Sometimes FM does more for a club’s marketing than any agency. Floridsdorfer AC, better known as FAC, from Vienna, knows exactly what we mean.
“They haven’t won the league in 100 years”
In November 2021, American YouTuber Zealand, with around 237,000 followers on YouTube and Twitch, started a new Football Manager 2022 save. His pick was FAC, from the Austrian 2nd tier. The promise in the video was ambitious from the start: the club had not won the league in 100 years, and that was going to change. The hashtag #UpTheDorfers was born.
The club joined in
On November 12, FAC’s press officer replied to him on Twitter, half joking: if he needed help with his next eleven, he only had to ask.
The effect was immediate. The club gained around 200 new followers and that tweet got 650 likes, when the norm was between 3 and 10. The players themselves started following the save.
Then came the package: scarf, beanie, signed shirt and a personalized letter. The shirt got lost in the mail (it happens to the best of us), but FAC sent another. They even invited Zealand to the stadium with VIP tickets.
Followers, yes, but fans in the stands too?
Stefan Krainz, from the club, said at the time that new followers and new fans are good for any club in the world. The challenge, he admitted, was turning that online affection into real people at the FAC-Platz, a stadium for around 3,000 people.
A tip for smaller Portuguese clubs: keep an eye on people’s saves. You never know where your next fan will come from.
Fonte: The Online Rule (02/10/2022)
