«Atletico» – is a club that has no enemies»

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The head of the Marketing department of the Club Atletico de Madrid Maria Teresa Chirivi gave a master class to the students of « Sport Industry Management» RMA business school program, on the eve of the game against «Rubin» FC as part of the 1/16th of the European League.

«Club Atletico de Madrid – is a club with an extensive history, that ranks the third highest award winning club, with the third largest fan base size in the country, the club also enjoys very favorable reputation among the fans of other clubs. Recent public opinion polls showed that only few experienced negative emotions or association with our club, as well as that for many, our club is being «the second most favorite team».

Of course, we can hardly compete financially with such clubs as Real. Their annual budget exceeds 500 million euros, while this season our budget is only 120 million. And if we are talking about the income structure, the club generates 45 million euros a year from broadcast licensing, another 23-24 million are the sales of tickets, food and drinks at the stadium. About as much we make from the sales of club branded insignia and apparel, and the best seller in this category is of course t-shirts, particularly the ones that bear Falcao's name and number on them. And finally another 30 million a year we make from our sponsorship contracts.

The current state of affairs is an important additional factor that attracts sponsors who are generally weary of associating their brand names with anything that may carry along a negative perception from any other segments of the national football fan community. We do not have any difficulties in this area which is why among our sponsors are such brands as Nike, Coca-Сola etc. And speaking of our fan base, in Spain alone today we have 2 million fans, with 711 fan clubs around the country, and another 34 outside Spain. This season we have sold 49 thousand subscriptions: only 6 thousand tickets are sold over the counter. And the waiting list for the season tickets is at around 3 thousand right now.

Now as to how we reach out to our fan base and stimulate their growth. For example, in working with our Madrid base we use flexible discount rates, a bonus system, different loyalty programs and other marketing tools that aren't exactly unique to us. What does make us different is the fact that for the past 13 years we've been conducting particular strategy as part of which every year we produce new promotional video materials in which our fans play the key roles. As you already understand - we playing on people's feelings, in a good sense of the word of course, but we are letting them know that need their support and that we all are a one single team».