Advertising campaigns for sports clubs on the net

In a white shirt, suit pants in jogging style and bright boots, the former top manager has already adapted to the start-up atmosphere of the freshly occupied office space in Munich’s Lodenfrey Park on this sunny autumn day.

At the head of Newonads, however, is Florian Holste, managing director of Ingolstadt-based consulting and marketing company Achtzig20. The team also includes the former professional footballer Manfred “Manni” Bender and Dardan Morina, a 22-time professional world champion in Thai boxing.

Both act as “Director Sport”. This shows where the start-up’s field of activity should be in its first stage of development: Newonads wants to reopen the online advertising market for sports clubs and, above all, convert their regional radiance into advertising money.

Top jobs of the day

Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.

This market has been growing for years. In Germany alone, around 7.9 billion euros flowed into the advertising market last year, according to the information service Statista, and according to forecasts it will be 10.4 billion euros in three years. In Europe, the online sector has now overtaken traditional media as an advertising platform. Much of it runs on Google – and that’s exactly what Newonads wants to change at the clubs.

Make better use of regional charisma

“The sports clubs have to rethink,” said Florian Holste. While no club has gone bankrupt during the pandemic, it is now important to prepare better for the future. The main thing is to make better use of the regional charisma. The approach is therefore to create advertising campaigns on the Internet away from Google. With the local baker, the butcher, the car dealership or the insurance agency.

Instagram and LinkedIn should be the platforms on which the clubs and their sponsors should generate significantly more traffic and ultimately advertising revenue than before. The target group are football clubs in the first to third leagues, as well as clubs in the basketball, handball, volleyball or ice hockey leagues.

The parent company of Newonads, the agency Achtzig20 from Ingolstadt, is already working with the second division Hannover 96, handball record champions THW Kiel and the basketball national division Ratiopharm Ulm. Ex-soccer professional Bender and Thai boxer Morina are supposed to establish contact with the clubs, but also with individual athletes.

The business itself is fragmented, complex and often resembles the famous “walk through the villages”. Managing director Holste, whose agency now employs around 170 people at a good half a dozen locations and sees itself as a leading developer of fan apps in German sports, is exactly where the opportunity awaits. “Nobody has served the local area so far.” Neither the large sports rights marketers with whom the clubs are connected, nor the advertising agencies have worked the market because of its fragmented nature.

According to Holste, the advantages are obvious. “For smaller clubs in particular, every euro more in advertising money is worth a lot”. And the advertisers would meet their regional audience right here and would not have any wastage like with Google.

Active in the management of various clubs

Manni Bender is someone who knows the financial situation of the clubs below the top clubs well. The 55-year-old was in the management of various clubs for many years and today describes himself as a networker, coach and businessman.

“So far, the type of marketing has been very different among the clubs,” says Bender. Some clubs still prefer to sell perimeter advertising. Others, on the other hand, are extremely creative with a wide variety of formats and campaigns on the Internet. Contrary to popular belief, this has nothing to do with the size of the club, successes or financial resources. “Either there is awareness for it or not,” says Bender.

Thai boxing world champion Dardan Morina now has more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and should also use his contacts in the industry and with individual athletes. “It is important that we get to work quickly,” said the 31-year-old German-Kosovar Morina.

In further steps, the online marketing of actors, artists, festivals or even shopping centers is to be promoted. To this end, the company’s own platform has been fully automated in the past few weeks. For the Newonads team, which currently consists of seven people, the moment of truth has come.

Austrian family office joins

Newonads is one step further in terms of financing. At the beginning of December, an Austrian family office got on board with one million euros. Holste does not want to say who it is. What is known, however, is the continued good connections between ex-Audi boss Rupert Stadler and the Volkswagen families Porsche and Piëch. Stadler was the office manager of the late corporate patriarch Ferdinand Piëch for five years.

The valuation of Newonads rises through the so-called seed phase, the early financing round, to ten million euros. “Now we can go to the market at high speed and establish our platform,” says Managing Director Holste, looking ahead. Before that, the start-up was financed by its individual shareholders.

In the medium term, however, the start-up is looking for a strategic investor. Rupert Stadler, who understands how to negotiate with potential investors, is again in demand during the talks.

Before that happens, Stadler has to answer for several days in court. The process has been going on for over a year. The public prosecutor accuses him of fraud by selling manipulated diesel vehicles. 180 trial days are scheduled, which according to observers should not be enough. The process is scheduled to run until the end of 2022. People are already behind the schedule, say those involved.

More: “Cheating has long been part of a work culture” – ex-Audi boss Stadler testifies for the first time in court

.
source site-11