🌍 Cultural Fan Engagement: Lessons from Israel to Korea for Sports Organizations 🏀Part I
Jamsil Student Gymnasium in Seoul Photo: Martijn Giebels
I stood before the weathered facade of a nearly half-a-century-old Jamsil Student Gymnasium. The silent surroundings gave little indication of what waited inside.
As I entered, the atmosphere transformed from quiet solitude to a vibrant spectacle of flashing lights and energetic music. It was a world alive with anticipation of basketball and entertainment, a stark contrast to the silence of the outside
I was witnessing the Korean Basketball Culture…
My spring was a journey through Turkey, Israel, Korea, Latvia, Germany, and EuroLeague Final 4 in Lithuania. In this post, I will delve into how sports fans interact with their favorite clubs in different regions of the world. If you are running or rooting for a club these might be useful.
Turkey - Fenerbahce: Be where your fans are at
Fenerbahce, nicknamed the Yellow Canaries, is one of the most popular basketball clubs in Turkey and Europe. During a double game week at EuroLeague, Fener was getting ready to face Olympiakos and Alba Berlin. One thing you should know about Turkey is that Turkish people love social media! Turkey ranks 7th in the number of Twitter users by country and 5th in Instagram users in 2023 in the world! That is where clubs like Fener do most of their fan engagement, marketing, and sales. Days leading up to the event, Fenerbahce Beko posted several videos of their coaching staff and players, explaining the importance of the games and inviting fans to the Ulker Arena. Star players of the Fenerbahce football club also sent videos, such as Attila Szalai in the below image on the right, encouraging fans to attend the games live. The result has been a sold-out event for Fener.
Of course, Fener had other tricks up their sleeves. They have bundled the tickets for Olympiacos and Alba in the double-game week. Single tickets for each game were available only one day before, and bundled tickets were about 10% cheaper in each category compared to single tickets. Ticket bundling is an effective strategy, especially in cases where there is a clear “leading” product and a “tie-in” product. In this case, the Olympiacos game is the leading product as it is expected to be more competitive and is in between two established basketball brands in Europe. Using the bundling Fener aimed to create a sell-out event for both Olympiacos and the Alba Berlin game.
Fenerbahce's Ulker Sports Arena has four Fenerium stores (official merchandise) and a basketball museum. A large variety of good quality sports merchandise creates significant additional revenues for clubs and Fenerbahce is living proof of that - in 2018 the monthly revenues of Fenerium (official merchandise store) were announced to be around 160K€/month.
Fenerium at Ulker Sports Arena offers variety of merchandise including even football team's jersey.
Fenerbahce excels in organizer-induced stimuli, with the production optimized to create goosebump moments. The announcer and jumbotron are in sync with the game and create reactions from the fans. Below video from the pre game show give an idea of the involvement of the organizers effort to provide a thrilling experience.
Question 1: Do you try different ticketing strategies in an agile manner?
Question 2: Are your communication and marketing efforts focused on channels your fans are primarily on?
Korea - Seoul Knights - Stay true to your culture in sports marketing
The Seoul Knights play at the historic Jamsil student gymnasium with a 7500 capacity. Facilities are dated, and space for concessions is limited. While the business aspect of basketball may be behind what we see in Europe and the US, the entertainment value is at another level, especially in comparison to European Basketball. Behind that is the strong reflection of various cultural elements, into basketball and other sports as well.
Cheerleaders are a huge part of the sports entertainment experience in Korea with ambitious stunts during the breaks.
The sports culture in Korea is heavily influenced by the broader cultural elements of society, and musicality is one of the aspects. For example, at basketball games, the music never stops - literally.
Another aspect of Korean culture that is visible in sports is idolization.
Portraits of the Seoul Knights’ pllayers orinted on the ticket
Idolization is a significant part of Korean culture, including in sports, where athletes are heavily celebrated. Fandomship is athlete-centric, with teams capitalizing on this through special chants and printing player portraits on tickets. Overall what Korea does really well is that it reflects its cultural values in every aspect of this sport.
Question 1: Are you reflecting the cultural elements of your society in your fan interaction or are you just importing them?
Question 2: Is your marketing/communications at all athlete-centered?
Being where your fans are at, and having a fan engagement that reflects the society’s culture has been the highlights of my trips to Turkey and South Korea. In Part II, I have examined the sports cultures, ticketing approaches and fan engagement styles in Latvia (Ukraine), Germany and Israel.
Get in touch here to request a sample of work that could get you started with the answers to the questions above.
