英超俱乐部曾经凭借拥有大批忠实球迷，能吸引大牌公司投放广告，而让广告代理商嫉妒得眼红。但随着“足球泡沫”问题日益严重，不少英超俱乐部近期破天荒地把目光转向了广告代理商以求摆脱困境。

    据《卫报》日前报道，长期以来，英超足球俱乐部一直仰仗着其所拥有的一大批忠实的球迷，成为一些大公司，比如可口可乐和麦当劳等公司提高和保持知名度的重要载体。足球俱乐部在这方面所拥有的得天独厚的优势甚至让很多广告代理商都嫉妒得眼红。然而近一时期以来，“足球泡沫”现象在英超越来越严重——很多俱乐部深陷财政泥坑不能自拔，俱乐部和球迷之间的关系也越来越疏远。

    本赛季以来，英超各赛场上座率的下降让人们越来越怀疑“足球泡沫”还能撑多久。

    为了重新修补和球迷间的关系以及拉近俱乐部和球迷之间的距离，不少英超俱乐部近期把目光转向了广告代理商，希望后者利用其在宣传方面的专业技能再一次把球迷拉回球场，甚至吸收新的球迷加盟自己的阵营。曼城俱乐部在这方面已经先行一步。近期曼城和伦敦格雷广告公司签订了一份旨在推广俱乐部知名度的合同。现在当人们在曼彻斯特城区漫步时，可以随处看到曼城俱乐部的大型广告宣传牌。这些宣传牌或矗立街头，或贴身于巴士车厢两侧，其目的无非是以一种温和的手段来和同城劲敌曼联俱乐部叫板，同时加强俱乐部和当地社区的联系。

    除了曼城，其它一些英超俱乐部，比如南安普敦和切尔西目前也已经开始行动起来。他们或者请广告公司做俱乐部的宣传推广活动，或者直接和球迷进行交流活动。通过推广活动，这些俱乐部希望能借鉴一些大公司联络客户的经验，为球迷建立详细的个人资料库。富勒姆俱乐部目前就专门聘请了资深营销公司，为俱乐部量身打造市场推广计划，同时，还邀请擅长公关学的专家帮助他们制订旨在改善同球迷关系的计划。

    切尔西队目前也在做着扩大球迷群体的工作。通过实行一份名为“真蓝”的会员扩大计划，该俱乐部已经成功地把俱乐部注册会员从先前的4万人提高到了目前的5.5万人。俱乐部发言人表示：“切尔西俱乐部认识到，在先前的计划中，同球迷的关系并没有被放在俱乐部工作的首要位置。为此我们推出了旨在推进球迷和俱乐部亲密接触的计划。”

    英超俱乐部试图通过广告商等途径聚拢人气的举动是史上少见的。自英超赛制实行以来，俱乐部几乎就没有为推销自己而伤过脑筋。曾几何时，天空电视台和其他报刊媒体都争相报道足球赛事，由此也就替俱乐部免费做了大量的宣传报道。负责为曼城队做宣传活动的伦敦格雷广告公司负责人道格拉斯表示，希望人们最好不要把这种推广活动看成一种商业行为，而是一种为拉近俱乐部和球迷距离而做的努力。

    Advertising agencies have long gazed at football clubs with green eyes. Until relatively recently they were considered to possess the ultimate in the kind of "brand loyalty" that multinationals crave, from Coca-Cola to McDonald's. They may get relegated, sell their best players, serve overpriced pies and deal in relentless disappointment, but the loyalty of their core fanbase remained undiminished.

    But with recent evidence that the football bubble may be in danger of bursting, clubs are for the first time turning to ad agencies to reassert their bond with fans, to persuade occasional attendees to watch more matches and to pick up new supporters. In the past they may have settled for an amateurish advert in the local paper, but they are increasingly turning to professional customer relationship specialists and big agencies.

    Manchester City recently became the first club to employ a major advertising agency, Grey London, to launch a generic branding campaign in the local area.

    This week, billboards went up around the city, on the sides of buses and in other outdoor locations, aiming to poke gentle fun at the club's more successful city rival and to attempt to strengthen the bond between the club and its local community.

    On a sky blue background, large letters proclaim: "Réal Manchester"[sic], "Pure Manchester", "This is our City" or "Greater Manchester". In contrast to targeted ad campaigns relying on shifting tickets for an upcoming match, a tactic recently employed by Chelsea and Fulham among others, the Manchester City campaign has a wider goal.

    According to Julian Douglas of Grey London the campaign's success will not be measured in how many extra tickets or replica shirts are sold but in the conversations it sparks in pubs and schools around Manchester. "The brief was to try and engage with Mancunians - current fans, lapsed fans and people who aren't even fans. Our measure of success is that people talk about it and engage with it."

    Other clubs, including Southampton and Chelsea, have also taken on ad agencies for one-off projects and a number of others are taking direct communication with their fans seriously. In doing so they are hoping to learn from companies such as Tesco and BSkyB, which have built up detailed profiles of their customer base and potential targets.

    Fulham have employed Positive Thinking to help with marketing and the customer relationship management specialist Venue Solutions to improve their relationship with fans and develop a loyalty scheme.

    When filling the stadium becomes a priority a club's relationship with local fans takes precedence over brand building overseas. At Chelsea, the club has relaunched its membership scheme as True Blue, raising the number of members from 40,000 to 55,000. The club also placed an advert in the Evening Standard in an attempt to boost ticket sales ahead of the Premiership match against West Bromwich Albion in August.

    "Chelsea recognises that customer relations have not perhaps been at the forefront under the previous regime and is putting in place what we hope will be a very effective CRM strategy that will greatly enhance the customer experience," said a club spokesman.

    Under fire for ticket prices at Stamford Bridge, the plan is part of a deliberate strategy to encourage new fans and retain the loyalty of existing ones. This also extends to radio and press advertising around specific games, said the spokesman.

    Since the formation of the Premier League, clubs have barely had to market themselves.

    In a time of plenty, Sky Sports, newspapers and the burgeoning number of sponsors queuing up to associate themselves with the game have more than done the job for them.

    But with televised football suffering through over-exposure and the papers full of debate about whether the game has lost its appeal, other clubs may follow Manchester City's lead in launching campaigns to better their connection with their core support.

    There is also a suggestion in some quarters that with an ever-increasing number of brands feeding off football, clubs risk effectively handing over their core bond with the fans to their corporate paymasters and damaging their link with them as a result.

    Douglas said it was important that the campaign was not viewed as a commercial endeavour but struck the right note, with the customary black humour of City fans in the face of United's dominance a key element. "It would have been really easy to go straight after United but we wanted a poster that, whether you're a City fan or a United fan, made you smile." However, United's concentration on building its brand around the world, exacerbated by the Glazer takeover at Old Trafford, has left a gap for City to cement its reputation as Manchester's "local club", he added.

    Matt Lowery, the assistant club secretary who came up with the idea of using an outside agency, said he believed that the approach would be repeated by other clubs, some of which, it could be argued, are in more need of an image makeover. "We simply can't afford to be complacent. We enjoy a tremendous loyalty from our core fans. We have direct conversations with them through mail shots, the programme and the club magazine.

    But if this really is Manchester's club we should spreading that message around the city."

    Douglas warned that, while a branding approach could work for others, they had to have the values to back it up. "If other clubs go in this direction, it's like any other marketing message - they need to stay true to the brand," added Lowery.