The story of the Southampton way: Head of marketing reveals how the club became the most growing football brand (in Premier league)

Seven years ago, the club was placed in administration - now, it's the fastest growing football brand, with estimated growth of 89 per cent of the value.

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The story of Southampton FC is certainly like a movie film, because it is difficult otherwise to explain what had happened in the last decade in this club.

Today on St Mary's Stadium we see a consolidated and powerful Premier league club, which overpassed serious troubles when they prepared for bankruptcy. In July 2009 a Swiss businessman Markus Liebherr appeared, and bought the club which had to compete in third league. The "Saints" returned to the Premier League in 2012 in great style, and this season they are participants of the Europa League.

Foto: Guliver/Clive Rose/Getty Images

People who came to bring the club, founded in 1885, back on its feet, did not fool themselves that they can fix the things with few bombastic transfers. Firts of all, they didn't have money for those transfers.

But they did send out to the football world from their school Theo Walcott, Wayne Bridge, Gareth Bale, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Nathan Dyer...

"WE MAY NOT HAVE THE MONEY THEY DO, BUT WE ARE DEFINITELY MORE CREATIVE" 

Southampton, as such, was growing - not just in play style. Upon returning to the Premier League the time has come for a new task - to get there and stay. And without money it is not feasible.

Marketing came to the scene and the next data speaks how well it was done.

Constant growth on the lost of the most valuable football brands - according to the last ranking, Southampton in on the 17th place, with the total value of 223 million dollars and the growth of 22% from the last year.

Printskrin: brandfinance.com

Global recognition in terms of the fastest growing brands in the Premier League on Facebook

Printskrin: Southampton FC

Record increase of 66 percent on Twitter for a year

Growth of as much as 320 percent when it comes to YouTube sharing

Printskrin: Youtube/ Southampton FC

- Nobody likes to lose, especially our fans who deeply believe we are always "marching on". I think they still realize how difficult it was seven years ago, because today Southampton plays at the San Siro and wins against Inter, which was unbelievable - said in an interview for Telegraf Marketing Manager of Southampton, James Kennedy.

The road they chose in the Southampton is the one less taken: long and tiresome, with more fronts - from players to the way they do business.

- You have to have sports success. If the club did not grow, and if the team did not play in the last seven years, we would't have this kind on story. But sports success is only a part of the story. Sure, we won - but what about the medical team, what about the young players ... now that we have arrived at the successful place, and in order to stay there, we must earn more money. Today, each club receives the same amount of TV rights, so I do not think it's just sport success is enough, you need to come up with other ways. Especially Southampton, because it's different in Manchester United, where they had success for so many years, but things are changing - said Kennedy.

He presented the key guidelines to govern a club on the recent lecture withing the SPORTO conference in Portoroz , and the key difference between the "saints" and the rich clubs in Premiere league is:

- We don't have money like they do, but we are definitely more creative. 

Foto: Vid Ponikvar/Sportida

“THE SOUTHAMPTON WAY”

With the arrival of the new administration, a new football culture and philosophy was formed that applied to all who work at the club, from player to cleaners. "The Southampton Way" is the way to go from potential to excellence with the five basic values: respect, creativity, aspiration, unity and responsibility.

It is obvious that Dusan Tadic fit in. We noted to Kennedy that currently the best Serbian footballer plays in his club...

- Dusan is a great guy, we love him in the club. He is funny and obviously talented - said Kennedy through smile, and agreed with us that his play for Serbia with the broken nose against Wales confirmed one more value of Southampton.

- He marched on.

It's our birthday! #OnThisDay 131 years ago, #SaintsFC was founded.#WeMarchOn pic.twitter.com/gmehfC8qBc

— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) November 21, 2016

All of this means fitting in with the "Southampton way" is one of the conditions to make decision about the transfer.

- All players are told what is expected from them. Football comes first in the club. When it comes to the communication, respect to the fans is always number one in every club, so we focus here on creativity and presenting Southampton as a brand.

Kennedy worked with his team based on big data, because it was the only way to truly meet those who are "just close" to loving the "Saints".

