SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROJECT

On
Digital Market of Sports (Football) Industry

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the

degree in Master in Management Studies (MMS)

Submitted By
Mr. Chittaranjan Shetty
(MMS ROLL NO: 11)

Under The Guidance Of

(DR. SWATI SINGH)

2018-2020
Vivekanand Education Society’s

Institute of Management Studies and Research

1
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this project report submitted by me to the Mumbai University
is a bonafide.

Work undertaken by me and it is not submitted to any other university or institution for
the Award of any degree diploma certificate or published any time before.

Name: Mr. Chittaranjan Shetty

Roll No: 11 Signature

2
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my feeling of gratitude to my esteemed teacher and guide, DR.
SWATI SINGH (Faculty Mentor), under whom I have been fortunate to work with. Her
efficient guidance, timely advice and encouragement were the motivating forces without
which the study would not have completed

I would also like to thank Mr. Amit Yadav, Football Counter CTO, for helping me out during
the internship period. I am also very thankful to the complete faculty of our department for
their guidance at every step in the academic period.

I thank my parents and all other family members for being a constant source of inspiration
and motivation.

3
 CERTIFICATE BY THE GUIDE

This is to certify that project titled “Digital Market of Sports (football) Industry” is
successfully completed by Mr. Chittaranjan Shetty during the IIIrd Semester, in partial
fulfilment of the Master’s Degree in Management Studies recognized by the University of
Mumbai for the academic year 2018-20 under the guidance of faculty mentor DR. SWATI
SINGH

This project work is original and not submitted earlier for the award of any degree
diploma or Associate ship of any other University / Institution.

Name:

Date: (Signature of Faculty Mentor)

4
Certificate

5
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sr. no. Index Page no.

1 Executive Summary 7

2 Introduction: Digital market of Sports Industry 9

3 Sports Media Industry

13
3.1 History of Sports Journalism
3.2 Rise of Sports broadcasting
3.3 Media and Sports Relationship in Today’s Age

4 About The Company 16

4.1 Services provided by Football Counter

4.2 Major clients of Sports Counter
4.3 Major Tournaments covered by Football Counter
4.4 Challenges faced by the Company
4.5 SWOT Analysis of Football Counter

5 On the Job Training 24

5.1 Duties and Responsibilities

5.2 Key Result Areas

Results and Learning 37

6
6.1 Results/Learnings
6.2 Understanding of Internship at Sports Counter with Future
Perspective

7 Conclusion 40

8 Questionnaires 41

9 Bibliography 44

6
7
 1. Executive Summary
Ever wondered, before the dawn of social media, how did sports fans have their daily
dose of sports? Well it would be in the old-fashioned way – watching it on TV live or
through news channels, listening to it on the radio or reading about it in newspapers, the
other ways were through discussions with neighbors or friends. But now, with the advent
of digital media especially Social Media, the entire ball game has changed.

The easy accessibility to Internet has created a whole new market for companies. There
are immediate updates of every single incident with comments and discussions on it. The
advent of Digital technology has transformed the way fans and to some extent even sports
personnel’s discover, experience, engage and share their love for the sports. The ability to
reach out to a wide range of audience at the same time at much cheaper price than that of
traditional medium has helped the sport grow.

Digital Marketing has given brands and advertisers a variety of online channels to connect
with its consumers (in this case sports clubs now have a better opportunity to increase fan
engagement). Digital media is increasingly becoming the go to medium after traditional
TV broadcast, during live events. Both digital media and sports have the ability to capture
a large number of audiences at the same time so it is no wonder that sports digital
marketing campaigns are now gaining a lot of momentum and playing a crucial role in
shaping the sports industry of our nations.

The huge success of leagues like Indian Premiere League (IPL), Indian Super League
(ISL), Pro Kabaddi League etc. is one of the key reasons for the exponential rise of sports
in India. These leagues and clubs involved in them have extensively used the digital
mediums for promotions, advertisements and fan engagement. Looking at these
successes, businesses are now looking at sports sector as a potential market to grow their
brands and with the onset of digital media, marketers are envisioning digital marketing
playing the crucial role in the sports industry.

