Bayern Munich's embrace of the digital universe has made the Bundesliga club much more than a "local football club," Bayern New Media Dir Stefan Mennerich told business summit delegates on Monday. Over the last two decades, Bayern Munich’s business sectors have transitioned from analog to digital. Mennerich gave his insiders perspective on the club’s in-house media production during his presentation at the SpoBiS SPONSORs event in Dusseldorf. His presentation, titled “How digitalization changed FC Bayern,” took a look at the club’s transition from the launch of its first website in ’98 to reaching 1 billion digital touch points per month through its various current digital offerings. Mennerich said that former Bayern Munich President Uli Hoeness had one requirement for the club’s pursuit of digital endeavors, and it was to make €1 more than it spends. In ’05, football clubs got the go ahead to create their own media content after int'l and domestic media rights packages for clubs were redefined. Mennerich called this decision very significant in Bayern’s digital development. Up until then, UEFA, the German Football Federation (DFB) and the German Football League (DFL) each sold their media rights in a centralized manner to the broadcasters and then distributed the money to the clubs. This new structure provided clubs with an additional revenue stream, gave them more control over the distribution and release of news, and, in the case of Bayern Munich, provided a boost to its int'l business. Mennerich said, “In particular for the internationalization, digital media will be very important. We already launched a U.S. website and will do the same as part of our China strategy. Bayern Munich isn’t a local football club anymore. Due to digitalization, the club has the opportunity to reach its fans around the world and transport its brand to every corner of the globe.”
SOCIAL SPHERE: With more than 27 million Facebook fans and close to 1.9 million followers on Twitter, Bayern has also seen tremendous growth on social media since it launched its official channels in ’10 and ’12, respectively. Other accounts such as Instagram followed. Another project the club is currently working on is called Stadium Vision. This high-speed WiFi network will launch with the '15-16 season and is expected to provide 75% of spectators at the Allianz Arena with a HD stream of the game along with targeted information and ad messages. Bayern also launched its own ticketing platform, so it is not dependent on third-party providers anymore. On the commercial side, 60-65% of Bayern’s merchandise revenue is generated through e-commerce. Bayern’s ticketing is already close to 100% digital. Mennerich: "I don’t know [how the digital world] will look in 2020, but I can say one thing for certain, 'We always have to make sure to keep our content in house, protect our rights in cooperation with federations and other clubs and have the digital systems to produce and distribute our content.'"
