Even with the 2019/2020 season ended early and making Paris Saint-Germain the champion, Ligue 1 promises to intensify its off-field efforts to make French football increasingly global. Among the pillars to be explored will be the French lifestyle and the country’s monuments, which end up creating an emotional bond with the foreign public.
Aware that it is consolidated as a brand in France, the goal now is to further strengthen the league outside its territory, with the priority of two countries: the United States and China. In the Asian case, the success in TikTok, whose profile reached 1 million followers, demonstrates how digital has relevance within the strategy of the French league.
We spoke with Yoann Godin, Director of International Development for Ligue 1.
When you joined the Ligue 1 team, what was the scenario at the global level you met? And what was the objective set at that moment?
I joined Ligue 1 the last quarter of 2019 with the objective to accelerate the development strategy abroad. This means that Ligue 1, fortunately, was already working on an international strategy, having identified 2 priority markets: China due to the huge potential of this market in terms of fans, sponsors and investors and the USA where soccer is the fastest developing sports. Some milestones were already achieved: with 52 broadcasters, Ligue 1 games are visible on 219 territories, Ligue 1 had already opened social networks in 6 different languages (French, English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese and Chinese), Ligue 1 had opened an office in China and had organized official games and friendly games abroad (Trophée des Champions, the French Supercup, played abroad since 2009 and the EA Ligue 1 Trophy organized in Washington DC in 2019).
Our domestic market still represents a huge portion of Ligue 1 value but the biggest growth potential is now outside of France. In order to increase the value of Ligue 1 abroad, increasing brand awareness, developing the fanbase and providing unique experiences to those fans are Ligue 1 main objectives.
Among the major leagues in Europe, does Ligue 1 seek comparisons of actions carried with Premier League, La Liga or Bundesliga? If yes, which? If not, can you explain the road that Ligue 1 is taking?
Like in all other businesses, benchmarking what competitors do on a specific market is one of our duties as it provides many ideas of actions we could implement. We make a benchmark on all the main European Leagues, as well as any European clubs that have an international strategy. We also identify all the great ideas that come from other sports (NBA, NFL…)
Whatever the rights holder, the marketing plan always revolves around the same levers, namely, i-communication including PR, ambassadors, media buy and CSR, ii- media by creating innovative and bespoke content for a specific territory available on social networks and for broadcasters iii- BtoB and BtoC events organized abroad, and iv- enhancing the relationship with local partners such as local leagues, promoters, investors and sponsors.
So yes Ligue 1, as other football leagues, works on all those levers. For some topics we will be followers and for others we will be leaders.
I have in mind one historical example and one recent example where Ligue 1 was ahead of the other leagues: Ligue 1 has been organizing the Trophée des Champions (French SuperCup) abroad since 2009 being one of the first league to organize an official game in a foreign country. With 11 editions, we managed to play on all continents. More recently, we were the first European league to open a TikTok account, reaching 1m followers in less than 6 months.
Last, Ligue 1 wants to emphasize its development abroad by leveraging some of its USPs. First, players: when you have the chance to host some of the best football players in the world such as Neymar or Mbappé, they are a great promotion tool for Ligue 1 and they help us differentiate from our competitors. However, the difficulty with players is the fact that you never know how long they will stay in your championship, making it uneasy to build a long-term strategy. That’s why we focus even more on one our main assets which is player development and talent. Our cities and our clubs made the history of our football. Our youth academies create the sparks which will become star. Our stadium switch on the light in the eyes of supporters. Whatever his position, whatever his age, world star or young player, the talent expresses himself every week in Ligue 1 Conforama, the League of Talents.
Our last USP is the brand France. Being the most visited country in the world, France is a strong asset for Ligue 1. The French way of life, iconic cities and monuments create an emotional link with our international fans. Proposing to them money can’t buy experiences mixing French football, access to French know-how in player development and tourism are opportunities we will be proposing to our international fans soon.
