FC Kairat Digital Media Plan Group 4 Final

Digital Marketing Strategy: FC Kairat Group 4

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Digital Marketing Strategy: FC Kairat

Group 4

Vikram John

Dina Dudnik

Nick Sigby-Hansen

Daniel James Gill

Module: Digital Marketing


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Introduction

This project aims to propose actionable improvements to the digital marketing

strategy of FC Kairat. It takes forward the analysis of FC Kairat’s current digital

media activity on its website and social media platforms performed in the

benchmarking exercise. The proposals put forward correspond to the same

platforms examined while benchmarking with the addition of the Mobile app for the

club which we believe is noteworthy to include.

Club Profile

FC Kairat was founded in 1954 as Lokomotiv Alma-Ata and was the most

successful club from the Kazakhstan region during the Soviet era. The club has not

been as successful in the modern era since the Soviet Union broke up with a

financial crisis in 2007 precipitating relegation. It has since recovered to some

extent with top 3 finishes in the last few years and also winning the Kazakhstan Cup

twice over the same period. While these triumphs in the Kazakhstan Cup gave

Kairat the opportunity to play in the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds it hasn’t

managed to pass the play-off stage, its best result being last season when it cleared

3 rounds of qualifiers but failed in the final play-off to Bordeaux. It last appeared in

the UEFA Champions League qualifiers in the 2005-2006 season just before its

financial crisis. In terms of performances in the recent past, Kairat has fallen behind

FC Astana and FC Aktobe but an improved performance in the last 3 years has

made the club’s supporters hopeful of better things to come. The club is currently

placed 2nd in the Kazakhstan Premier League.

Mission: Through a great team set-up - based on home grown players supported

by a few (mainly Russian) world-class players in the later stage of their

career- show that Kazakhstan and FC Kairat is a competitive club on

all levels from a European perspective.

Vision: To be the leading club in Kazakhstan and qualify for Champions League

2 times in 10 years

Values: Urban, hardworking, proud

Key Conclusions from the Benchmarking Activity

1. FC Kairat’s digital marketing presence does not reflect a clear and coherent

strategy. The club maintains a presence on various digital platforms but does

not use these to either differentiate itself, engage further with its fan base or

attract new fans to the club.

2. No significant effort is visible to capitalize on the marketing potential of recent

big signings and good performances in qualification for European

tournaments.


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3. The club website can do more to interest visitors and attract more of them

by improving its content, building a closer keyword association with its home

city of Almaty and improving its Search Engine Optimization.

4. The club’s activity on social media is unidirectional and does not do enough

to engage its followers.

5. There is a significant number of visitors to the website from beyond

Kazakhstan and Russia but the English language content is lacking in

quality, often appearing to be machine translated. This prevents the club

from interesting an international audience and building a reputation beyond

its existing fan base.

6. Sales opportunities, either of tickets or merchandise, are not sufficiently

promoted through these media platforms.

7. Key consumer occasions for a football club - new players, new jersey's, pre-,

during and post-match isn’t sufficiently used

Assumptions

Since the information available for this project is wholly extracted from external

sources and no access is available that can shed light on the club’s marketing

strategies, finances and other resources, we proceed with the following

assumptions. Certain assumptions also have to be made about the local followers

of the club and the larger community in which they exist, as they make the most

significant contribution to revenue generation and a characterization of them is

necessary in order to create an identity that the club can align itself with.

1. Changes and modernization of the software infrastructure will be considered

as necessary such as to improve the interface and host forums, blogs, allow

comments from different platforms to be integrated, etc. Costs are not

estimated for such improvements but they are not expected to be prohibitory.

2. It is assumed that manpower and the necessary financial resources are

available to maintain the website and increase the number of posts, tweets,

etc. on social media and responses to followers.

3. The following assumptions are with regard to the community that is the target

of FC Kairat’s digital marketing strategy:

a. There is a significant portion of the supporter base within the city that

remains unexploited. This refers to people who follow football but do

not actively support FC Kairat.

b. Based on the history of the city and the perceived consciousness of

its residents the relevant cultural identity we can associate with them

encompasses: urbanity, internationalism, a degree of detachment

and exclusivity from other regions in the country.


