We
breathe
soccer
breathe
soccer
After a decade of providing the world’s leading sports organizations, brands, and athletes with first class marketing support the ISL founders decided it was time to establish a full on 360 marketing department which would focus on helping other industries.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Marc Segarra one of the managing partners realized that ISL was not maximizing it’s capacity in terms of marketing services. Together with Alex Isern (ISL CEO) they decided it was time to capitalize on this opportunity since the company was facing loads of uncertainty, given the fact that the pandemic was having a rough impact on the company’s major programs. It was this very moment that led to the creation of this new department called Marketing 360.
Both Alex & Marc have always stated that service is the number one priority when it comes to ISL. The company is all about fostering & establishing long term partnerships, and this has been the case with families whose kids have attended the FC Barcelona camps throughout the years. “We have done such good work establishing proper social media campaigns together with mastering email marketing, that we need to share our level of expertise with other companies” stated Marc.
Marc insists that ISL would not be were it is today, had it not been for the support of the families whose kids have participated in the Barca academies, camps, and travel experiences. An important factor behind this new project was the fact that we want to offer marketing solutions to the families that have been with us all this years. Throughout the years, our soccer programas have enabled us the privilege of meeting executives from Fortune 500 companies to lawyers, doctors and business owners.
“We just want to thank the parents for the continues support throughout the years”. Were the words of Marc when describing the important role families have played in ISL’s success. Now we have a solution to offer parents who run small businesses or need help with marketing. Good service is an essence at ISL and we now have the tools to offer additional services not just to the families whose kids attend camp, although to the greater public.
It has different parts, but it can only perform properly when all those parts work together towards the same goal. At ISL, we enforce this interrelatedness and believe that an integrated approach is essential to attain the best results. Our 360 marketing approach takes strategies to a new level to communicate a consistent message through all the marketing mix elements. By implementing a broad strategy and the right tools, we will pursue and reach your target audience.
1 – Social Media Management Social media is one of the best ways to engage with customers and potential customers. Our Social Media Management team will successfully manage your platforms while strengthening relationships, raising brand awareness, and interacting with followers.
2 – Content Strategy Every successful business needs a solid content strategy. We transform your business objectives and goals into a plan that uses content to reach those goals and aligns with your target audience.
3 – Digital Advertising Digital advertising has become an essential tool to help businesses stand out and succeed among competitors. From awareness to purchase, we use digital media advertising to drive revenue to your business.
4 – Web Development & SEO We work behind the senses to make your website look great, perform its best and assure users a smooth experience. Our SEO experts will make sure you build better relationships with your audience, drive more traffic to your site and increase conversions.
5 – Email Marketing It is one of the most cost-effective digital marketing strategies to attract and retain customers with personalized messages that promote your brand, content, and product or service. We will keep your customers and prospects informed and engaged.
6 – Creative Design & Video From logos and images to videos, we create visual content that captures your company’s vision and values. Aligning content value to consumer goals is step one in better attracting, engaging, and converting the audience that matters to your business.
7 – Brand Development Branding makes an excellent impression on consumers and, as a result, lets your customers know what to expect from your company. Brand building has a lot to do with Psychology, and that’s why we will make sure your business’ logo and graphic identity align with the attitudes, aspirations, and needs of your target audience.
8 – Influencer Marketing & PR Tradition and innovation are powerful tools. That’s why at ISL, we believe in Influencer marketing and classic PR; at the end of the day, both concepts share the same goal: showing the public the right reasons to love a company. We have the right connections to help you build relationships between your business and a variety of media outlets and, as a result, increase your business’s brand awareness and reputation.
Joan Ocon, Director of Tandhem Representation Agency, explained to us the complexity of the soccer representation sector, the impact of COVID-19 , and the secrets to succeed as a Sports Agent.
Many dream of entering the soccer world as Player Agents. No early morning practices, best seats to the matches and millionaire commissions. Sounds like a dream job, doesn’t it?
That is only what you see on television, but behind it there is a job in which you do not rest, that you live far from your family and friends and from which you never disconnect. If you are able to assume these three concepts, you can take the first step. But only the first.
Can you explain what is really going on behind the scenes in one of the most competitive jobs in the sports industry?