What’s the importance of players from some countries such as Brazil, for example, to achieve brand internalization goals? (Neymar it’s a example)
Foreign players have a key role in the brand development of Ligue 1 abroad.
During season 19/20, Ligue 1 hosted 228 foreign players, 167 of which had at least one cap in their national team. With 106 players, Africa is the most represented continent in front of Europe (excl. France). With 23 players, Brazil is the most represented country.
On all our media platforms (international broadcasters and social networks), interest and engagement are always higher in a country when players from that specific country are part of the content produced. The interest grows bigger for capped players and is huge for worldwide stars. The arrival of Neymar had a tremendous positive effect on Ligue 1 in Brazil (and all other countries) despite an already huge presence of Brazilian players in our championship.
Another recent example is the arrival at FC Girondins Bordeaux of Ui-Jo Hwang from South Korea. Audience of Girondins’ games reached a higher level than top European games in South Korea.
However, players can only be used opportunistically: we never know how long they will stay in our championship.
That’s why beside current Ligue 1 players, we are also looking at creating a pool of foreign ambassadors made of former Ligue 1 players that can help develop the brand abroad: for example, Brazilian world champion Edmilson is part of our pool of ambassadors.
What is the importance of digital media and your performance to connect Ligue 1 with the “international” fans in the regions that are priority for the league?
Digital is key in our strategy to connect with international fans. Within digital, there is a strong focus on social media where we have a cumulative audience of nearly 15m fans. Social media remains the number one tool to address an international audience, that’s why we put a lot of efforts into the localization of our social media pages: we opened 13 accounts across all main social network platforms, and we were the first league opening a Tik Tok account. Not only do we want to increase the number of Ligue 1 followers, but we also focus on engaging as much as possible our community. To do so, we create quality and bespoke content based on the territory we target. We work with local influencers and publishers to promote Ligue 1 locally. We also use the various platforms to reach out to different groups age, thus adapting the content to those platforms.
Ligue 1 reached 1 million followers on Tik Tok, a social network that has a young and creative audience as a great attraction. Is Tik Tok today a protagonist among the league’s content generation platforms? If yes, can you talk a little bit about it?
We are very proud to have reached the threshold of 1 million followers within only 6 months. It demonstrates our capacity to provide content that fits with the social network we are using and their respective audience. It makes Ligue 1 the second most followed European League on that platform.
Tiktok is the fastest-growing platform in general and for Ligue 1 in particular, and it highlights the importance of being a first-mover and explore new digital territories.
But as previously said, TikTok is part of an overall social network strategies that enables us to reach out to various audience and various age groups. TikTok is key for us as we can touch teens with that platform. Connecting them with Ligue 1 today enables us to get them involved with Ligue 1 at a young age and there is no reason for them not to keep following us as they grow up.
What kind of relationship in Ligue 1 seeks to keep with the media groups that broadcast it? How do you evaluate their participation in the relationship between a tournament and fans?
Media groups such as DAZN in Brazil are Ligue 1 main international partners. Our goal is to provide them with the best possible service as they are our main entry to develop our brand and the number of fans abroad. We have developed a number of tools and events to assist them in the promotion of Ligue 1, mainly around match content, but also with a variety of marketing and B to C initiatives.
As an example, we open our archive library of Brazilian players for DAZN and systematically relay their communication on social media. They have the opportunity to invite several Brazilian influencers and publishers every year to “Ligue 1 VIP Tours” in France, engaging their audiences and promoting their broadcasts and the league itself.
Those media groups are key as they are the main promoter of our championship. The more promotion they make on Ligue 1, the higher audience we reach. To incentivize them on promoting our championship, we provide them with as much exclusive content as possible, such as interviews with players coming from their country.
What are the future plans to grow in the brazilian market?
Brazil is an important market for Ligue 1, first because football is part of the country DNA. Second, Brazilian players are the most represented one in Ligue 1 (after France).
To grow on that market, we will keep developing bespoke content on our social platforms to keep growing our audience there. On a mid-term, we are planning to organize BtoC events in Brazil.