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4. The club also has a potential consumer-base within the large number of

expatriates that reside in the city, the country’s overseas diaspora and

tourists interested in football who visit the city.

5. It is also assumed that the players including the marquee signings are signed

on contracts that allows them and their image to be used for the club’s

marketing.

Goals

The goals that will drive the changes in the digital marketing strategy involve an

improvement in the club’s social media profile, fan engagement, search engine

optimisation and in building an image that has global appeal. Moreover the goals,

objectives and initiatives for the digital strategy are based on the understanding of

the needs for the support/fans. Fans want to feel close to the team, they want to

engage in the dialogue about how they perform, who should play, who should go or

stay and they want something’s that are exclusive for them as loyal fans.

Business Goals Digital Media Goals

Increases sales of tickets

and merchandise

Broaden the fan base to

increase the number of

supporters of the club thus

increasing its capacity to

remain sustainable

Open new channels for the

club’s revenue streams

Increase engagement of the

existing fan base on the various

media platforms, stimulate

enthusiasm among the fans and a

desire to overtly identify as

supporters of the club

Improve content to interest casual

visitors to the website and social

media profiles thus acquiring a more

global appeal

Facilitate the sale of merchandise

through online channels such as the

website and e-commerce portals

Initiatives that will be Executed Across Platforms

The initiatives and marketing campaigns that can traditionally stimulate enthusiasm

amongst fans and which need to be presented across all the club’s digital media

platforms are discussed here. The specific actions that need be implemented on

each platform are described in the different sections.


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1. General Action: Create a campaign package for each of the remaining

home matches that utilizes all owned media with a clear call to action. Set-

up a small production team that develops pre-match interviews and analysis

of both teams, develops post-match highlights, interviews with the manager

and players, head to head ratios and opposition information.

a) This will involve articles with tactical insights, team history, etc. posted

as previews to the matches. These will primarily be posted in the new

blog section of the website and the links shared through Facebook,

VK and Twitter.

b) Slogans, songs, the formation of fan groups and creation of banners

will also be facilitated. These will be specific actions planned in

advance and executed in the build-up to the match day and can be

shared through Facebook, VK and Twitter.

c) A chat forum will be made available either on Facebook, VK or on the

website for pre-match chat as well as during the game. Twitter

updates that run during the game will continue but can now also

include exceptional comments picked up from the chat (appropriately

credited).

d) Post-match: The highlights and interviews of coaches and players will

be posted on YouTube. Key comments will be shared through Twitter

as well as links for the videos.

2) New season - New players: Player acquisitions will be publicized and used to

generate excitement about the progress of the team. Posts across forums will

include interviews with the new players, their history, past records, highlight

reels and potential benefits that they will offer to the team.

3) New season – New look: The design of the team jersey will be made into a

marketing event. The build up to this may involve inviting fans to guess the

design from 3 or 5 options, special discounts and history in case the jersey

design has been used in the past.

4) Development of key rivalries: A narrative has to be created around rivalries

with other clubs within the Kazakh Premier League. This will generate greater

passion and fervour around particular matches which will then become

important not just to fans of Kairat but also generate interest, viewership and

allegiance from other football fans across the country. The most obvious choice

for a suitable rival is FC Astana. Besides being a club whose resources match

that of Kairat, FC Astana is also a club that germinated in the same city, i.e.

Almaty and has since transplanted itself to the capital, Astana. It is significant

that Astana is the new capital of Kazakhstan, a privilege that Almaty held for

many years. By creating this rivalry between two clubs that are almost of equal

strength and ahead of the others in terms of financial and political influence as

well as sporting performance, an added benefit is envisaged. This creation of


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bi-polarity in the league that will cause football enthusiasts across the country

to form an opinion on their choice between the two. Therefore besides their

support for their local club, fans of other teams will also develop an opinion and

preference of one of either FC Astana or FC Kairat. It is assumed that a

significant portion will choose Kairat over Astana and thus Kairat will have

enlisted as such, secondary fans. I.e. fans who actively support their local club

but lean towards Kairat when the big rivals meet.

