culture with local culture into their own clubs." The official video is more readable and more receptive to fans. The staff of the Hebei team introduced.
Hebei team used to be fancy official announcement
Fancy official announcement videos can not only strengthen the brand image of the club, highlight the community attributes and cultural attributes of the Chinese Super League clubs, it is easier to make the players satisfied and happy, through the shooting of short videos, the players are also faster and better integrated into the club and into the local culture.
The core of the short video is of course creativity, according to the Hebei team responsible for shooting staff, "In fact, the creative time is very short, because from the time we get a player who is about to join the team, a day or two may be shorter than this time, from the creative shooting to the final release, I think the fastest, some videos may take less than a week to complete." ”
The video taken by the Hebei team when it officially announced players such as Xiao Moto and Pan Ximing received unanimous praise from inside and outside the circle. It is understood that the Hebei team in the filming process according to local conditions, the use of the most frugal way to complete the shooting and editing, most of the work by the club's own team to complete, the cost of a film is about controlled within 10,000 pieces. The spread effect of the film's feedback basically exceeded expectations.
At the beginning of the 2021 season, Shenzu also made the same imitation and attempt on the official announcement video. Quintero's official video triggered a good communication effect, and some insiders commented, "Chinese football needs such football culture and creativity." Yuan Mincheng, Wakaso and others continued the sequel to Quintero's official video, forming a series.
There are still relatively few people in China who can try to export club culture on official propaganda videos, and compared with European clubs that have formed a stable official propaganda culture, we still have a long way to go in this. Taking Serie A Inter Milan as an example, Inter Milan is known as a "small film studio", club videos are completed by its own Media house, the most critical creative parts of which are produced by Agency alone, and there are professional teams for shooting and editing. Each of the final films exports the culture of the club's concept of "brotherhood of the world".
In contrast, Chinese Super League clubs still need to work hard.
Retain fans and attach importance to cultural construction
In addition to being ingenious in the official announcement video, Shenzu is also at the forefront of the Chinese Super League in the humanistic construction of the club.
On Mother's Day 2021, the Deep Foot Club launched a cultural shirt themed after Achimpen's mother, Achimpen's mother has just died, and the commemorative shirt is printed with a photo of Achimpen's mother, with the note "A GREAT MOTHER 1964-2021" (A great mother 1964-2021). The club's humanistic care is deep.
In terms of cultural construction, Shenzu has also made other attempts. At the beginning of the season, The Deep Foot changed the red jersey used last year to the club's traditional orange jersey, which is more in line with the club's historical heritage, which has also been highly recognized and praised by fans.
On the official announcement of the jersey, the deep foot video deliberately associated with the word "Shenzhen", with obvious intentions, to create a localized club, highlight the club's community attributes, and strengthen the invisible connection with local fans. As the club said on social media, "The jersey pattern is composed of multiple prism elements, reflecting Shenzhen, an all-encompassing and exciting "orange" vibrant city. ”
The creation of fan culture by Shenzhen Foot is also worth learning from other clubs, organizing buses to go from Shenzhen to Guangzhou to cheer for the team and effectively protect the rights and interests of fans. The scene about the little fans mentioned above occurred after the match with the Guangzhou team, the small fans in the heavy rain cheered with their fathers for two hours, and the words of the small fans, "Dad, didn't you say that the Shenzhen team bought a lot of very powerful foreign aid this year?" I don't like to lose. "It touched the Deep Foot Club.
To this end, Shenzu posted the article "Children are sorry, this uncle let you down" after the game. Before the match against Guangzhou City, the poster of Shenzu featured young fans as the characters in the painting, with the theme of "Uncle, Win!" "One word is enough!" The club has taken the humanistic care of the fans to the extreme. Fans of other teams said, "Deep Foot has nothing to say about cultural construction." ”
In the Chinese Super League in July, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, suffered a huge flood, for which the deep foot side specially made a special short sleeve before the two teams played, and the players of both sides wore the same clothes when they entered to cheer for Henan. Subsequently, the signed jersey of that game was also successfully collected by a deep football fan, and all the auction funds were donated to Henan, and this wave of operations also attracted praise from all parties.
In fact, there is no shortage of clubs in the Chinese Super League that attach importance to cultural construction, and the veteran powerhouses Guoan and Shenhua have always done a good job in this regard, and the video dialogue between anti-epidemic doctors and Moreno organized by Shenhua Club online during the epidemic has been well received. However, on the whole, the cultural construction of most small and medium-sized clubs in the Chinese Super League is not valued, and the management of brand image is also neglected.
epilogue:
Deep Foot Club also tried joint marketing and other activities with Tencent Sports to increase the exposure of the club's IP, which is a good attempt to build the club's brand image.
In today's media era, it is not an easy task for Chinese Super League clubs to break through the circle to attract more audiences, and it is a feasible way to strengthen brand building, export club culture to retain current fans, and gradually expand their own circle. The Hebei team and the attempt of shenzu are both an exploration, which is worth learning from other clubs.
Only by really doing a good job in cultural construction can we feed back the club, take root in the local area, and truly strengthen the emotional bond between the club and the fans.