Three Ways ESPN Can Double its MLS success

As we see over and over, sports marketing boasts some of the best lifestyle marketing approaches. However, when ESPN signed on to cover Major League Soccer in the U.S., they took a pretty traditional approach to marketing a new league. As a result, their ratings were flat, on par with the WNBA. ESPN and MLS have a huge opportunity to improve their ratings if they remember some key lifestyle marketing rules:

1. Focus on the core.
When ESPN introduced MLS, they chose the slogan, "You’re a soccer fan; you just don’t know it yet." This slogan forced soccer on the mainstream and is a great example of how ESPN tried to attract new soccer fans without first gaining the respect of the old ones. They used the NFL's Skycam and also zoomed in on players faces like an NBA game. This didn't work well for the core audience, who missed key plays during the match because of the superfluous camera work. MLS is now using the slogan, "Football. Futbol. Soccer," which is a great move in the right direction to acknowledge the global nature of the sport and support hardcore fans both inside and outside of the U.S.

2. Educate us all about soccer.
I believe that every sport is inherently boring if you aren't properly educated on how to watch it. Any hockey fanatic will tell you to watch the players not the puck, and MMA fans know the difference between a great guard and time wasting. The NFL has a done a great job teaching people how to watch the game by drawing out the receiving routes and blocking schemes. The MLS shouldn't be a carbon copy (see my first point), but it has many opportunities to teach both hardcore and mainstream fans how to better watch the game.

3. Know the important details and them right.
I was excited when Sportscenter included a free kick by Manchester United's Paul Scholes as one of it's top ten plays of the week. But I cringed when the announcer mispronounced his name (it's Skoals, not Scholls). This is the type of detail that ESPN has to get right if it's serious about building up the MLS.

Since last year, the MLS and ESPN have smoothed out their relationship with hardcore fans, but things can still be better. I urge them to stay focused on the specific needs of soccer and it's fans to make the league as successful as it can be.