5) Tactical Analysis: This is a campaign that will invite tactical analysis of FC

Kairat’s upcoming opponents. It is a pioneering exercise in which fans of the

club can provide insights that can benefit team strategy. The campaign contains

2 distinct elements.

i) Initially a forum will be set up which will allow fans to engage in a dialogue

about strategy, tactics and analysis of the team and opponents. This type

of discussion is the most popular among fans of football clubs on the

internet and is certain to increase interest, debate and engagement. This

will allow fans to use the forum on the website and comment from

Facebook/VK as well. Kairat will participate in this forum only by

providing topics and by the release of articles containing tactical analysis

by experienced authors. The authors can also participate in the

discussion and it is desirable that they extend and take forward the

discussion while also commending and praising the views of fans who

have displayed keen insight. It is particularly important to encourage fans

and make them feel proud of putting forth fresh and interesting views.

This will set the stage for the second phase to be launched.

ii) In the second phase, a contest will set up where fans are invited to

provide actionable tactical insights into the weaknesses of Kairat’s

upcoming opponents (no more than 3 in number). The contest will be run

throughout the league season, including any European games. Each

phase of the contest will open 3 days before the upcoming match and

will close for entries one day before the match. The results will be

announced within 2 days of the end of the match. 10 entries will be

shortlisted by the marketing team using authors who are experienced in

tactical analysis and these will be presented to FC Kairat’s coaching staff

once all the entries are closed. The coaching staff have complete

freedom to either use these insights or ignore them. However, within one

day of the finish of the game, a member of the coaching staff will select

the 3 best entries from the 10 that have been presented to them. These

will be ranked as first, second and third and will be published as the

winners of that phase of the contest. Points will be awarded for each win

and possibly also for being in the selected 10. At the end of the season,

a prize will be awarded to the fan who has accumulated the most points.


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This may be a day spent with a footballer of his choice, season tickets,

merchandise, tickets and paid trip to a European game or other such

decided by the marketing team. The discussion forum from the first

phase will remain in place but fans are now provided 2 incentives to

express themselves and engage with the team. The first is the possibility

that they would be helping the team with their ideas and secondly that

they could win the prize.

Website

Current Situation: The website can be read in English, Russian and Kazakh.

However content in all 3 languages is not updated simultaneously or to the same

quality. The interface of the website also appears rudimentary for a club of Kairat’s

standing. It requires a fresh look with more media content available from the

homepage accessible by direct links rather than drop down menus. There are

numerous dead links on the site.

Objectives

1. Extend daily time on site by 50% (to 6:06 min) within the next 6 months

Improved time on site implies that visitors are interested in the content available

and learn about the history, current status, team news and what the club offers to

its fans. This is reflective of greater engagement with the site visitors and is critical

to adding them as followers and fans.

2. Increase the pages per visit to 5 within the next 6 months

Similar to the previous objective, greater number of pages per visit reflects greater

engagement and interest generated through the content on the website as well as

its functionality.

3. Drive 25% more traffic to the website within the remainder of the season

By directing a greater amount of traffic to the website, Kairat improves the likelihood

of finding site surfers whose interest can be drawn by the club or existing fans who

are looking for information, content or seeking to establish their allegiance to the

club through its online portals.

4. Re-direct 15% more visitors to the "Buy tickets area" within the

remainder of the season

Better facilitation of online channels for ticket sales will enable greater sales as

many people would like to purchase their tickets without having to travel to the

stadium and well in advance of the game.


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5. Build a web shop as an application to the existing website before the

start of the new season

It is important to sell merchandise as much as tickets through online channels as

many fans may not be able to travel to the club shop and would like to purchase

products from and have them delivered to their homes.

Actions/ Proposals

1) General Improvements to the Interface

News and multimedia content are the types of material that site visitors are

looking for the most often when they access the website. Hence this content

should be available by direct access rather than from the drop down menus.

Videos of interviews, highlights of matches and news can be interspersed on

the homepage.

Dead links have to be updated. There are a number of them especially on the

English language version on the website. Besides disappointing visitors who are

looking for such material (including access to the ticket sales page), this projects

a lack of professionalism that reflects poorly on the club.

