Club Tigres Femenil: Growing in America and Partnering with Barbie
On the latest Footballco Business Podcast, Alex Manby spoke with Carlos Valenzuela, Vice President of Operations and Communications for Club Tigres. Alex spoke with Carlos about their ambition for Club Tigres Femenil to be the favourite Mexican women's football team of fans in North America. Along the way, they discussed the challenges of breaking into arguably the most competitive women's football market in the world, differences between working with the club's male and female players and cultural differences that influence how they communicate with second and third-generation Mexicans in the US. Also, they covered the biggest movie of the year, Barbie and why Club Tigres Femenil were the only team to partner with the Summer blockbuster.
Rivals on the Pitch and Partners off it
To expand in North America, Club Tigres have, unsurprisingly focused on converting football-mad Mexicans in the US to Tigres fans, specifically those in Texas, Arizona and Los Angeles. In LA, there's plenty of competition when it comes to football, not only men's football through LAFC and the Galaxy, but also Angel City who are constantly setting the the standard for women's football in the US and whose investors are considered sport and entertainment royalty.
But, rather than compete with Angel City, both clubs kicked off a 2-year partnership in 2022 with a focus on fan engagement and civic responsibility.
Carlos explains...
It's a great relationship, something that we learn from day by day. The end goal is to grow the sport, to make it global and to make it accessible to everyone. It benefits all to have more competition in the region. So, to keep growing women's football and conquer gaps, especially in Latin American countries. But the thinking behind our partnership was for many reasons: to learn from the American market, to connect with the American market to share the best practices between all teams as we can always learn from each other. Supporting each other means supporting the game. And there are many ways to do that creatively off the pitch, while being a rival on the pitch.
Youth
Whenever star players move between clubs, it's often reported how the club and player's social followings grow or fall, illustrating the power of player brands in football. But this isn't only a phenomenon for the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, it applies to the women's game too and plays a part in how a club like Tigres market their brand to new fan bases.
With women's football, the fandom skews younger and more female and having players that appeal to this demographic helps to grow the Tigres brand.
The club is also known for attracting strong and promising young players. Players like Jana Gutierrez, Maricarmen Reyes and Alison Gonzalez (now with Club América). Not only are these players appealing to young female fans and often come with strong social followings (Gutierrez has 1.4m followers on TikTok), but they're also more eager to work with the club on brand development than their male counterparts. Carlos says...
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It's way, way different. I've been working with with our men's team for many years as well, but you can see the difference and and the woman athletes are willing to help the brand they're willing to to grow the sport and they're always happy to collaborate and and use everything around them. Social media, their social channels, so they keep growing the brand together, and they know they'll have a better brand for themselves, but also the team will also grow so they will grow and it's just a joint effort and joint result I guess.
Come on Barbie, Let's go Party
One area that the players of Club Tigres Femenil were more than happy to get involved with was the club's campaign with Warner Brothers for the Barbie movie.
Due to an ongoing relationship with Warners Brothers, Club Tigres were the only football club in the world to partner for the Barbie movie, which considering how many brands got involved with the marketing, is both a surprise and a testament to the strength of the brand Carlos and his team have developed.
But this relationship started before Barbie and as Carlos explains, it came from an unusual place.
It's an amazing story because our fan base decided that they were going to give them (Tigres Femenil) the nickname, the Amazons. It has nothing to do with the Greek mythology. It was to do with Wonder Woman, the family or the people that live in the village of Wonder Woman are called the Amazons. This is the type of person that never gives up, that always wants more, puts the effort before anything else... And that's why our fans started giving us that nickname. So, we went and knocked on the doors to Warner Brothers and we showed them this. We told them the story and a couple of months later, they gave us the exclusivity in Mexico.
Since Wonder Woman, the relationship has grown...
At the start of each season or at the start of each year, Warner Brothers presents to us the movies that they're launching, and then the projects and everything related. And then as a team we will see what we're aligned with and the vision of the movie if it's aligned to the brand, and that's when together we try to do something creative, and you know, something cool
The Barbie partnership was one that really resonated with the players, as Carlos explains...
With Barbie everyone was just was keen to do. It was something very fun, very fun to participate in. They went into to the field with Barbie jerseys and with their own names and it was something very, very unique. And it was just very, very fun to do and very fun to collaborate with.
To hear the full interview, listen to the Footballco Business Podcast now.