JFF secures deal with US-based marketers
JAMAICA Football Federation (JFF) President Michael Ricketts says he wants the country’s football brand to reach higher heights, after signing an agreement with American-based sports marketing agency C11.
Following initial discussions during the Reggae Boyz’s campaign during the Copa America in the USA in June, JFF and C11 signed a multi-year partnership to help market the various national teams in the overseas market.
C11 has collaborated with some of the top clubs in the world, including European giants Manchester City, Manchester United, FC Barcelona and AC Milan. They’ve also worked with leagues and brands such as La Liga, Bundesliga and Concacaf.
Ricketts says getting more international support will help to improve football locally.
“What the JFF really wants to do is to diversify our marketing operations, and we would have had 876stream on board to deal with the local aspect of our marketing drive,” he said during a virtual press conference on Monday. “We engaged C11 because we thought we needed to get far more exposure globally — and these gentlemen will help us in this regard. They will be targeting Europe, North America, and other countries, I’m sure, so that we can engage some overseas partners. We’re very optimistic and hopeful that at the end of our World Cup qualification, and the end of the Nations League campaign, we all would have agreed that, indeed, it was a move that impacted the sport.”
JFF General Secretary Dennis Chung says the partnership will be beneficial in tackling a long-standing shortcoming.
“For too long the JFF brand — the Reggae Boyz, Reggae Girlz — we know that we’re well known,” he said. “We’ve been talking a lot about them but we haven’t gone out and exploited the brand so what we’re doing with 876stream, Business2Sports and now C11, we can take the brand to places where a lot of people are talking about it and exploit. Also, to ensure we get the funding we need to actually supplement the football development that we’re already doing so we want to take football to greater heights. The only way for us to do that is to expand the brand and get the value from it.”
Malcolm Media Advisors President Vinnie Malcolm will work closely with C11 during the process and says targeting the Diaspora will be key.
“With 1.2 million Jamaicans and many more in the UK, Canada, and the rest of the globe, we’re eager to supercharge the JFF brand to engage the passion of the Jamaican Diaspora,” Malcolm said. “The upcoming men’s, women’s, and youth football calendars call for [a] unique set of opportunities to develop the JFF brand through commercial and marketing platforms. With tourism being the number one industry in Jamaica because of its many attractions, we hope travelling to see our teams in Jamaica and other destinations in the region will be a regular occurrence.”
Malcolm wants the players to buy into their methods as they look to increase sponsorship.
“Having had the experience of marketing several teams in the United States,we’re very adept to working with the talent — obviously that’s with the permission of the JFF,” he said. “We would want cooperation of players, and we’ll insert them wherever it’s appropriate.
“That’s our plan — to use the players as spokespersons or brand ambassadors. So, wherever the opportunity exists to tie them with a sponsor or whoever, we’re going to take advantage of that. Hopefully, the players will see the value — and there’s probably some monetary opportunity for them as well — but it depends on how cooperative we can get them to be.”