2) Improve content on the website

a) Make the News page more interesting by publishing up to date information

about the club, finding some unknown facts about the football players, writing

more extensive pre and post-match reports.

b) Start a blog that is different from the news page and will have information

that is related to the club, to Kazakh football or international football. It should

provide an interesting read and be exciting to share with friends on other

social medial channels.

c) Add pictures and videos to the Media page from every match played,

trainings and of the football players from behind the scene.

These changes in the content should be able to catch more visitors’ attention

and make them stay longer at the website by increasing their interest and

encouraging them to look through more pages.

3) Improve Keyword association with the city of Almaty and Kazakh football

Kairat has to build a stronger keyword association with the city of Almaty since

the name of the club does not itself include the city. This can be aided by adding

blog content that explicitly link the club and the city. Portrayals of the club

through history can be related to historical events in the city as well. I.e. a

pictographic timeline can be added that includes historically important political

and social events of the city with events from Kairat’s own history. Blog content

should also have more diverse subjects rather than being completely focused


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on the club so that searches related to Kazakh football, football in CIS countries,

current players of Kairat, etc. help to drive traffic to the website.

4) Enable sale of merchandise on the website

Even though the website has a page for an online shop, at present it is not

possible to buy merchandise on the site as the link does not work. It is possible

to buy jerseys and shorts online through the website that sell sports goods, but

it is very likely that those products are not official Kairat products. The

merchandise is advertised on the official FC Kairat VK page, but it does not

provide any option to purchase it.

Therefore, it is clear that online sale of the official merchandise is a big issue for

the club and has to be taken care of. It is crucial that the club repairs the links

on its website and sets up the system for online payment and delivery of the

merchandise across CIS countries as there is a demand for the t-shirts from

Arshavin and Tymoshchuk fans. Enabling the sale of the merchandise will not

only popularise the club but will also drive up the club’s revenues.

It is also recommended that Kairat finds a suitable e-commerce partner for sale

of official merchandise. Such a partner, through its online shop will facilitate

sales and deliveries of the club’s products outside Kazakhstan with the club

receiving royalties and income without itself having to undertake the difficult

logistics of sales and delivery.

5) Increase tickets sale on the website

In order for the online tickets sale to increase, the “Buy tickets area” should be

available on most of the pages of the corporate website. The link should also be

visible on other social media channels. Besides that the technical team of the

website should make sure that online sales system works continuously without

any problems.

Campaign Actions:

New Season - New Players: The website will support the campaign by displaying

the profiles of the new players (profile picture hyperlinked to complete details)

prominently on the homepage for a period of at least 1 week from the signing of

their contracts. Additional details will include the player’s history, achievements and

career highlight videos hosted on YouTube and embedded into the webpage.

Interviews can be posted in which the players describe their excitement in joining

FC Kairat and their hopes and aspirations to further their careers and the cause of

the club. The blog will feature a lengthy analysis piece describing how the player

acquisition fits into the club’s strategic framework and furthers the option of the team

manager.


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New Season - New Look: The team jerseys that are released at the start of the

season will be featured prominently. It is expected that the club website will include

a function to purchase merchandise directly from the site by then. It is also

necessary to include an applet similar to that used in online clothing shops that

allows the prospective buyer to analyse the apparel in high definition through a

zoom function that tracks the movement of the mouse pointer. This page should

also include an option to instantaneously add the item to the shopping cart and

proceed quickly to the checkout. Additional details about the apparel should be

available including features like new technology in the clothing, advances in the

design and colours and historical significance when the new design incorporates a

retro image used previously by Kairat.

Development of Rivalries: The rivalry to be actively developed with FC Astana

should be showcased by appropriate content preceding the game and greater

celebrations after it in the case of a win for Kairat. The content can include videos

of highlights from previous matches, histories of the teams, win-loss record between

the two in the past and interviews with the coaches and the players and fans

emphasizing what the match means to them. Video content will be supplemented

with blog articles detailing the history of the rivalry and amplifying the importance of

the upcoming match within the historical narrative.