As I said, this job demands a lot from you. Don’t let your guard down. The competition is fierce and if you want to survive, you must demand yourself the maximum every day. There are no schedules, there are no excuses, and there is no rest. You have to differentiate between two worlds. The formative and the professional. Both have really the same operations on a day-to-day basis but with a greater tension in the professional world.
You are the director of Tandhem, a Representation Agency, but you are also a lawyer. Why did you choose to enter the business of soccer representation/player management?
The question that everyone asks me. There was a time in my career as a lawyer when I realized that I was not born to sit in a chair for hours. I love law and I love sports, so I studied sports law, and thus step by step I entered this world.
Now that you are a Player Agent, does the reality correspond to your expectations? Why?
Although I am an agent, when asked, I always answer that I am a lawyer. It is something that has cost me years of dedication and that is part of my personal stamp in this profession.
What is the biggest challenge you face in your job?
To mark with my work team a style, a unique way of working and a unique philosophy. There are many representation agencies, therefore you have to seek excellence and make a difference. Tandhem has its own style and we must maintain it and enhance it day by day, that is the biggest challenge.
What is the biggest reward of being a Player Agent?
Work together with your player and achieve what we both have set out to do. It sounds easy, but it is not, because there are infinite risk factors. Gladly, I manage to achieve every goal I set with a player by working for it day by day.
What is the importance of press and social media in this business?
Today, it is key. Who does not know you, judges you by your social networks. Maybe before this didn’t happen, but now social media plays a leading role. Luckily, in our company we have a wonderful team of experts to help us and our players.
How did COVID-19 impact the players’ contracts and the transfer market in 2020?
The market is stopped. It should be borne in mind that the football market did not suffer the crisis of 2008, and that it has registered growth year after year until the Covid has stopped it. Salaries have also gone down and the disbursement for player transactions has been reduced by 70%, according to the information published by sports media outlet Palco 23.
Has player management changed with COVID-19?
There is a very important human factor in this work. If human relationships have been cut or reduced, that has affected work. Now it seems that we can travel more and meet with caution, hopefully we continue like this. It is very difficult to convince clubs and sports directors through a virtual meeting. Some clubs have also modified their methodology, replacing scouting travels by players’ data analysis to choose the new players. It is the first time in the soccer industry that clubs have given big data a leading role in recruiting players.
Do you get personally attached to the players or is it just business?
I do not like to give clues of what our style is. But in our case, the personal relationship with the player is key in our work. It is a business, yes, but the business is made up of people, we cannot treat players like trading cards. For us, they are our family. This is how we feel it and this is how they feel it.
What are your top 3 success rules?
Honesty, professionalism and ambition.
What is your best advice for someone who dreams of being a Player Agent?
It seems like a cliché, but in that profession I consider it essential. I would tell him not to give up. When you start and are small, there are many obstacles and everything seems to be a problem. Not giving up and being persistent is key.
Check out our latest projects!
Pepe Nogues is the Director of the Barça Academies managed by ISL across the USA.
Every year, Pepe organizes and coordinates a team of 6 people, responsible for 2,000 aspiring your soccer players in 6 different states of the United States.
The Barça Academy US includes boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 18, and offers all year long soccer programs and events and tournaments, with the goal of developing new soccer talent and spreading the FC Barcelona sports’ values.
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, the Barça Academy’s dynamic has been affected, as have most sports activities.
The esports popularity keeps growing and it is expected to reach over half a million viewers in 2023.
We have designed a pretty solid BA calendar that we use as guidance to plan and organize in advance for the following year/s. It is true that, since we operate in different states, different regulations apply, therefore adaptations also need to be made accordingly.
Well, when the pandemic hit and new safety measures were dictated by health departments and soccer federations, the whole operational model had to be quickly re-edited. Changes such as: carefully managing cash flows, adapting from tryouts to renewal strategies, expanding our customer base experience, rewriting policies… to make it short, almost everything changed in a way.
We received great support from FCB on the new coaching models that were applied through virtual training and online learning experiences.
There have been 3 major challenges I should point out:
1) Adapting our teaching & learning model to virtual trainings.
2) Creating a Covid Committee and adding experts on the matter.
3) Applying strict safety measures to get back on the field.