Digital Marketing is the new modern marketing techniques. The scope in the online
medium is huge, for example, Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogs are
great way of connecting with consumers (fans) directly, Search Engine Optimisation

8
(SEO), Pay per Click Management (PPC), Branding, Content Marketing, and video
Marketing and App creation. In the Sports Industry, the use of digital marketing could be
in the marketing of a sports event, sports persons, a club/team, as well as sporting
professional such as psychologists, physiotherapists, nutritionist, etc. Then there are the
businesses and retailers offering sporting goods and services, who are also now relying on
Digital Marketing as a key driver for their business.

Whether it’s your favourite football club, cricket team, sports event, player, retailer or
competitor, being seen online, as well as engaging with supporters and customers is now a
vital aspect for effective sports marketing. With more than 500 million of Indian
population using internet, the future of digital marketing in the sports industry is very
bright.

This internship study will look into sports particularly football media industry in India
with FootballCounter.com as the Digital Sports based Start-up company as the reference
point. Study will see how the digital market of the Indian football sector is and how the
company has successfully used the digital medium in creating a niche market for itself
and turned it into a good business model. Also the study will cover what I as a Digital
(Marketing) and BD executive intern in the company worked on from the month of April
to June.

9
 2. Introduction: Digital market of Sports Industry
Digital marketing is no longer a subset of marketing and in fact most marketing is now
digital. Therefore, the marketing strategy of any organization will have a digital
marketing model at its core, whether this is intentionally known or not, every business
now needs a digital ‘visibility’ that connects all plans and activities of the organization.

The biggest change in the sports industry has been the arrival of social media. With
platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, there are millions of users for sports
brands to promote themselves to. This is by no means a recent thing either, as Sports
teams or clubs and their respective players would use such platforms in association with
their brands or sponsors. The online media also provides a rewarding experience for fans
with high level of personal engagement with clubs or teams.

Figure 1: Indian Cricket teams Facebook page as more than 28 million followers

10
For the average sports fan, travelling to venues and buying expensive tickets to see an
event is often extremely challenging and unaffordable, both in financial and often
geographical perspective. While television live telecast does provide fans with live games,
what social media does is bridge the gap between the expense of live fandom and the free
interaction and engagement across demography on a common platform with similar
interest. In effect, this has created a new form of fandom, one that runs on the advantage
of the new digital age.

Earlier in sports, fans would need reporters or news publications to get news about their
favorite players or clubs. In the last few years, athletes are increasingly becoming content
creators in their own way — be it through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Page or long-
form stories on websites like The Players’ Tribunes.

This trend of Social media presences — buoyed by stars who were raised in the digital
age—has become even more impactful and important in this age of Digital media. This
platform will enable further expansion and value of personal brands while also opening
the door for the next generation of athletes to build their brands before they become
household names.

Whether it is the exclusive content or live updates, during a sports event, more and more
fans are taken in by the power of sports social media. Not only are teams/clubs running all

11aka Coro on reddit interacting with fans

Figure 2: FC Goa striker Ferran Corominas
sorts of fun and engaging competitions and interaction with fans, but they’re also
providing live score updates, news stories as well as the events as they are happening.

Digital Marketing has truly changed the way sport is consumed, packaged and sold to
consumers. Sports Club have left no stone unturned in ensuring proper interaction with
fans. Clubs would often put up posts inviting fans to interact with their players. During
the last Indian Super League season, Goa based club FC Goa brought two of their star
players (Corominas and Edu Bedia) on reddit for personal interaction with Indian Football
fans through an AMA(Ask me Anything) session

The club also promoted the same on its other social media channels which brought more
attention to the AMA on Indian Football reddit page. Other times club or even the league
itself would conduct small online competitions like Guess the Player challenge, Spot the
ball challenge, Predict the lineup etc. with a potential rewards for interacting fans like
club merchandises, Match tickets or even a meet the player himself.

Figure 3: FC Goa conducting Spot the ball challenge for its fans on twitter

12
Today, sports events and social media go hand in hand where one can see that every team,
league, or sports association all over the world has at least one social media profile where
they would announce all their information’s whether its club signings, fixtures or live
score updates. Moreover, it has become impossible to scroll down your Social media
handles like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram account during a major sports event and not
get your news feed overwhelmed with information, funny vines, real-time gifs or memes
about it.

Also, in recent times every sports event or show has a related hashtag (#) which creates a
relationship with the audience and brings a fast response. Athletes use their own social
media account to establish their name, communicate with their fans, announce their
activities, and even promote brands and make money off it, as they have millions of
followers.