In this campaign the club can consider publishing some provocative content such

as videos of incidents in past matches, fouls, aggressive tackles and raucous

celebrations.

Tactical Analysis: Both the forums for general blog content stimulated discussion

and the one for the competition on quality of tactical insights will primarily be hosted

on the website.

1. The Discussion Forum will be a portal that hosts the discussion. It will allow

the posting of an article that is also made available on the blog. The article

will be presented in collapsible form, i.e. when clicked on, it will expand

allowing the user to view the entire article. At other times only the title and

the chronologically arranged comments will be visible. Users should be able

to post comments without having to sign in but membership and login are

encouraged. Anti-spam verification should be added avoid spam posts.

2. The Competition will be made available as a separate application that allows

users to sign in and submit an entry through a form. The entries will be added

to a database and acknowledgement of receipt of the submission will be

provided by email. Winners will be identified and notifications posted on the

site presenting a table with the leader board as well as by personal emails.

Submissions of contestants will not be visible to each other.


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Mobile Application

Current Situation: FC Kairat has mobile applications for the club’s fans available

in 3 languages. There are about 1000 downloads of the application in Russian, 500

in Kazakh and very few in English. It also has a supplementary application that

allows fans to carry reward points and discounts over various purchases of club

merchandise or tickets. The app itself is well designed and allocations have been

made for most of the important functions. However, it is not updated with content

and details in crucial sections. This is perhaps because it was only recently

launched. Yet it is important that the club ensures that the dead links that are

common on its website are not carried over as a practice into the app. It was also

noted that news on the app has 2 posts from September and the posts available

prior to this were from May. The app supports the purchase of tickets and its most

interesting section is the Fan zone where wallpapers and club chants are available

along with an option to apply for membership of the club.

Objectives

1. Increase the number of downloads of the app by 100% over the coming

year.

2. Improve the content on the app ensuring that all functions are equipped

with the required capabilities and updated content.

3. Add functionality to sell merchandise.

4. Add functionality to access and contribute to some of the discussion

forums and the tactical insights contest.


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Actions

1. In order to increase the ratings for the app and the number of downloads an

in-app rating function should be added that updates its user review and rating

on Google Play.

2. The content on the homepage of the app can be automatically fed from that

of the homepage if this is technically possible. This will allow the app to be

updated easily without the necessity of generating fresh content for it.

3. An allocation has been made to sell merchandise through the app but the

functionality is not yet available. This has to be added so that fans can easily

access the merchandising section and make their purchases.

Campaign Actions

It is desirable to add functionality to the app to support some the campaigns. The

most prominent among these is the campaign related to the competition on tactical

insights. This can be a feature that is added where fans can make their submissions

to the contest through the app.

Facebook

Current Situation:

The Facebook page of FC Kairat has 2583 page likes at the moment, which meant

that the club makes better use of its Facebook page than the other clubs at the top

of Kazakhstan Premier League. Due to the fact that KPL season is approaching its

end, the Facebook page is very active, as there are many important matches going

on and the club is trying to increase excitement among the fans. FC Kairat links a

lot of news posted on their website to their Facebook page which allows to attract

more support and interest through this social media channel. However, the

communication is merely informative than interactive. Unfortunately only few

comments can be found for the posts and it is very unlikely that Kairat would

respond to any comments. The platform acts more as a supplementary medium to

promote the club’s corporate website.

Objectives

1. Increase number of page likes from local fans.

2. Increase the fans on Facebook from outside Kazakhstan by 50% within the

next 6 months.

3. Increase the possibilities for interaction and active engagement with the fans

and between them.

Actions


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1. Increase the auxiliary content posted on Facebook. This is part of the general

initiative intended across platforms.

2. It is also determined that content on Facebook will be posted in both English

and Russian (and/or Kazakh). I.e. all content will be provided with translations

where possible. This may not be possible in the case of some long reads and

articles as this would be very work intensive and some subtleties in the content

may be lost in translation. Also, where possible videos of interviews will be

subtitled in the alternative language to that of the audio.