Timing was one of the biggest issues I faced. The quick decision making was critical because at the very beginning no one had the absolute truth on how things should be run. I had to quickly provide new guidance for my team, for them to provide guidelines to their staff, players and families.
Very strict safety measures were applied on the “get back to the field phase”. We literally looked like a moving hospital giving soccer lessons. We purchased so much sanitary equipment and materials that our coaches looked like doctors. Gloves, masks, sanitary stations, temperature check points, covid control cases, etc… It was a challenge but I can gladly say that we did an amazing job in this matter.
I have to give full credit to the local staff because they reinvented themselves. It was not only the leadership team providing new guidance, but technical directors and coaches reaching out sharing great thoughts and ideas to engage with players and families in this new and challenging adventure. It was definitely difficult at the beginning to get high rates of players’ attendance, but as we shared on social media how we were safely operating, players and families started to trust the method and found the strength to get back on the field despite the pandemic.
The pandemic and new operational model obviously raised a lot of questions and concerns to parents & families. They were mostly concerned about financial support and about the safety for their kids which we took very seriously and responded to the best of our capabilities. We have to THANK them all because a great deal of understanding and comprehension was shared by the majority of the families.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is far more severe than many people want to recognize. We do still face challenges that the pandemic continues to present such as cancelling very important regional and national tournaments that are critical for completing the competitive cycles, or directly affecting international travel which blocks players and families from discovering and experiencing different soccer cultures.
João Carvalho is a die hard fan of esports and an expert in the matter.
He was the Founder of Prémios Esports Portugal (Portuguese Esports Awards) and has been working with the esports industry for 10 years.
We asked him to explain to us what esports are and how they have grown so fast, to tell us about the leading esports games, and to share his insights from a business perspective.
But before, let’s take a look at the latest facts and numbers about esports and the video game industry:
The video game industry has been generating more revenue than the movie box office and music industries combined over the last decade, reaching $159.3 billions in 2020.
The esports popularity keeps growing and it is expected to reach over half a million viewers in 2023.
Esports is the competitive side of gaming. I always explain it like this: a person juggling a football ball is not playing a football match. He’s using the same tools (football boots, the ball, might even use a net and a goalkeeper), but he is not competing against anyone other than himself. It is the same with esports: when you are playing video games against other people, in a competitive way, you can call it esports.
I would attribute that to 2 main reasons: the technological advancements of our society, that created the infrastructure needed (high speed internet, accessibility and affordability of video game consoles and gaming PC’s) for people to connect online like they were in an offline environment (no lag, no difference in ping, etc.) – vital for competitive integrity; the eager that human beings have to compete. Since the beginning of time humans are competitive animals in everything they do, so it is just natural that the same applies also to video games.
Tandhem Esports is an extension of Tandhem itself. Tandhem is a global talent agency, with expertise in athlete management and sports marketing. Tandhem Esports shares the exact same values and principles, but applied to the esports industry.
We aim to help semi-pro and pro esports athletes to achieve their goals, both professionally as well as personally. The majority of the athletes in the esports industry are very young and still very naive. They just want to compete and there is nothing wrong with that. We try to defend them from people who know exactly how to take advantage of that, giving them financial, legal and representation advice.
We see ourselves as partners of the players, more than their agents, in the traditional sense of the word.
They are aware of the phenomenon. They know that not entering now may jeopardize their business in the future.
Traditional sports are seeing their fans and viewership grow older as the time goes by. They need to do something to reverse the trend and one way to do it is to target the kids who give the majority of their attention to esports competitions, other than traditional sports ones.
Football and non-football sports institutions know this and see esports as an amazing opportunity to captivate younger audiences.
It is very difficult to tell which teams generate more revenue as the majority of them don’t disclose their annual income in full. One can only grasp and assume, based on the teams they build, the players they hire, the content they produce. Which is not exclusively related to the revenue they organically generate, because some teams survive via continuous outside investments from people still trying to enter the scene.
As of the games with more audience: League of Legends and Counter Strike have been producing top numbers for quite some time and I would consider them top 1 and top 2, respectively, based on the longevity of the numbers they’ve produced.
However, Fortnite and FIFA have been producing amazing numbers too, in platforms such as Twitch and Youtube, and it is very interesting to see what the future holds.