13
 3. Sports Media Industry
While Sports is the window through which the world can connect with one another, it is
the media that provides us with all the on-field action and make it possible.

The relation between the Sport Industry and Media Industry can be viewed as a partisan
affair where the sports gain the upper hand over its media platform. But the truth is that
both are equally dependable on each other and that media thrives on sports as much as
sports thrive on media.

While sports has been around for ages, it has only been in the last century or so that it
has been documented or so. However, even though the meaning of the terms ‘media’
and ‘sports’ has become broader over the years, but the purpose that they play for one
another has not changed and probably never will.

3.1 History of Sports Journalism

Covering sports dates back to the 850 BCE when Greek Homer wrote about a wrestling
match between Ajax and Odysseus. This event is termed as the first recorded instance of
a sport. Until the mid-nineteenth century, Sports writing was not exactly a thing until
American writers started writing about sporting events. The first such proper coverage
of sports came in the year 1823, when the New York Evening Post published a story of
a boxing match. Sports journalism began to grow swiftly from 1850 onwards after a
newfound interest for the team sports got generated among people which was boosted
by the introduction of Baseball

Soon enough, newspapers like the New York Herald & Spirit of the Times began to
increase their sports content in their newspapers. This trend rose in the late 1800s after
the introduction of Basketball as a sport, as the media coverage for new unique and
interesting coverage in the field of sport, the sport too had a subsequent rise in
popularity.

14
By late 1930s and early 1940s, Sports coverage reached India too. However with the
country embroiled in freedom struggle, this new things a bold and revolutionary step
received resentment by a section of the readers who did not have interest in sports.
Nevertheless, the sports page eventually became so popular that other leading media
homes too soon followed suit. After English newspaper, local language papers started
including sports column in their publications too.

3.2 Rise of Sports Broadcasting

With the rise of popularity of various sports like football, cricket, hockey came the rise
of need to be felt. The Newspapers would give out the complete event coverage and
documentation of the various events, but it still didn’t capture the thrills of a live game.
Like any Indian food that is best served hot, sports is best enjoyed when consumed live
as the experience helps one enjoy it to the fullest extent. Watching a game live meant all
the suspense and the edge-of-the-seat moments are not missed by the fans. The need for
a media to cover the sporting event was needed more than ever.

The invention of Radio helped the sport boost further as in 1921, a broadcast of a live
radio commentary of a 10-round boxing match up was received very well by the general
public. Soon enough other sports like a baseball match between the Pittsburgh Pirates
and Philadelphia Phillies was carried out live on Radio from the Forbes Field. These
two events helped to make live radio broadcasts more and more popular up until every
sports team had live broadcasts of their own.

In India as well, it was the All India Radio that took upon the responsibility of airing
sports events live. However, unlike Baseball, In India it was hockey and cricket that
received mass acceptance. And Radio broadcasts made for memorable experiences. No
one can better explain this than our parents and grandparents.

One could find crowds assemble around the radio, listening to every word that the
commentator uttered. The suspense created by the quietness of the speakers between

15
critical moments bought Goosebumps to the group, followed by a loud, festive and
raucous celebration after the victory. The media thus made not only for a thrilling sports
following but a huge community engagement centers.

3.3 Media and Sports Relationship in Today’s Age

Then the emergence of television sets, people started to drift away from the humble
Radios. As the reach of television skyrocketed, its popularity also rose exponentially.
The broadcasters used this opportunity to televise commercials between intervals,
making them rich. As a result, sports broadcasting rights became more expensive,
making popular sports like football and cricket richer over the years. Only last
year, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sold the broadcasting rights for
India’s domestic cricket series for a humongous ₹6,100 crores.

The English Premier League (EPL) is now multi-billion dollar football competition,
courtesy of the massive sports-broadcasting deals it has signed over the years. In 2018,
the cost of the televising rights crossed the $8 billion mark, making it the richest league
in the entire world.

The rise of online streaming sites like Hotstar, Sony Live is now expected to take
television’s legacy forward, with the added advantage of following live events on the
go. Moreover, the rise of social media has enabled Sports organizations to tell their
stories directly to sports fans through various digital channels. Moreover, it is only the
first time that the fans can get in touch with their favoured clubs.

All these developments in Media have turned sports into a profitable industry that it is
today. With the changing dynamics of media, the relationship shared by the fans, clubs
and the sports stars is also shifting.

