Problem:
There is a significant difference in the following between Clapton CFC’s men’s and women’s team.
Aim:
The aim of this brief is to grow the attendance, following and diversity of the Clapton women’s team.
To begin with, I created a survey so we could gather accurate and honest data and opinions on women’s football.
Our survey results showed that very few people are interested in women’s football due to having the opinion that women’s matches and play are of a poorer quality than men’s matches. This information was beneficial to our research as we gained a better understanding of what people think.
75% of participants believed that sexism surrounds women’s football, with few people saying they don’t believe in sexism towards women’s teams and others saying they were unsure.
There was however, a gender bias in our survey as 76% of respondents were female.
Below is an infographic of our survey results.
We then decided to split the brief into three steps. Step one is about attracting a diverse audience with the club’s values. Step two, creating a community within the audience, fans and players. Our end goal is to have consistent and returning fans of over 200 people outside of the Clapton CFC white bubble.
The growth of the club has been amazing so far, driven mainly by the enthusiasm of current supporters for the club and its engagement with the local community.
Step One:
Step one is about attracting a diverse audience with Clapton CFC’s values. We will achieve this by creating a monthly program highlighting causes chosen by the Newham public. This idea is cost effective and will bring the community together through a good cause.
Why Newham?
We feel this is an especially important direction to take, because it’s the club’s own declared goal with the final ownership of Old Spotted Dog (to build lasting links with the local community) and was partly how the Clapton Ultras, back in 2012 were able to connect with the local community and revive the crowds for their games.
We’re also not building from scratch, but a substantial foundation: With the repossession being backed by local MP, councillors and the Newham mayor, the club has been praised to have “a powerful connection to the communities in East London through your support of charities and causes” and welcomed back “to bring the the beautiful game to new and diverse audiences in Newham”
We will be involving the Newham public by letting them choose what organisation and/or cause they want to see highlighted by the club. This will be distributed through Newham community channels, library channels, partnering with schools and local figures to promote and share. This will be directly reaching out to marginalised groups such as BAME and LGBTQ+. Activities can also be organised to bring together the community each month. An example of this could be a competition to design patches to sell, raising awareness about organisations.
Step Two:
Converting people into fans by creating a connection between the community and players.
This will be done through social media strategies such as personal player profiles and a collection of resources for women in football. These resources can include similar links and information to those available on the WIF (Women In Football Website), as sown below.
Solution
The above quote has been taken from our survey. We have focused on this as we feel it is the main problem stopping a growth in audience. To solve this, we will focus on the similarities of the men and women’s team, and show that good, high quality football has no gender.
We will achieve the above points though an online talk show, “Off The Pitch”.
Off The Pitch will be a live stream talk show, with hosts being Clapton’s men and women’s teams, including live fan participation.
The show will be based around match reviews, upcoming fixtures and discussions between Clapton’s male and female teams. In addition, there will be fan Q&A’s and live quizzes to engage fans with both teams. Fans can win prizes through the quizzes such as match tickets or club merchandise.
Live streaming will take place on Twitter.
Our inspiration for Off The Pitch came from Match Of The Day and The Last Leg. We have taken the idea of reviews of recent matches and added in the humour and light hearted commentary and discussion of The Last Leg.
We believe Off The Pitch will be an effective way to create a community within Clapton CFC. The humorous approach will be enjoyable for both players and the audience, while being focused on Clapton’s male and female teams. The free nature of this live stream will also attract a wider audience and will help people keep engaged with the club through Covid-19.
Review of project:
Overall, me and my partner Lien worked well and effectively together. We kept in regular contact through calls and live documents so we could work together in real time.
To improve this project, I believe more visuals and/or prototypes would be effective in communicating our idea better.
Nadya Cheetham 