It is important to remember that there is a HUGE gap between the amount of professional teams in traditional sports compared to esports. Top esports players can earn multiple million dollar deals a year, but there are only a few of said players in the world, while in traditional sports it is rare that a player from a top league does not earn those amounts.
This is changing however, because esports players are more keen to create content and to share certain aspects of their daily routine (like training, exercising, habits), something that the younger fans want to see, because they want to emulate their idols.
Could you imagine the hype if Cristiano or Messi would train with a gopro on their heads? The world would stop to see it.
It depends on different factors, but right now I would say it would cost more than one million dollars a year. Two years ago, with talent from Europe (the best region in terms of talent besides the Asian market), you could build a great team with half a million a year.
The salaries increased a lot since the players perceived their power and how much they were generating for the teams just in exposure and stream numbers.
Currently, sponsors are the biggest source of income for team organizations.
I would say that TV Rights will play a huge role in the next 5-10 years, because only now the teams are understanding their importance to the Leagues: the Leagues capitalize on the teams’ exposure to close multi million dollar contracts with sponsors – League of Legends European Championship – LEC – is the biggest example of this.
Other than that, esports have the same revenue sources as traditional sports teams: merchandise, player buyouts, prize pools from tournaments, events’ ticketing, etc.
It is one of the best investments one can make still of today. Esports exposure will only go up, as more and more kids change their hobby habits to playing video games on a daily basis, because they now have the access to the technology (mobile phones, tablets, computers, consoles, etc.) that we didn’t have 5-10 years ago.
5G will also play a huge part in the dissemination of mobile competitive gaming, as we will only need our cellphones to be able to compete at the highest possible level, from anywhere in the world.
I believe that because all of this, associated with the streaming tools that exist today, in 10-20 years esports the number one sports in the world.
La Liga Select is the first official LaLiga platform to recruit talent in the United States.
This project gives young players with ages between 13 to 18, the opportunity to showcase their talent and start a professional soccer career in a LaLiga youth club.
LaLiga Select will open the doors of European soccer to American players, creating a quality reference in US soccer, while positioning Spain as an attractive market for young US players.
As soon as the announcement of this unprecedented initiative was made official by LaLiga, several media outlets picked up the news and communicated it around the world, valuing the contribution of ISL and LaLiga to the development of American soccer and to bringing countries together through sports.
In Spain, home country of La Liga, the main sports media like Mundo Deportivo and AS gave a full page coverage to the story, while in the United States prominent informative platforms such as yahoo! finance or ESPN Deportes delivered the news highlighting the positive impact La Liga Select will have on US soccer.
The press coverage of LaLiga Select reached over 50 media outlets and 113 Million visitors in 4 different continents. Below are the major publication covering the launch of LaLiga Next:
Yahoo Finance: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/laliga-north-america-creates-platform-154000374.html
ESPN Deportes: https://espndeportes.espn.com/futbol/espana/nota/_/id/8034001/laliga-lanza-programa-captar-talento-juvenil-estados-unidos
Mundo Deportivo: https://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbol/20210114/491562506918/laliga-proyecta-captar-talento-en-estados-unidos.html
Sports Finding: https://sportsfinding.com/laliga-plans-to-attract-talent-in-the-united-states/78129/
US AS: https://us.as.com/us/2021/01/14/futbol/1610650465_385309.html#menu
ISL’s player management arm, Tandhem, is one of the first sport talent and marketing agencies in Spain to open an international esports section.
In February 2020 ISL announced Tandhem, a global player management agency created to help athletes reach their maximum potential on and off the field, with a 360 degree management service covering representation, intermediation, marketing, and legal/financial support.
Now, not even one year after Tandhem’s launch, ISL’s “baby” is ready to expand in new directions and apply its full expertise to esports players and content creators.
“It only makes sense that we share our valuable expertise in soccer representation as well as our strong sports clubs network. Our proposal is to bring in the values and work models of traditional sports to help improve and develop the esports sector.” says Marc Segarra, ISL Co-Founder and Tandhem managing partner.
Tandhem Esports is a reflection of the brand’s vision to keep growing and expanding, always on the lookout for the hottest trends in the sports scene.
For this e-chapter, Tandhem is teaming up with Portuguese esports lovers and experts, João Carvalho, Founder of Prémios Esports Portugal (Portuguese Esports Awards) and ex-partner and founder of Braver Media Group, and Tiago Niza, who has worked in multiple countries and multinational environments, primarily focussed on RPA.
