To answer the tweet, small clubs have less to lose. Smaller fan base, lower minimum quantities and so on. They are more of a creative project than a football club now tbh. They capitalize off the emotional / creative side to fill the gap on the pitch and mismanagement of sporting funds.
Loved this piece, Sam. And agree with so much that you say. However, it did make me think about the PSG issue. Why are they failing to communicate their WHY? You talk about them having Kylian Mbappé ("one of their own") and adding "a paradigm-shifting Jordan-sponsorship into the mix, alongside choice collaborations with renowned names in art and streetwear" while playing "fast, flowing football... art-directed to a T." It seems to me that they're doing much of what the Arsenal's and Venezia's are doing but - as you say - struggling to make the connection.
Is there any reason why, for example, their story couldn't be the similar to the one put forward by Venezia - "football as a romantic, aesthetic, artistic pursuit... work[ing] towards the “idea” of this impossibly classy city on the water."
Thanks for reading, Simon—and these are good questions! Maybe I'll write a little more on this at length sometime soon but, for me, it lost a lot of connection through its redrawing of history (in a very Premier League-y way, it seems to imply that PSG before the takeover barely counted), its antagonistic relationship with club fan groups (a real knotty tale), and its over-reliance on spending its way out of problems then throwing good money after bad fixing THOSE problems.
There was a moment in time when PSG were almost balancing these elements — I think the book by Julien Scussel was a great example of PSG's effects on culture at that point — but that feels an awful long time ago...
I'll have to think more on this one, but it's definitely one I'd like to dig into.
Loved this, Sam. Depth of connection — to people and place — is the hardest thing for clubs to grasp because it asks us to slow down and draw these stories out of non-obvious places. I guess that's why roles like that of the Creative Director are so important: cohesion, direction, long-term thinking.
Really great read, Sam. So much of modern marketing (not just in football) is well-meaning people falling over each other to do things they think they ought to be doing, without actually thinking about story or what they want to say about their brand.
The contrast between how Arsenal and PSG are handling the WHY is such a good one!
Loved this piece, Sam!
To answer the tweet, small clubs have less to lose. Smaller fan base, lower minimum quantities and so on. They are more of a creative project than a football club now tbh. They capitalize off the emotional / creative side to fill the gap on the pitch and mismanagement of sporting funds.
Loved this piece, Sam. And agree with so much that you say. However, it did make me think about the PSG issue. Why are they failing to communicate their WHY? You talk about them having Kylian Mbappé ("one of their own") and adding "a paradigm-shifting Jordan-sponsorship into the mix, alongside choice collaborations with renowned names in art and streetwear" while playing "fast, flowing football... art-directed to a T." It seems to me that they're doing much of what the Arsenal's and Venezia's are doing but - as you say - struggling to make the connection.
Is there any reason why, for example, their story couldn't be the similar to the one put forward by Venezia - "football as a romantic, aesthetic, artistic pursuit... work[ing] towards the “idea” of this impossibly classy city on the water."
Thanks for reading, Simon—and these are good questions! Maybe I'll write a little more on this at length sometime soon but, for me, it lost a lot of connection through its redrawing of history (in a very Premier League-y way, it seems to imply that PSG before the takeover barely counted), its antagonistic relationship with club fan groups (a real knotty tale), and its over-reliance on spending its way out of problems then throwing good money after bad fixing THOSE problems.
There was a moment in time when PSG were almost balancing these elements — I think the book by Julien Scussel was a great example of PSG's effects on culture at that point — but that feels an awful long time ago...
I'll have to think more on this one, but it's definitely one I'd like to dig into.
Loved this, Sam. Depth of connection — to people and place — is the hardest thing for clubs to grasp because it asks us to slow down and draw these stories out of non-obvious places. I guess that's why roles like that of the Creative Director are so important: cohesion, direction, long-term thinking.
Very very good.
Really great read, Sam. So much of modern marketing (not just in football) is well-meaning people falling over each other to do things they think they ought to be doing, without actually thinking about story or what they want to say about their brand.