I'd love to start this post by using the tired analogy of "the light finally coming on" for the organization in question; it's not every day, unfortunately, that we see a marketing epiphany on the part of an MLS club, so the plaudits should be flowing fast and furious in the direction of FC Dallas after they announced their new "We Are Not Spectators" campaign.
But, while the concept is sound (market directly to the passionate supporter and those with the propensity to become one), the execution is, how can I say this, ineffectual. The light may have come on, but it's a very low wattage bulb.
FC Dallas, and by extension Hunt Sports Group, exhibit that most annoying of marketing traits when it comes to soccer in the United States; the dumbing and watering down of a solid message with hokey presentation. The site, wearenotspectators.com, is rife with problems, not the least of which is the posed "supporters" in the throws of passionate exhortation; none of them look anything like what a real MLS supporter should, and every one screams "fake" with their manipulated looks. Supporter passion is raw, spontaneous, and real. It doesn't look like a bad impression of a Mexican luchadore, it doesn't have perfectly coiffed hair, and it doesn't appear to be *ahem* "enjoying" the moment in a very special way.
The videos posted to the site include three of players (I can't tell which ones) dribbling and kicking a ball around various Dallas locales, as well as one (ONE!) focusing on the supporters sections at Pizza Hut Park. The videos are "cute", and the guerrilla nature of the players in the community is a nice idea; but there's no real connection between them and the concept of "we are not spectators" and do nothing to accentuate the engaging nature of passionate soccer support.
The language on the site might even be worse, if that's at all possible. There's no reason "We don't text during the game" should be included, even if it is, or should be, a truism. If the idea is to appeal to fans that actually care about the game by indirectly outing those that spend their time in the stands fiddling with their cell phones, then the language should work from the positive and not the negative. The rest of the text is okay, though none of it really conveys the message in an attractive way; better to use images (real ones) or video (of the supporters, and with the singing, chanting, and drum beats they produce) than any forced and potentially unintentionally humorous tag lines that do nothing but serve as weak "battle cries" that no self-respecting supporter would ever actually use.
Perhaps that bulb isn't even low-wattage. Maybe it isn't even a bulb at all. We might be talking candle power here.
Still, I'm not from Dallas, and I'm not and never have been an FC Dallas fan, so I wanted to get the perspective of someone who is and who was. Here then is what Zach Woosley, better known as Ginge, former FCD supporter and Dallas-area resident had to say:
The idea is good, FC Dallas has needed a concentrated effort to attract the younger, more hardcore soccer fans to help liven the atmosphere at PHP. The problem with this ad, much like everything else the club does, is that it's poorly executed. The copy is borderline dumb and the photoshop job with the actors posing as "fans" hurts the credibility of the effort. It just doesn't feel professional, it feels rushed and amateurish.
Leave it to Zach to sum up my thought in a fraction of the words. Right. Amateurish.
More MLS clubs need to push in the direction FC Dallas has begun to travel. For that small step, the club should be commended. But without proper execution, all they really do is hurt their cause, make themselves and the league look "minor league", and infuriate the genuine hardcore fan base that exists in their community.