Tandhem esports has already signed 2 top LOL players: Francisco “Xico” Antunes, from BDS, and Amadeu “Attila” Carvalho from Vodafone Giants.
The vision of Tandhem Esports is to bring professionalism and integrity to a fast growing industry that not always operates with the organized and legal formats that we are used to see in traditional sports.
“We have the moral obligation – as entrepreneurs and passionate fans of videogames – to protect and nurture the centerpiece of this evolving market: the Player/Content Creator. They are the ones who add the most value to the market but unfortunately also the ones who are treated the worst. We intend to help by creating the support infrastructure that they need in order to become the best version of themselves.” explains João Carvalho, Tandhem Esports Co-Founder & Esports Director.
Just like the football section, the esports section will also offer 360º services: representation, intermediation, sponsorship brokerage, marketing, and legal/financial support.
Why esports?
Video games have experienced an exponential growth in the past 2 years, currently generating higher revenues than the cinema and music industries combined:
In 2019, the video game industry was worth about 145 billion $, while Box Office and Music were worth $42.5b and $20.2b, respectively.*
The esports audiences keep growing both online and offline, surpassing the number of spectators of the world’s most popular sports events such as the NBA finals: the 2019 League of Legends World Championship Finals amassed a staggering 44 million concurrent viewers while the NBA finals in the same year averaged 15.1 million viewers. *
Esports are not the future, they are the present, and both ISL and Tandhem want to actively participate in revolutionizing the way in which sports are being played and consumed by contributing to the continued growth and development of this fascinating new sector.
Sources:
* https://www.statista.com/chart/22392/global-revenue-of-selected-entertainment-industry-sectors/
* https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2019/12/2019-world-championship-hits-record-viewership/
Albert Balsells is the Barça Academy Soccer Camps director for the USA.
Every summer, he organizes and coordinates 25 Soccer Camps that gather over 4.500 young players to learn the methods and values of the famous La Masia, where FC Barcelona legends like Messi and Xavi grew up.
This year, he had an impossible task: to organize the soccer camps events in the middle of a global pandemic.
Against all odds, Albert managed to minimize the impact of Covid-19 and adapt fast to ensure maximum safety for the players and their families, thus guaranteeing the kids would still be able to enjoy the best soccer summer experience in the country.
In 2020, Barça Academy USA held 14 Soccer Summer Camps for children between the ages of 6 and 16, registering a total of 1.500 participants and zero Coronavirus infections.
How did Mr. Balsells pull this off? That’s what we are going to find out:
At the start of each season we implement a timeline in which my team and I assign ourselves tasks to do throughout the year in order to have everything ready prior to camp commencing, although this year everything changed at the beginning of March due to COVID-19.
From March until the end of the camps we changed a lot of things and designed a contingency plan to know how to act considering different scenarios. The work done by the ISL staff was outstanding, considering the difficult situation we had to endure. Supporting each other was one of the most important things to keep working as a team.
The biggest challenge for me and my team was that the situation was changing every day. Originally we had planned 25 camps, but ultimately ended up doing only 14 due to state restrictions & regulations. In addition, we had to monitor daily how the covid situation was evolving in each state and what were the updates from the government.
We focused on safety measures on the field but also off the field, as in some camps we could have 300 people at one facility. We were very explicit in our communication with families and players to ensure that they maintain social distancing, wear masks, adhere to different drop off and pick up times and wash their hands periodically. We also cleaned the soccer material daily, distributed cleansing gel, etc.
A positive thing that we take from the camps is how people cooperate all the time, not just the players that were fantastic, but also our staff that was incredible at understanding the situation at all times and always being there to help each other. We couldn’t have done camps this summer without them and we are very grateful to all of them.
As you can expect in this situation, families were worried about the safety of their children, that’s why one of the keys to success was communication with all of them. We designed safety protocols which we shared with all the families weeks before the events started.
In a situation where every phone call can carry bad news because something happened, my advice would be to stay calm and act accordingly. At the end of the day as a person you can’t stop a pandemic by yourself, you can only imagine and plan different scenarios and be ready to act whenever you have to. Another very important thing is to support your team, at the end 5 brains think more than 1 and it’s important to trust them.