16
 4. About The Company

Sports Counter LLP is a technology based Sports Company building

professional sports networking & fan engagement online platform and
offers digital services under Football Counter brand. The company is driven
by the love for sports and is very passionate about it professionally.

Football Counter

Football Counter believes in the

philosophy that passion for sport and
tech intelligence can go hand in hand.
The future is digital and Football
Counter doesn’t want Indian football
to miss its digital presence. The
company generates authentic content
at source origin to transport the news
from the leagues, teams, and players
that actually counts. Football Counter
has reporters and photographer on the
ground across cities in India who are
committed to keeping football fans close to the action every moment.

The FC team is specialized in working on the grass root level football – “it needs
special attention”. FC keeps the track of everything in local football across Mumbai.
Football Counter aims to building a football community and enabling the digital
presence of local talent on the FC platform. Football Counter is the digital showcase of
local Mumbai talent in an era of the internet.

Football Counter has a huge fan following base in Mumbai that keeps their eyes on us
to keep them updated about all the news on football. Football Counter is a Mumbai
based entity and has the presence throughout India via our platform, having published

17
more than 10,000 articles, stories and still counting. Football Counter also work with
sports associations, sports brands, academy and teams to give them visibility through
our platform. Football Counter work on a simple motto i.e. we love football and we are
passionate about it professionally.

4.1 Services provided by Football Counter

1. Sports Photography

Football Couter has established as a

known entity in Mumbai for
Photography coverage of any kind of
Football tournaments in the city - be it
Corporate tournament like Ace
Champions League, Private Tournament
like Borivali Premier League or official
District or Association level football
leagues like MDFA Elite Division or Independence Day Cup.

Football Counter has coveed all the major football tournaments in India too like
Santosh Trophy, Hero I league and even the Indian National team matches.Also all the
games that WIFA (Western India Football Association), one of the biggest client of
Football Counter, plays in gets a complete photography coverage.

2. Sports Content

One of key reasons for Football

counters success is the recognition that
it provides to all the local talents. With
over 150+ football clubs in Mumbai
playing in the five tiers of Mumbai
District Football – MDFA Elite
Division, Super Division, 1st, 2nd and

18
3rd Division along with the MDFA Women’s League, providing proper recognition to
these clubs and its player has been the key job for the company. Football Counter also
creates contents for private leagues or corporate football tournaments around the city.

Also for Clubs in the city who are the company’s client, football counter also provides
them with specialized contents like Interviews of their coach/Players promoting the
academy’s work or progress giving them a much needed public exposure.

3. Social Media

Football Counter also provides services

of carrying out Social media promotion
for clubs and teams in around Mumbai.
Also provide social media coverage for
tournaments like Red Bull Neymar Jr’s
Five, Borivali Premier Football League
etc.

Clubs like former Hero I League club

Mumbai FC had a special social media coverage for its players and sponsors as part of
our service for our clients. With a follower count of over 20000 on Facebook and the
ever increasing Instagram Audience, football counter also provides a wide outreach for
local clubs in search of recognitions. Sports counter also provide social media
representations for Clients providing them optimized contents on their social handles,
posting and updates about club contents on their behalf.

4. Digital footprint

Sports counter also provides

assistance in developing its clients
digital presences. Services like
creating a dynamic and engaging
websites, providing assistance with

19
the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of the same, creating and developing Social
media strategies for improving the reach of the clients.

Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA), Western India Football Association

(WIFA), Mumbai based Club KSA Ambitious FA had its website and social media,
developed by Sports Counter. Newly formed club KSA Ambitious FA had its entire
digital footprint right from initiation to the present coverage during their MDFA 3 rd
division; the club’s presence in Mumbai circuit has significantly improved.

5. Advertise with us

Sports Counter also helps in creating

brand recognition and help a brand
grow through various services. From
developing or revamping the website
to providing Photography services,
Sports Counter provides it all.

Clients can also advertise their needs

or requirement or our platform.
Whether it be basic club promotion or
a banner ad on Sports Counter website promoting their site, products or services etc.
Club also provides advertisement to company willing to take sponsorship duties during
an event.

