Digitalisation process of FC Porto

Tiago Gouveia - Marketing Director at FC Porto - shared how FC Porto transitioned its operations to become more digital.  

Need for digitalisation

The club’s rapid growth over the last three decades (in terms of championships, titles, facilities and infrastructure and most importantly the number of fans) has helped to build a strong brand which in turn has created a certain demand from fans for engaging online-content. 

Ten years ago, the club realised that they did not have the right tools nor the right plan to offer the fans what they wanted in terms of engaging online content, so they developed a strategic plan to digitalise their traditional club.

Situation in 2009

Back in 2009 they only had the club website, the Dragões Magazine and SMS text messages as tools to communicate to the fans. As part of their digitalisation strategy they planned to broaden and diversify their offer so they could improve the fan experience by communicating to the fans whole day long on matchdays and even keep fans engaged on non-matchdays. It was important to make sure that their core values of competence, ambition, passion, innovation and rigor were kept central under this new digitalisation.

The club strongly believes that a strong strategy is more important than the actual technologies in their drive towards digital transformation. By 2019, the club had created a number of additional digital channels through which they can share engaging club-related content including:

• Active social media accounts
• A dedicated club website
• A dedicated FC Porto App
• A unique (live) Museum experience accompanied by a dedicated museum app
• An online club-Magazine
• A TV channel with club content
• A daily newsletter with club-related content 

Developing their online platforms and online reach has also helped the club gather data about themselves and their fans. They are planning to use this data in the near future to allow other technologies and communication tools to perform to their full potential. 

What we can learn more his presentation:

• A good strategic plan is more important than the actual technology
• These days, a large club with a large fanbase also needs to have a large online presence to keep up with the demand of fans
• Fan profiles (for example to log in to an app) can give you information which can help the club use other technologies (with personalised offers) to their full potential

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