Foto: Vid Ponikvar/Sportida

- We did a lot of research, and tested the hypothesis: "Southampton is my second favorite club." We were right. I think people like our story, that we create our players and not buy them, and this gives some freedom. If there are any negative comments, we do not have to react, because we have other people, the fans, who reacts instead of us - explained Kennedy.

The innovative approach has borne fruit - Southampton was the first club that launched Vine profile, and also Snapchat, which opened the door to the American public.

- Personally, I like Snapchat. It's funny and entertaining, different. Changing faces and filters, why not? It is difficult to choose the best platform for the club, because each channel has its own role. Facebook is more informative, and on Snapchat, you can show so many things happening at the moment. It's very spontaneous, people come to our channel to see something interesting in training. Just the other day, there was media filming of players and Virgil (Van Dyke) was standing, I think that Dusan was there. At some point someones hands appeared above and some kind of cloth covered Virgil's head. I know it's ridiculous, but it's a real interesting content - said Kennedy.

The club has caused a serious reaction when it organized a search of the balls that were hidden around the city - the award was a new jersey. Also, it helped one boy to find a girl he had seen at the game on the St Mary's Stadium. There is no pressure on the players before the cameras, because of Barry, one normal and spontaneous lad who is the host and animator in the promotional videos.

- The players are great. The most important is not to disturb their training, so we talk about the schedule and work on meetings with coaches and players. Of course, we don't work with the player who is injured, because we never create the story only around one player. The players themselves understand why are we doing all of this, and they like it. The most important is to make good content for them, because if its not good or fun, its not good for them - adds Kennedy.

WHERE IS SOUTHAMPTON IN FIVE YEARS? 

The community around Southampton is increasing from year to year. World recognizes the healthy football story focused in "producing" great players, and not in arrogant spending.

The greatest investments are in funds which will lead to greater results. The simple example is the official web page, which was done in "flexy" mode - it  changes depending if it is the "normal day" before the game, the day of the game, or "analytic" period after the game. They aimed in the club to be the "second most favorite club in Premier league".

- That of course is not the case with the fans of Portsmouth - said Kennedy laughing, and he himself was not the fan of "Saints".

Where will the club be in five years?

Foto: Vid Ponikvar/Sportida

- Southampton should be ready for the Champions League. We want to be at a higher level challengers. And now we are challengers, and stable. Now we think if we can win a trophy. From the marketing perspective, we want global recognition. More data bases, more audience, because many people say "I like Southampton" - announced 32 year old Kennedy.

Many richer clubs used popularity to make profit on other fields, and those are preseason tours across America and Asia and they became standard in their plans for the summer. Southampton has slightly different idea.

- Many clubs do that out of the commercial reasons, and we focus on what helps the player to be better. It is the most important for us for the player to have the best possible conditions for training. We have the philosophy "football comes first". We are very good in creating players, and that's what makes us special. That is why we go to with that knowledge to, let's say USA, and we show our way of work and train coaches, open few schools... the same thing we can do later in China, Vietnam, Japan, wherever - said Kennedy.

Ralph Krueger, the president of the club, defined this situation in the best way, speaking about the leadership and sport.

"We are Southampton, a club build on faith from the very beginning. A faith in ourselves. A faith in each other. We have our beliefs, our own way of doing things that guide everything we do. We don't just buy success, we breed it. We don't take shortcuts, we earn it. Every second of every minute of every day. We've been to the edge of the abyss and have come back stronger, because whatever the pressure, however great the temptation, we never stop, we never lose faith, we keep moving forwards. We are the saints, it's not just a name, it's who we are. We will be in that number, we march on".

#SaintsFC’s first home match of the season is one week away. Join us as #WeMarchOn – http://t.co/ZNx6cmCxho pic.twitter.com/8G4BEB7p7G — Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) August 16, 2014

Expert from Barcelona who knows "the soul" of football: Serbia always has top players, but one is the most recognizable!

(Telegraf.co.uk / Bojana Mekic)