Borussia Dortmund’s APAC Managing Director on the club’s virtual tour, digitalisation & ‘Kick it Out’ partnership

Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund’s plans to tour China and other countries in South East Asia with the senior team before the start of the 2020-21 and to send a legends team to India have all been put on hold due to COVID-19. However, the club has come up with a virtual pre-season tour of Asia for its fans from the region, titled ‘BVB Virtual Asia Tour’ which will be launched soon. The Playknox spoke with Suresh Letchmanan, Managing Director of Borussia Dortmund , APAC to know more about the virtual tour, overcoming pandemic challenges, diversity among other things.

 

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on Borussia Dortmund’s APAC business? How are you overcoming these challenges?

Indeed the unprecedented events has caused much of a challenge for us here in Asia as it involves the various relationships that we have established and cultivated such as our stakeholders, fans and partners in Asia and hence the inability to travel to have face to face meetings, running coaching sessions and engaging on ground with our fans has come to a standstill for over the last four months.

We took the challenge and have diligently put together with our international and communications teams a digital strategy to have a series of online campaigns, content creation and promotion and digital engagements for our fans, partners and media.

 

Bundesliga was the first league to restart in the COVID-19 era. Do you think with the ongoing situation, behind doors matches are going to be the new normal?

It was important and refreshing to note that all the teams in the Bundesliga were able complete their matches without any key issues or concerns since the restart of the league. Of course it’s never going to be the same as it was pre COVID and not having our fans cheering in the stadium and especially from the Yellow Wall was extremely strange. This club is about our fans and playing behind close doors is a new phenomena for us all.

I’m optimistic but at the same time realistic that we have to accept this as a new norm but I’m not going to let this get into us as we are hopeful that we can get our beloved fans and spectators back to the stadium soon. We have full trust in the governing bodies and their decisions which we will continue to support unanimously.

 

 

Digital is the way forward. How is BVB leveraging digital for fan engagement?

We have been embarking on a series of amazing digital campaigns and engagement. The first activity that we had was sometime in March for our China market where we had digital activities primarily with our Chinese fans which drew close to 3 million views and close to 8000 engagements.

We will be launching our first virtual Asia tour which will be taking place in the coming weeks. This will be a way to give back to our fans who have been patiently waiting for the team’s presence in Asia this year but unfortunately due to the pandemic we were unable to travel this year to Asia for our preseason matches hence we came up with a much safer option but at the same time still keeping and maintaining the impact, commitment and close proximity to our fans. This will be an exciting virtual tour.

 

Marketing and branding strategies have undergone major changes. What has been the response of BVB’s APAC partners? What can brands do to leverage the current scenario?

We have reverted to more webinars, watch parties, online lectures, home challenges and online coaching sessions to supplement and factor into our conditions as we were unable to be present on ground these days due to the crisis and the response have been positively overwhelming from our APAC partners. I believe digitalisation is a key component in today’s current climate and clubs need to embrace this way of communication and engagement.

We have also conducted messages of goodwill from our first team players and legends for our fans and partners globally. We do what ever possible to get close to them.

 

We saw BVB announce the virtual Asia tour. Tell us more about the same and other recent initiatives.

Our virtual Asia tour will be launched in 3 key markets namely China, Singapore and Japan with many many online activities and to some degree a couple of on ground events too especially in China. There will be interviews with players, an online treasure hunt, cultural exchanges, webinars, online coaching sessions and an actual friendly match that will be live streamed from Germany to the Asian markets with live interviews and pre and post match entertainment. Lots of exciting things indeed.

 

Globally there is an ongoing conversation about inclusion and diversity. How does an organisation like BVB ensure the same?

In late 2019 Dortmund and Kick it Out have partners in their common effort to tackle any form of racism and discrimination. To follow this common goal, the two parties will help to raise awareness for organisations and individuals who are actively engaged in fighting against any form of discrimination. As a result in Aug 2019 UEFA awarded us the prestigious Equal Game Award for the club’s role in promoting diversity, inclusion and accessibility in football.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Related Posts

Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel.

Back To Top