England and West Ham midfielder Declan Rice has signed an exclusive deal with Goal as part of a new player-led video strategy for the brand.
Goal is owned by FootballCo which claims to be the world’s largest football publisher by some margin. Footballco reaches an audience of 640 million a month with one billion video views across its main Goal website, apps, video player, social media channels and other brands.
Goal has more than three million followers on its Youtube accounts and debuted its first Declan Rice video there this morning. Box to Box is a nine-minute video in which Rice opens five different boxes containing symbolic objects from his life.
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The plan behind player-led video is to provide a sympathetic forum for players to express their personalities in more depth than post-match interviews. It provides extra exposure for their sponsorship interests and Goal.com also provides them with extra video content which they can use on their own channels.
Player-led video will see Goal.com produce a variety of short and medium form videos for publication on Youtube and social media platforms.
James Lamon, senior vice president for content and creative at Footballco, said: “Players are an endless source of fascination for fans who want to know their heroes on and off the pitch. We see a huge and unaddressed opportunity to tell player stories for fans in a way that connects to the emotions that make football interesting in the first place.
“Our objective with player-led video is to make compelling sports entertainment. The traditional coverage isn’t tailored for today’s platforms. Tiktok, Youtube, all the popular platforms require creativity and storytelling that you can’t achieve with a standard post match interview. While we’ll never rival the emotional peaks of the live window, we think we can complement and enhance those peaks by crafting entertaining video in collaboration with players.
“Declan is the perfect player and launch partner for us. He’s dynamic and passionate on the pitch, well-liked by his peers, and great in front of the camera. By working closely with Declan we’ll be able to show fans more of him ahead of the World Cup.”
Other new shows planned by Goal include a car interview show inspired by music featuring Newcastle and France winger Allan Saint-Maximin, and a city tour format starring Liverpool Women’s homegrown midfielder Missy Bo Kearns.
Goal.com is mainly advertising-supported. Parent company Footballco employs some 300 staff worldwide including 75 in the UK. Its brands comprise: Goal, Germany multisport website Spox, Netherlands-based Voetbalzone, Italy’s Calciomercato.com, Koora, print title Mundial and “Player” video player.
Picture: Reuters
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