3. Links to blog posts and videos posted on the website will also be posted on

Facebook. Some part of the content can be adapted to make it suitable as a

Facebook post with links provided to the complete articles on Twitter. Videos

may not to be reposted according to the format acceptable for Facebook.

4. On a weekly basis at least three additional actions or short promotion will be

initiated on Facebook. This can be in the form of opinion polls (who is the most

valuable player, what place will Kairat finish at, etc.), contests (fans are invited

to come up with songs, slogans and banners) and discussion posts.

5. Facebook and VK will also be used to facilitate the organisation of fans before

games. Posts initiated by Kairat will help fans communicate with each other and

organise into groups with similar desires to sing, create and furnish banners

during the game, etc. Existing active fan groups can be officially recognised by

the club by following such group accounts. Common travel arrangements for

those travelling to Kairat’s away games can also assisted by forming

appropriate groups on Facebook where details can be discussed. There may

also be fans from other countries who may seek to use the club forums to

arrange travel to games.

Campaign Actions

New Season - New Players: The Facebook accounts of the players can be linked

to the official club account with each following the other. Prior to the new signings,

opinion polls can be carried out to gauge which players are the most popular with

fans. Contest and quizzes can be used where fans are tested on the history and

interesting facts about the new players.

New Season - New Look: The new jersey will be featured prominently in Facebook

posts when it is released along with links to purchase it both from the club website

and any external vendor employed for the same purpose. Contests can be arranged

where fans are asked to guess the coming design or they may be asked to help

design the same by providing them with a number of feasible options and asking

them to choose the one that appeals to them the most.


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Development of Rivalries: Considerable excitement should be stimulated on

Facebook just before a game with the main rival. Videos can be released indicating

some special preparation from the team for the game or to promote the rivalry.

Facebook posts from prominent fans, players and even opposition players that can

increase the passion in the rivalry can be reposted on the official page. Special

chants and songs can be composed that deal specifically with the rivalry or fans

can be asked to come up with these and the best ones acknowledged by the club.

Tactical Analysis: New comments in the tactical analysis discussion forum should

be accessible through Facebook both to view and to comment. There should be

Facebook posts in the lead-up to each match marketing the Tactical Insights

Competition that is hosted on the club website. Winners should be announced on

Facebook each week and the prize that the eventual winner will receive should also

be frequently mentioned or picturised.

VK

Current Situation

FC Kairat’s page on VK (the most popular social network among the Russian

speakers) has 90,758 followers which makes it the most popular and important

social media marketing channel. Such high number of the followers means that

there are many committed fans as well as there is a lot of potential for promotion of

the club. The content published on VK includes news, links to the club’s website,

live match comments, photos, videos, fans’ songs, discussions and advertisement

of the official merchandise. The more informal tone on VK allows fans to connect

more easily, thus the page is far more interactive, has greater amount of followers

and comments than Facebook.

A major disadvantage is that a number of followers have fake profiles, act as

spammers or have deactivated their pages.

Objectives

1. Increase number of page followers from across the country.

2. Increase the fans on VK from CIS countries by 50% within the next 6

months.

3. Increase the possibilities for interaction and active engagement with

the fans and between them.

Actions

1. As FC Kairat is the biggest and oldest football club in Kazakhstan it has

supporters all over the country. Hence, the club is highly supported by


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Kazakh speaking population and it is important to add posts and news in

Kazakh language as well is in Russian.

2. To add more interactive content such as games and quizzes between the

followers, preferably with prizes in order to add excitement and engage the

fans to communicate among themselves more. In addition to that, it will be a

good idea to add pre match and post-match surveys, for example who will

score the goals, the best and the worst players of the match.

3. The page administrator should be more active and polite when answering

the followers. Besides that he should block the followers who advertise other

website or generally what can be regarded as spam. As the main page of

the club’s website displays a set of VK followers, the fake followers spoil the

image of FC Kairat.

4. At the moment VK page allows its followers only to discuss the topics started

by the administrator of the group. From the feedback in one of those

discussions, the followers express their wish to be able to start their own

discussions. Allowing the followers to discuss the topics that they are

interested in will create a greater interaction among them in various topics.

In order to avoid possible spam posts it is advised to have a person who will

monitor the activity and remove inappropriate posts.

