Liverpool Football Club (LFC) need to regularly update their knowledge and understanding around children’s football needs to ensure they continue creating relevant and engaging initiatives. With Premier League football being more accessible to non-native football fans than ever, this understanding also needed to be international. Therefore, LFC approached KI to help them make sense of children’s football fandom and develop their five-year global youth strategy.
LFC were after an in-depth, 360 understanding of football fandom across a broad age range (4-16 years old) and three core international markets (UK, USA & China).
KI employed an iterative, mixed methods research approach – using online surveys to understand the size and shape of LFC fandom, and then qualitative discussions to focus on the emotion and personal experiences behind them.
The online survey – reaching over 3000 English premier League fans – also helped us devise robust strategies for Liverpool FC’s diverse audience base, as we were able to segment fans based upon their attitudes, behaviours and needs. Qualitative interviews, whilst mostly focused on discussing the intricacies of football fandom, also involved elements of co-creation. Through these co-creation methods we channeled parents and children’s passions for football into exploring and optimising audience focused LFC activations and initiatives.
Our unique Fandom Profiling Model provided the core lens through which we conducted data analysis. By assessing how fans currently interact with LFC, how they use fandom to define themselves and how social groups can amplify it, we were able to highlight gaps and opportunities for LFC to increase engagement and fandom in the future.
By taking a 360 project approach we were able to provide great detail on the size and shape of LFC and EPL fandom and make strategic recommendations on the opportunities that exist globally for both new and existing fans.
A second wave of strategic thinking focused on identifying, defining and executing the correct content strategy for children and young people to ensure the timely flow of relevant and appealing content. This leveraged our expert knowledge of children’s UX, child development, trends in the kids and family market.
