It’s that time of year. Everyone is rolling out their ‘list’ articles, looking back on the digisport lessons from 2018 and spotting trends for 2019. Here’s an amalgamation of this year’s articles, with comments from yours truly.
What's the story, sporting glory?
Sport is about meaning. Is it often argued that players and clubs have lost sight of this but have content creators developed myopia too?
What this ticket tells us about the modern matchday experience
How a small brown ticket tells the story of modern-day sports fan engagement. Admittedly, the tale travels from Essex to Australia and back to Lord’s via the Premier League, gaming and the Tiger and Scorcher comic back in the 70s.
The Inbetweeners: Why Man City's Amazon series did not live up to its title
All or Nothing: Manchester City was billed as a game-changing documentary series. And not just because it was on Amazon. Fly-on-the-wall shows are often seen as a fly in the ointment for the playing staff. This one was different. Here’s my review.
Global Benchmark: Real beat Barca, Schalke take China, Mexico rise and Man United's YouTube growth
Result Sports’ Global Benchmark data is the most trustworthy followership figures in world football. Here’s the trends I have spotted in the July 2018 statistics.
Introducing Sports Content Strategy
It would be too bold to call it a rebrand, more of a tidy up.
But my podcast is now called Sports Content Strategy and there’s other plans afoot!
Can matchday be reprogrammed?
The EFL will no longer mandate clubs to create matchday programmes, citing falling sales and social media as the reasons. The traditionalists are upset but the market appears to have spoken. Should those of us who grew with a folded programme in our back pocket simply let them go?
Indonesian football Year 2: bigger crowds, island-hopping and digital acceleration
Working in Indonesian football is a challenging privilege. In my first year, I learnt about the incredible passion for the game, their desire to improve, the issues holding them back and the huge potential for the friendly but overlooked country. But how can I help in year two?
Content lessons for the team that did not win a League game all season... but did not sack their manager
At the end of the football season, Brechin City hit the news, seemingly for the wrong reasons. They were the first Scottish club to go a full League season without a win in 126 years. Whatsmore, they did not change their manager. How did they handle this on social media?
Thanks for your quality: 10 examples of the exceptional Arsene Wenger
Arsene Wenger is man worthy of the utmost respect. I had the honour of working with him through the vast majority of his reign at Arsenal. This is why he was so special
How Zaphod Beeblebrox, the Monkees, U2's albums and my car insurance help explain the problems faced by young content creators
There’s debate over the salary taken home by Social Media managers. The answer should be more than 42… thousands dollars, but there’s lots of factors keeping it down
Overachievers: The St Pauli story
St Pauli are the only established second-tier football team with more than one million followers on social media. That should rank them as another overachiever but does their cult status make them too unique to learn from?