5. VK can also be used to help fans travelling for the away games to organise

themselves into groups and make common travel arrangements, etc.

Campaign Actions

The actions for the various campaigns will be very similar to that which is described

in the actions for Facebook. Greater engagement is expected on the VK portal since

it is more popular among Russian speakers. Also, many activities that involve

organisation and stimulation of local support, stirring up the rivalry and improving

the passion and atmosphere in the stadium have to be followed up and closely

monitored on VK.

Twitter

Current Situation

Kairat FC has three Twitter accounts: in Russian, Kazakh and English languages.

The Russian account is the most popular out of them and has 3,301 followers. The

club’s account is reasonably active, especially during the matches when it posts in-

match updates, while on other days it has only couple of tweets per day.

Objectives

1. To increase the number of followers by 50% in 6 months

2. To increase engagement with the fans


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3. To use Twitter account to link club’s other social media channels

Actions

1. In order to increase the popularity of their Twitter account, FC Kairat should

not only work on how to promote their own account but also increase the

number of people and groups that they are following. At the moment they

follow only 30 Twitter accounts, including accounts of various football

associations and some of their current players. They should follow all their

players, coaches and associated organisations to increase the awareness of

their brand.

2. It is essential for FC Kairat to become more engaged with their fans through

the Twitter account, by retweeting and responding to the fans’ tweets.

3. The club should continue to tweet links to other social networks and news

updated on its corporate website. It is important to do that in order to increase

overall activity, especially on the days when FC Kairat does not play

matches.

Campaign Actions

All the proposed campaigns should be promoted and supported by Twitter. Posts

related to the campaigns on development of key rivalries, pre-match tactical

analysis and other general actions should be retweeted regularly, at least 3 times

a weeks throughout the season; while new season - new players and new season

- new look campaigns should be aggressively promoted at the appropriate time,

during pre-season.

YouTube

Current situation

FC Kairat is reasonably active on YouTube and uploads new videos quite regularly.

The content gives an insight into the training of the players from main team and its

academy, different events where team is involved and in general represents

material that would not be available elsewhere. Besides that FC Kairat uses

YouTube to provide its fans with live streaming of the matches, which is very useful

for the supporters who may not have access to TV or want to watch the matches

from abroad. However, the club has only 9870 subscribers to its YouTube channel,

the average number of views per upload is in the thousands and not many

comments are generated per upload.

Objectives


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1. To increase the total number of subscribers by 20% in 12 months

2. To increase the frequency of video posts from 5 to 10 per week.

3. To increase the internally generated content such as interviews with

the players and coaches as well videos of training sessions and related

to the club’s history.

Actions

1. FC Kairat should add more videos that can be exciting for the fans to watch,

for example previews of the matches, interviews with the players, interviews

with the fans, videos about team’s travels.

2. The YouTube channel could be used a little better to generate excitement

on the eve of the match by reporting previous statistics, making overviews of

the previous matches played against the team in the upcoming match.

3. It will be also useful to segregate the club’s videos into the separate playlists

for the fans to be able to locate easier the videos they are looking for.

4. To engage fans to create videos and upload the best ones in the separate

playlist on the YouTube channel.

Campaign Actions

YouTube channel should become a useful tool for all the campaign actions. All

videos created for various posts and campaigns should be uploaded on YouTube.

They can be organised in playlists according to the particular campaigns. In

particular new season - new players campaign should be supported by various

videos about the previous achievements of the new players, their highlight reels,

interviews with them that can cover topics related to football as well as their lives.

Social Media Content Calendar

Timeline 1, below highlights specifically when the events previously mentioned in

the document occur over the course of the season and the social media promotion

that will occur as a result.

ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS - Winter Transfer Window

11th Jan – 3rd April: New Player’s Campaign JANUARY


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WEBSITE – E-Purchasing Enabling: “Buy tickets now” area

and Online Club shop improved and enhanced to allow online

purchases of tickets and official club merchandise

FEBRUARY

ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS - Start of Season: New

Season, New Look Campaign Kit and Merchandise Launch

Event & Competition

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS - Summer Transfer Window,

8th Jun – 5th Jul: New Player’s Campaign JUNE

JULY

ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS – End Of Season Highlight:

Written summary, photographs and video reels documenting

the entire season.