20
4.2 Major clients of Sports Counter:

Sports Counter LLP has provided its services to some of the top football organisations
in the country, some of them are below:

1. WIFA

Western India Football Association

 Covered all association tournaments
 Handled Social media updates
 Content generation and creating regular press
releases

2. MDFA
Mumbai District Football Association
 Coverage for all MDFA Leagues on the MDFA as
well FC platform
 Handle regular Social media updates
 Regular match related content generation

3. Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five

Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five National Finals (India)
 Live Coverage for the tournament on Social
media and Website
 Creating Pre-tournament and Post-tournament
buzz on Social media

4. Ambitious FA Club
Ambitious Football Academy

21
  Creating pre-match, Post match and daily updates on the club’s social media
content. Providing Match reports on the website
Some other major clients in the past and present with whom Football counter has
worked with:

4.3 Major Tournaments covered by Football Counter

 FIFA U17 World Cup
 Indian National Football Team friendly matches (Hero Intercontinental Cup)
 Hero Indian Super League
 Hero I League
 MDFA Elite Division, MDFA Super Division, 1st Division, 2nd Division 3rd Division
 Hero Indian Womens League

22
 Santosh Trophy
 Nationals, Junior and Sub Junior Football Tournaments

23
4.4 Challenges faced by the Company
 Being a Start-up running without investor funding, the organization has
found itself in a tricky situation in finding proper resources to carry out its
work.
 Shutting down of a city based football club – Mumbai FC, was a major
setback for the organization, as they were one of the biggest clients.
 Big websites like Goal.com, Sportskeeda, Khelnow etc. have better
resources and a national reach making it difficult for Football Counter to
generate the same engagement for national coverage with limited
resources.
 The unstructured football league system of the country has caused a lot of
clubs to shut shop. With just 1 Mumbai based club playing in the top 3
divisions of Indian Football, it has become difficult for Football counter
to expand.
 Grassroots football doesn’t get a national attention and so limits the
growth of the website to city/state.

24
4.5 SWOT Analysis of Football Counter
Strength:
 Focus on Grassroots football
 A niche market of football fans
 High need for services that Football Counter provides
 Provides excellent working opportunities for Sports fans
 Collection of all data on local football matches thus creating a huge database for
future references.

Weakness:

 Lack of resources.

 Not enough monetary power to sustain good employees.

 Limited fan base for Football in India especially Indian Football.

Opportunities:

 The phenomenal growth in the use of Smartphone and internet that automatically
influence the growth of social media and digital presence for brands.

 FIFA world cup, European league got tremendous fan engagement and got a huge
market for their brand in India.

 In recent year, Indian Football too has grown exponentially.

 Lack of proper online presence for local football tournaments gives opportunities
to have our presence.
Threats:
 Emerging competitors

25
 5. On the Job Work

My Job title at football counter was of Marketing (Digital) and Business Development
executive where I was given the responsibilities of improving the website’s digital
presence as well as expanding the business.

5.1 Duties and responsibilities:

Marketing (Digital)

1. Develop and manage Digital marketing Campaigns.

2. Oversee Social media strategy.
3. Write and optimize content for the website and social networking accounts.
4. Track and analyse website traffic flow and provide regular internal reports.
5. Attain key performance indicators such as reducing the website bounce rate,
increasing dwell time or improving conversion
6. Continually work on the Search Engine Optimization of the website
7. Monitor all social media platforms for related updates and respond to
feedback, questions, and concerns.
8. Create online banner adverts and oversee pay per click (PPC) ad management
9. Attend product launches and networking events

Business Development (BD)

1. Develop a growth strategy.

2. Study potential clients and develop a service pitch
3. Conduct research to identify new markets and customer needs
4. Build long-term relationships with new and existing customers

26
5.2 Key result areas:

1. A steady Website Traffic despite off-season football

My internship at Football Counter started from April 2 to June 30, this period is also an off-
season period in Football. By the beginning of April almost all major Indian Football leagues
had ended (Hero Indian Super League and Hero I League). With only the final stages of
Knock Out tournament Hero Super Cup left.

In the month of April I personally worked for a major client (Red Bull India) in covering
their entire football tournament in Kolkata. From creating pre-match hype and stories to live
coverage and then post-match updates. The work received tremendous appreciation from our
clients, who had sponsored our entire trip to Kolkata and then provided the website with back
link from their international website.

A. Listed Red Bull India tournament on our website, a dedicated page

on our site providing exclusive fixtures, group table, News & Score
list.

Figure 4: Fixtures and Group table of Red Bull Neymar Jr's Five (National Final)

27
 Figure 5: Fixtures and Scores of Red Bull Neymar Jr's Five (National Finals)

Provided a personalised coverage for the Mumbai representative (Kalina Rangers) of Red
Bull Neymar Jr’s Five Tournament, where I created a special story on the club and its players
through Interviews.

