La Liga marketing boss says plans for a distinctive brand image will help it take on Premier League
La Liga is implementing a number of changes to ensure its clubs market a more consistent brand image for the league as it attempts to catch up with the increasingly financially dominant English Premier League.
La Liga marketing boss Adolfo Bara
The Spanish league’s marketing director, Adolfo Bara, was speaking at this year’s SoccerEx convention where he discussed the measures league bosses have taken to make sure its clubs capitalise on the new TV broadcast deal and its live streaming plans.
The new €1.6 billion per season broadcast deal is double the amount of the previous contract and is designed to give smaller teams a greater share of the overall revenue compared to previous years when Real Madrid and Barcelona took the majority of the earnings.
Bara admitted that the premier League’s business model is something which La Liga is looking to follow and wanted to see the Spanish league brand become more distinct.
“For us, it's very important that when someone watches a football game, they know it's La Liga no matter which team is playing,” said Bara.
La Liga’s plans to portray a more attractive, consistent and recognisable brand by forcing teams to make their stadiums look better during broadcasts. This will include painting some of the run down stadiums, consolidating spectators to ensure they are in camera shot, brightening up pitch side advertising boards and even making the grass greener.
"You see La Liga and sometimes the light is good, sometimes not; some grass is green, some grass is yellow. The problem is, it's not consistent," continued Bara.
“If you look, in September in some of the stadiums, the grass was yellow. We now talk to the clubs on how the groundkeepers must make sure it is proper green."
Athletic Bilbao’s stadium business manager, Borja Gonzalez, also spoke at SoccerEx where he discussed how the club has attempted to apply the new marketing strategy. Bilbao has renovated its San Mames ground and changed the colour of their sponsors’ messages on the pitch-side advertising boards to make them consistent with the red and white colours worn by the team.