Calling Schalke 04 Germany's Chicago Cubs might be taking it a little too far, but the Gelsenkirchen-based football club has not won the league title in close to 60 years and has endured its fair share of heartache. The Royal Blues' last German championship came in '58, five years before the creation of the Bundesliga. The 112-year-old club, however, is only trailing Bayern Munich in terms of memberships, with more than 130,000. The club will begin the hunt for its eighth German league title on the road against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. Similar to other European clubs, Schalke has put an increased focus on growing its brand beyond Germany's borders. This summer the club spent six days in China. Schalke Marketing Dir Alexander Jobst recently talked to SBD Global about the club's internationalization strategy, competing with other top clubs and the Bundesliga's new TV deal.
Q: How important is the topic of internationalization for a club like Schalke 04?
Alexander Jobst: Football is the most fascinating sport in the world. In terms of globalization, the German Bundesliga becomes more popular with more than 200 countries every weekend broadcasting our matches. Today we can easily reach new fans through digital presence by producing and distributing our emotional content. For our club the internationalization will more and more become an important revenue pillar in order to compete with other top clubs now and in the future.
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Schalke fans line up in China.
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Q: The Bundesliga and many of its clubs have focused on Asia, in particular China, and the U.S. for global expansion. Is the same true for Schalke?
Jobst: Within the scope of our internationalization strategy we are looking at the Asian market, and especially China, but we also identify the United States as a market with a lot of potential. In January, we spent a week in Florida for our annual winter training camp and also participated in the Florida Cup. Although our sporting preparations were our first priority there, the change of scenery also helped from an internationalization point of view. The popularity of soccer in the United States is constantly rising, especially with the younger population. Therefore, as a club, we have to take it step by step. We are realistic and know that building a fan base and having economic success is a long-term project. Through various measures, we aim to have constant Schalke 04 presence in the States, without actually having the team over there. Some projects have already been realized -- sales from our online fan shop over here have started to increase lately. We have official fan clubs and members in the States; about 45,000 American fans follow our Facebook page that is geared toward the American market and our twitter account @s04_us is growing in followers as well. This is exactly where we still see potential: We want to continue boosting the awareness for our club over a medium to long-term time period.
As for the Chinese market, just about six weeks ago we returned from a trip to China with our entire team. We have been the first Bundesliga club with two Chinese premium sponsors, Hisense and Huawei ... Regarding Schalke in China in the future, we will analyze which activities worked out well and are worthy of repeating. Fact is that aside from our football school projects, we will continue to work on digital projects over the year, in order to constantly generate interest in our club. This is also one of the reasons we've worked with a Chinese agency, which is officially representing Schalke 04 in China.
We will sustainably enhance the way of the market entry strategy in China. The first impact has been made by this year’s tour. Now we have to generate a year-round basic awareness for a high demand of potential sponsors and fans in order to increase revenues and be a part of the top ranked European football clubs. Another PR and marketing tour in the near future is inevitable.
Q: How can Schalke compete with Bayern or Dortmund, or other top European clubs on the world stage, from a business perspective?
Jobst: I am very confident that clubs like Bayern, Dortmund and Schalke have large individual potentials in their defined international markets. In other words: I don’t see a competition between these clubs for the next couple of years. Aside from the individual brand positioning of our club, the big clubs in Germany have one common objective with the commitment of increasing the popularity of the Bundesliga. Important is a consistent brand strategy by driving Schalke’s values: open, transparent and passionate.
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Alexander Jobst
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Q: How important is the Bundesliga’s new TV rights deal in its int’l ambitions?
Jobst: In June 2016, the DFL (German Football League) generated a record result in the tender of national media rights and has exceeded the threshold of, on average, 1 billion euros per season for the first time.
This corresponds to a growth of around 85 percent compared to the current license period. There has been an increase by 285 percent since the 2005-06 season. A further increase in revenue from international marketing is expected. The DFL will accordingly generate a total media revenue in the coming rights period of at least 1.4 billion euros per season.
The Bundesliga has now established a sound basis for belonging among the three strongest football leagues in the world. I am certain that this is a major economic foundation which will enable the continuing positive development both nationally and internationally.
Q: What are the biggest challenges for Schalke to increase its brand globally?
Jobst: Three important factors: on-field success, consistent activation in defined markets and digitalization.
