07 Oct
After many-months of on-line meetings and webinars, UEFA MIP participants finally got the chance to meet again in person and enjoy a five days long hybrid session on strategic marketing and communication at Geneva Stadium.
The first three days of the session managed by Roman Putsch, head of marketing activities at UEFA, showed participants how to practically apply the principles of strategic marketing in the context of sports. By the end of the week, they were familiar with fan preferences, market trends and commercial partner business requirements. Key marketing concepts being brand strategy, consumer insights, the marketing mix, audience development, monetisation have been introduced.
The UEFA MIP group learned from the experiences of a number of different stakeholders from the marketing world such as:
- Adrian Goldthorpe, chief executive officer and owner, LBA Branding
- Kayleigh Grieve, women’s football marketing manager, UEFA
- James Matheson, senior manager, corporate communications, The Walt Disney Company
- Laura Louisy, vice-president, rights optimisation & partnerships, DAZN Group
- Ben Gallop, head of radio and digital, BBC Sport
- Ben Blanco, global sponsorship lead, The Heineken Company
- Dominic Burns, global strategic partnerships & corporate development, Europe, TikTok
The last two days were dedicated to strategic communication and managed by Joël Pinson, UEFA Academy programme specialist. Key principles of communication have been introduced through various case studies and workshops lead by speakers such as, Amanda Docherty, director, Dial Square; Lou Buggy, director, Cakebread Consulting; Raymond Boyle, professor of communications, University of Glasgow and Richard B. Stephenson, founding partner, True North Consulting. Participants could learn in practice how to manage communication around a crisis and how to communicate with impact.
The next session will be organised in December 2021 and will focus on the importance of HR within a sports organisation. In addition, basic principles of finance will be introduced and participants will learn about the key financial tools of a football organisation.
