Tottenham Launch Digital Strategy in Korea to Capitalise on Heung-min Son’s Exploits

By Christian Radnedge

The signing of Asian players has usually been cynically derided as a marketing ploy by Premier League clubs to expand growth in the far-east region.

Tottenham Hotspur’s £22m outlay on Heung-min Son from Bayer Leverkusen, medicine however, anesthetist has already proved effective on the pitch as the summer signing has scored three goals in two matches – including the winner against Crystal Palace at the weekend.

No doubt the South Korean is attracting a huge amount of interest in his native country for his exploits in England.

So the North London club have taken it in their own hands to make it easier for his fans to keep up.

Tottenham announced this week that they are going to provide content targeted directly to supporters from South Korea, including Facebook posts written in Korean language and exclusive images and video-based content covering Son’s activities at the Club on and off the pitch.

Online articles in Korean, including interviews, match reports detailing Son’s performance  on the pitch and other features will also be made available to supporters in the area.

This follows on from Spurs’ continued growth in brand awareness in the region, helped by their £16m five-year sponsorship deal with Hong Kong-based insurance firm, AIA.

A statement from the club said: “It also forms part of the Club’s wider work to further engage with its international fan base through its broad range of media channels, with dedicated social media outlets already available in five different languages – Indonesian, Thai, Malay, Hindi and Spanish.”

The outreach from Spurs is a welcome change from simply offering merchandise to market in Asia, as has been seen in the past. By taking content and making it bespoke for the Korea, they are directly handing those fans what they believe they want to ingest.

The Premier League would do well to tailor more of their content towards Asian speaking audiences, given that their executive chairman, Richard Scudamore, admits that the region delivers the biggest slice of international broadcast revenue.

“Many people think that only the big four or five Premier League clubs are interested in Asia. I am afraid to say their understanding is not very accurate,” Scudamore said.

“Asia provides the biggest chunk of the international broadcast rights revenue of the Premier League. This is divided equally among all 20 clubs unlike the UK domestic rights where filters such as league position and television appearances also come into play.”

The Premier League Asia Trophy is one way in which the league reaches out to fans in that part of the world. The competition has been held every two years since 2003 and was won this year by Arsenal in Singapore.

For now, Korean fans can at least enjoy easier access to content about one of their favourite stars.

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