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

Timeline 2 highlights the Social Media promotions that occur on a weekly basis.

WEBSITE - Video and Photo Gallery Update: Media updated

showing highlights of the week (training sessions, player

interaction, press conferences)

PRE-

MATCH

FACEBOOK, VK & Twitter - Online Forum Discussion: Open

dialogue about strategy, tactics and analysis of team and

opponents.


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Twitter & Instagram – In Game Commentary: Live highlights and

key moment information posted (goals, bookings, substitutions

injuries etc.)

MATCH

DAY

WEBSITE, YOUTUBE, TWITTER - Video and Photo Gallery

Update: Media updated showing highlights of the match day

(match itself, player’s arrival, press conferences and interviews)

POST-

MATCH

FACEBOOK, VK, and Website - Contest: Top 3 best tactical

suggestions and/ or opposition analysis offered by fans are

decided and rewarded.

Both of the timelines work to ensure the release of social media promotions are

regular, on time and delivered successfully and add to the efficiency of the of those

responsible for its delivery.

Progress Monitoring and Review

For monitoring and managing social media it is important that the tool used helps

the club achieve the goals set in the digital marketing strategy. The chosen tool

would first of course need to be compatible with the social media platforms the club

use. Secondly the tool would need to provide analytical data, plot trends of usage

and assess social media behaviours and insights of the clubs fans and finally have

the potential for immediate engagement with fans. The tool which competently

provides these requirements is Falcon.

Falcon will allow the club to remain relevant by not solely collecting data but also

connecting it. Through the use of filters the club will have the ability to find the fans

and trends relevant to the club, and detect potential image issues. These

discovered trends give the club a chance to exploit the opportunity for additional

promotions assisting the club in its goals for increasing engagement nationally and

internationally and in increasing revenue through ticket and merchandise sales.


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Falcon also provides the ability to manage potential threats. Using an alert system

the media team at the club will be able to respond promptly and accordingly to any

risk in the form of “negative buzz”, inappropriate images and language etc.

Falcon also provides the opportunity to search social networks and the internet to

find the right people to reach. In the case of FC Kairat it would help identify key fans

and potential opportunities to exploit and potential problems to avoid again working

to increase and improve the image and reputation of the club.

Falcon provides data on all of the content of the clubs social media, what is being

accessed and viewed and what is not. This review data will be key in deciphering

the appropriateness of the overall content of all the platforms. This information will

assist in the goal of ensuring fans stay longer on the clubs social media and also

that the club is using the correct promotions in engaging with new fans, especially

those from outside of Kazakhstan.

In order to appropriately benchmark the success of the digital marketing strategy, it

should be measured against that of competitors at a frequency of every 6 months.

Adjustments can be made to improve the frequency of posting and the nature of the

content posted. It is also important to check whether activity levels and fan

engagement meet the levels stated in the objectives.

The benchmarking should be carried out not just with Kairat’s competitors in the

Kazakh Premier League but also those outside the country such as Russian clubs

of similar or slightly greater market value. This is because Kairat is a better

established club than most others in the league and is expected to have greater

resources than them. Therefore it will generate greater fan following across forums

than other Kazakh clubs. Kairat has to have aspirations beyond this is in its

marketing strategy and attempt to reach the level of other clubs in Europe.

Conclusion

The success of most strategies associated with a football club are inextricably linked

to its success in the sport. Kairat has improved its performance over the last few

years and is actively challenging for the title this season. It has also improved its

results in European qualification over the years and there is an expectation that it

will soon qualify for the main stages of the Europa League or the UEFA Champions

League.

The digital marketing strategy proposed in this document envisages an aggressive

growth plan that will attract more fans and also engage them better. By retaining a


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high level of engagement while also expanding its fan base, Kairat will increase its

business sustainability and income. This expected increase in revenue will allow

the club to invest in players and further spur its sporting success.

Sports

FC Kairat Digital Media Plan Group 4 Final