Aimed for the king, became one

When the entire ”old continent” is talking about the upcoming European championship and national teams, it’s not easy for clubs to get into the center of attention.  But one club surprised us all and made everyone talk about them.  It’s not Real Madrid who won the ”undecima” or Manchester United who signed the ”Special one”.  It’s Rot Weiß Oberhausen who combined ”Ibrakadabramania” with their social networks and became a viral hit.

What started the fire?

Just a week ago Rot Weiß Oberhausen was, outside their region, probably known only by hardcore football fans, betting addicts and their players’ relatives. Now, everybody knows about a cool club who sent an incredible offer to Zlatan Ibrahimović and rocked the Internet.

An attractive package they offered included: turning their city into a monarchy and declaring Zlatan as a king, renaming their sponsor from König Pilsener into Ibrahimovic Pilsener, reopening a local pool just for him. To make Zlatan feel at home, they also promised the reconstruction of the pitch with Ikea’s material only and serving “Schweden Happen” during matches instead of “Bratwurst”.

Soon after they posted their offer on their website, Facebook and Twitter, they became a hit.

The ”explosion”

When your idea includes the great Zlatan and such a cool offer, reactions must be great.  Football fans were thrilled with this and so was the media. When a club from the 4th league gets the attention of Eurosport, Sky Sport, AS, La Gazetta dello Sport, BBC and many other big media companies, you know that a great job was done. This also became a synonym for good PR.

More, more, more

Fortunately for all of us, Rot Weiß Oberhausen didn’t stop there. They kept on posting and reacting in an excellent way.  I’m sure that this brought them many new fans from all over the world.  Hashtag #ZlatanForRWO was also a great move.

What can every club learn from Rot Weiß Oberhausen?

1. There are no ”big” or ”small” clubs on social networks, just clubs with big and small ideas. Rot Weiß Oberhausen may play in the 4th league but they conquered all the other clubs on social media in this pre-EURO period. With a dose of creativity, courage and ”postive madness”, everyone can be winner at this game.
2. In order to be successful, you have to be different.  While other clubs were going on about preparations and upcoming friendly matches, Rot Weiß Oberhausen did something totally unexpected and never seen before. That made them memorable and cool.
3. Use the maximum of a good situation. Rot Weiß Oberhausen also did a great job by posting cool posts that ”kept the fire burning”. which made us adore them even more. By doing that, they made this interesting story even more interesting and prolonged their 5 minutes of fame.
4. Money doesn’t always ”run the world”. Good idea does that. Without a good idea money will be wasted. But, if you think of something special, viral marketing will become your ”new best friend”.

Conclusion

Bad news for Oberhausen is that they probably won’t get a new king. Good news for them is that Rot Weiß Oberhausen became a king in football fans’ eyes. I sincerely hope that other so called ”small” clubs will learn something from this example and be encouraged to do something like this.  Social media can’t wait to host a new show!

Article sources:

Flickr

RW Oberhausen official Facebook page

RW Oberhausen official web site