It was quite a few months for Red Bull around the world. From crashing snow mobiles to free falling from space, the thrill seeking brand continues to find ways to engage with an audience that loves action and adrenalin. Even their most prominent local athlete, the Brooklyn Nets Deron Williams, has had a sold season leading the transplanted team back to playoff and division contention in the NBA. Now if all that mojo could wear off on the area’s MLS team.
The Red Bulls soccer brand was full of action in the offseason for sure. They promoted from within, giving longtime assistant Mike Petke the coaching reigns and elevating longtime area soccer legend John Wolyniec as reserve team coach and player development coordinator. They added Juninho to go alongside international stars like Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill and they talk of playing a more exciting and up-tempo style that could maybe produce more on field success than the club has ever had.
Off the field, the Red Bulls were the first MLS team to start a new tradition of jersey unveils all part of a wall to wall media day this past week in Manhattan. It is the latest step in what the club should hope will draw more fans from across the river and will in turn increase their brand value in marketplace that is still talking about another franchise to the east in Queens, while the deep pocketed but yet to start New York Cosmos of the lower level North American Soccer League make lots of off-field noise of their own.
Now maybe the Cosmos noise is just that…loud tricks designed to entice some marketing eyes as they wait for their now delayed first season to begin later this summer on Long Island. However that noise should serve as a brand wakeup call for the Red Bulls, who have made steady but not overwhelming progress in winning over casual fans and a younger demo that MLS does so well in other markets. Some years the club has come loud, with media plans and banners around Manhattan. Other years they have gone quiet, looking to the suburbs to draw fans to the brand and into Red Bull Arena. In truth, the club really needs to do both to be successful in the marketplace, one that they still have to themselves, at least for now.
The club has a solid fan base of loyal supporters and thousands of soccer-happy families on both sides of the river to embrace. They have an ardent ethnic community just minutes away who love all things soccer. They have marketable stars and now a home grown American coach. They also have the benefit of a brand that likes to engage in all forms of media, and is big on the viral nature of fandom. Now there is what looks to be a very strong NHL and NBA run this spring to occupy the winter sports fans, and the Mets and Yankees got off to an early spring training start due to the World Baseball Classic, but it appears the New York area will not have much March Madness to attract fans, and the ever-growing popularity in the digital space and in the broadcast world of European soccer has kept the game close to top of mind all winter for fans. Now they get to see their local team return to the pitch, and stop watching the game from faraway stadia for a while.
Will it work? We shall see. Like any club, the Red Bulls are full of stories that need to be told to a wider audience. They speak to many languages and traditions. They have strong broadcast partners and will now add Spanish language radio on the former home of ESPN Radio in New York (1050). While it would be great to have an English language radio broadcast, even one that is streamed on their ever-changing website, the Red Bulls have another chance to make a dent in the marketplace. It is one that needs to be made now, with a combination of the loud outreach to Manhattan and corporate America combined with the grassroots embrace. If it’s not made now the marketplace is going to become crowded, with more than one choice for the casual soccer fan and the eyes of Gotham looking potentially east for their brand soccer fix, not west as they will need to look now. Whether that competition comes in the form of an upstart with a brand name or a fledgling franchise with a gleaming new still to be built franchise, one that can use other MLS expansion game plans for a model for success, remains to be seen.
For now it’s the Red Bulls town for the taking from every aspect. They have a solid stadium in a good location, a brand people know, lots of grassroots support and marketable and personable stars. It should be a blue print for success that builds and hopefully is amplified with a winning product on the field. Whether all that equity crystallizes into brand success and penetration this season is up to the powers that be. Soccer has made great strides as a brand in the U.S, and in the New York market in recent years, sometimes in spite of the issues the local franchise has had on and off the field. It is spring, and we all know that no one likes new starts more than a sports franchise. It is an annual do-over few business or brands ever get. The Red Bulls, like all clubs, start out not just even on the field but ahead as a brand in a one team market for soccer fans. They get another chance, whether they take advantage of it from all aspects this year will be interesting.
The market won’t be theirs only for much longer, but they can own it now.
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