28
Red Bull linking the event to our site for their tournament updates on their official site

The specialized coverage for the event raised the website by around 25% despite no other
local or National level football running simultaneously.

Week New Users Page Views

April 1-7 2103 9677
April 8-14 2504 10240
April 15-21 3303 12876

29
 B. Track and analyse website traffic flow

Another aspect of my work was to track website flow and find ways to improve it. One of the
way, I did is by analyzing where the traffic flew in the most and what the visitors are looking
for.

Links to other section of the website:

As a huge section of Football Counter audience are amateur football players or upcoming
footballers, most fans would mostly look for trial related updates. So I created a simple link
to the page where trial related content are available and embedded it to each content that are
posted on the website.

Apart from that, I also started a adding ‘Also Read’ section to the bottom of each content
that are posted. These were links to articles related to the post or some interesting ones that
could grab visitor’s eye ball and make him click. This resulted in sustained Bounce rate of
70% as the page views increased.

30
 2. Creating personalized Tournament coverage for Hero IWL

Apart from Men’s football, I also covered Indian Women’s league. With the limited coverage
in media, I decided to create a personalized timeline with all available stats of the tournament
getting recorded. Every game had its match line, news, Stats (goals, assists and bookings)
recorded with the group table and upcoming fixtures all available.

31
This works gave Football counter tremendous respect and shout outs from football fans,
women players and prominent Indian Football commentators.

32
Anant Tyagi, who has covered the recent Cricket World Cup, Hero Indian Super League, Rio
Olympic etc. applauded football Counters initiative in covering Women Football. While
Tanvie Hans, who is an English footballer with Indian descent and played for English clubs
like Tottenham Hotspurs and Fulham women’s team, also thanked us for our effort. Many
other general football fans on twitter and Facebook also applauded our efforts as the number
of followers on our social media saw a rise.

3. Created a business proposal for Mumbai based Clubs

One of the works assigned to me was study the Mumbai football scenario in detail and create
proposals for them providing them with Football Counter services. After studying the club
scenario of Mumbai for a week, I narrowed down the potential clients to around 5 clubs to
which we could pitch our idea.

The biggest potential client that we aimed to acquire first was U Mumba FC, the recently
formed football club that was a part of U Sports. The film producer Ronnie Screwala owned
U Sports had already managed to create a huge brand with U Mumba Kabbadi team and had
already ventured into Football and Volleyball. Tying up with them would provide Football
Counter a huge opportunity to make an impact on national market as the Club was eying
itself to play in the National football league i.e. Hero I League.

33
Our Product

• Content Marketing (Photo, Articles, Social Media posts & captions)

• Event (Photo, video, content)

• Branding

• Social Media Marketing

What is Football counter currently working on developing?

• Profiling for each Team.

• App to stay Connected to Mumbai Football.

• Total Media Coverage of local football.

• Fixtures of each games being played in Indian Football

What could we provide to clubs?

During off season:

Updates of clubs regular activities like

 Club Trial updates

 Friendly games update (Pre-season friendlies, amateur tournament participations and

coverage of the same)

 Interviews covering Clubs motto, Coaches, Players back-story etc.

 Transfers and new player signings (Introductory post of new players signed etc.)

Social Media

 Daily 1 posts about club activity

 Pictures from club’s regular activities with proper captions

 Increasing Fan engagement with interesting social media activities (conducting polls,
questionnaires etc.)

34
During the season

 Match Updates (Pre-match preview, Post–Match review)

 Photography of the game

 Basic statistical recordings and analysis of club players

 Feature articles on the club covering the season via Interviews, performance reviews
etc. (Twice in a month)

Social Media:

 Regular match-day updates with pictures

 Updates and reminder posts about clubs upcoming games

 Statistical posts from club matches

 Quotes about the games from players and coaches

35
 4. Survey on Football Counter experience
Another aspect of my job was to conduct research to identify new markets and customer
needs. Based on these requirements, I conducted a survey where I tried identifying, who are
the audience? What audience visiting Football Counter are expecting? And what would they
like to see?

The survey was published on company’s social media handles and the site’s followers were
requested to answer the questions.