We are very excited for 2021 and we hope we can run the camps without any restrictions. Besides the soccer experience, we want the players and families to have fun on and off the field. We are already thinking of big surprises for the players, if we can do the camps normally.
Alex is a mastermind oriented to success. His efficient business skills come from prestigious schools such as ESADE (Master’s Degree) and Winthrop University (Bachelor of Science in Business Administration).
Alex is also a professor at ISDE Law & Business School, where he teaches a Master’s Degree class. This month, his class will be about Risk Management and Human Resources, the trending topic itself considering the current global pandemic crisis and the second lockdown in many european countries.
So, we went ahead and asked him some questions about it:
The increasing exposure to the effect of numerous risks, such as Covid-19, has made risk management a key activity in sports organizations. How a business identifies, evaluates, and faces the risk is crucial to overcome challenging situations.
Create a risk aware culture
Continually re-assess risk
Plan, plan, and plan
The Covid-19 had a big impact in our organization, especially to our travel management side. Our priority has always been the health and safety of our team and our customers. That’s why we had to change how we do things internally, but also the way we interact with our clients and partners. We have embraced a digital ecosystem to offer more customized and enriched digital experiences. Some of our tradicional services have been on hold for several months but the adaptability of our team has been outstanding. We look forward to returning to normality in the next upcoming months.
One of the main challenges we have as a sports organization is that we require a large workforce for an intense period of time. Every time we organize an event such as a tournament, a preseason tour, or a sponsorship activation, we need to hire new people that will stay with us for a few weeks or even days. The rapid increase and decline in staffing within a short period of time is a complex human resource challenge. Finding and retaining talent is also one of the most significant managerial challenges.
I would say both. As I said previously, human resource management can be very challenging in sports organizations. Shortage of staffing or a lack of training in our team can be a source of risk. However, thanks to our people we can also mitigate a lot of risks and solve challenging situations.
I wouldn’t say risky, but challenging. As a global company that operates in several countries, we have our team spread in different parts of the world. Having a great communication structure in place and setting up very clear individual and team goals is key for the company’s success.
In my opinion there are several key factors that we need to achieve in order to have a successful talent acquisition and retention process:
During this time of uncertainty, managers of sports organizations are being forced to make tough decisions to minimize the impact of the Covid-19. Most of the time we believe that reducing our staff is the only solution, but there are many other ways to face this economic downturn. We would be surprised how versatile our teams can be if we are creative and innovative. The ability of the managers to find new opportunities and adapt quickly to the new context will determine the future of the company.
Spreading the “blau grana” brand on a new continent takes time, skill and dedication, but it is very rewarding when thousands of players are able to train like a real FC Barcelona player, while enjoying the best soccer experience in the country. Thousands of players learning from the FC Barcelona methodology over the years has helped raise the level of soccer across the country.
Through Barça Camps, ISL is helping FC Barcelona to increase their brand awareness around the globe, and to reach thousands of American families. A key factor in the success of the global partnership between ISL and FC Barcelona is the growth of the historic clubs fan base. Not only does ISL help develop the game across the United States, but it creates brand ambassadors who create a unity with the club that would otherwise be impossible.
Over the years, ISL ran camps have seen over 25,000 young players and families representing the FC Barcelona colors during the nationwide tour. We’re pleased to continue the partnership, and plant the FC Barcelona roots deeper into the fabric of the United States soccer market.
What makes heading into 2021 such a unique year, is the signing of young American soccer talent, Serginho Dest, to FC Barcelona. Dest is fast becoming a global star, and is a beacon of the ever growing level of soccer in the United States, which has benefited from partnerships like the one between FC Barcelona and ISL.
During June and July of 2021, from Monday to Friday, Barça Camps will be hosted at 25 different cities across the United States for boys and girls, separately, with ages between 6-17 years old.
The participants will be able to fully indulge in the Barça Philosophy with 6 hour practices where they will learn the same tactics taught at LaMasia, that have helped shape players such as Messi, Xavi, Ansu Fati, Serginho Dest and many others.
Barça Camps not only forms skilled players, but also and most importantly, Barça Camps is an essential learning experience for kids to grow and mature as individuals.
Don’t miss this opportunity and register now, before it is too late!