The following is the findings I had after the survey:

36
37
The survey showed us that majority of football counter’s users are amateur footballers in the
age group category of 18-39, who were looking recognition of their name and performances
as well as in search of better opportunities. The recently started trial update section had a
96.4% approval rate suggesting that the demand for such information is very high.

The social media bar showed that Facebook is the first choice for all followers followed by
Instagram while twitter has very a low follower’s base. Something that Football Counter
could work upon improving. Also a good 35 % followers visit the website more than 5 times
a day so football counter could also work on increasing that number.

38
 6. Results and Learnings

6.1 Results/Learnings:
Major Learning during Sumer Internship Program at Football Counter were understanding
the Football market especially in Mumbai

1. Identified the working environment of the Sport companies, how they work, how and
what are the services are provided and the role of the marketers in the company.
2. Knowledge of social and technological forces on decision-making.
3. Ability to convince customers and try to make a position in their mind.
4. Ability to create plans for attracting clients and making a revenue from them.
5. Use of social media in expanding the reach of Football Counter.
6. Ability to understand the Clients’ needs and requirements from the company.
7. Got the chance to interact with various Sports professional players and learned from
them about the Industry.
8. Analysing the customer’s preferences was the major learning.
9. Ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world experiences during an internship.
10. Ability to analyse problems and provide solutions based on a critical examination of
date available.
11. Learnt the market strategies of the company and how to expand the market in given
area, how to make fulfil customers requirement and customer awareness through
sampling of the products.

39
6.2 Understanding of Internship at Sports Counter with Future Perspective

Skills Gained

 Learned and understood the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in

improving a websites reach on Internet.
 Understood various ways in which Social media can be used as tool to reach out to
masses.
 I gain a solid understanding of how a Start-up operates and the ways they must adapt
over time
 Also gained valuable skills like communications, organization, management
practices, technological or critical thinking.
 Also gained some leadership skills, while leading the Red Bull India project, where I
was responsible for the smooth update and social media updates of the tournament

Real world experience:

 Joining a company as an intern gave me the opportunity to work hands on in a

professional environment.
 As an intern I was not just there to get coffee or lunch, but I gained actual work
experience. The responsibility of running the Red Bull Project was huge learning
experience.
 Real world experience helped understand the pressure of real time decision making
and improve upon them.
 This Internship helped me understand more about the career path I am pursuing and
a way to test drive possible jobs and explore different career options.

Networking:

 This Internship often gave me the opportunity to attend client meetings and events.
By interacting with professionals, I gained new connections and learn how to
communicate in a professional environment.
 Personally, my internships have introduced me to a lot of useful resources and have

40
 given me the opportunity to meet a variety of professionals in my field.

Time Management:

 The importance of valuing time was also an important learning during the internship
period.
 It was a fast-paced professional environment where every minute counts. Time
management is vital in this circumstance whether you’re attending meetings,
finishing tasks on deadlines or making simple phone calls.

41
 7. Conclusion

 Football Counter is an excellent platform for Mumbai football’s growth and has
definitely helped grow the company.
 Most of the customers were satisfied with the services provided by Football
Counter.
 While a good enough part of Football counter’s actual service is targeted towards
players playing in grassroots football tournaments (U8-U14), these players are not
usually on social media platforms. The website should start looking to attract them
from alternate ways attracting those audience like school tie-ups etc. so that when
they grow they would already know about the company and what it provides
 Most of the customers were satisfied but changes are required according to the
changing scenario as advertisement has a great impact in the working of the
company.
 Although a Start-up without investor funding so far, the company has a huge potential
to grow and so should start looking Investor funding

42
8. Questionnaires

43
44
45
46
 9. Bibliography
The list of URLs used for the reference during this project is listed below:

1. ttp://www.sbibarcelona.com/newsdetails/index/410 
2. https://mba-esg.in/blog/5-ways-digital-marketing-shaping-sports-industry-india/
3. https://www.koozai.com/blog/branding/how-digital-marketing-is-changing-the-
sports-industry/
4. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/technology-media-and-
telecommunications/articles/sports-business-trends-disruption.html#  
5. https://martech.zone/social-media-sports-industry-statistics/ 
6. https://bettingsites.me.uk/sports-on-social-media/ 
7. https://www.pwc.ch/en/insights/sport/sports-survey-2018.html  
8. http://capitalfortunes.com/sports-media-entertainment/ 
9. https://www.kreedon.com/media-sports-relationship/ 
10. https://sportscounter.in/what-we-do/  

47