Partofnothing.tv

If you want to be something for everyone, you risk being nothing to anyone. And that is precisely the issue I have with Carlsberg new online venture, Partofthegame.tv.

Partofthegame.tv wants to hammer home Carlsbergs involvering in football (soccer for you in the US) by being the place on the internet, where fans of this sport unite with each other. I just think the good and very talented people behind this project have forgot that there is very little that unite fans between various clubs.

Let me use myself as an example. For reasons not really relevant to this story I’m a huge fan of Blackburn Rovers in the English Premier League. And that’s it. I am interested in what happens in and around the club, with players and of course the games themselves. I’m not interested in Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal or any other team - English or from another country. That would be betrayal, which real fans don’t commit.

And that’s the problem in regards to Partofthegame.tv. Here the basic assumption seems to be that as a fan of football I’m interested in all things fan-related. That I want to know about River Plate in Argentina or the burial of a fan somewhere in Germany. Eeeh? No. I’m not. Just as I’m not interested in all the books Amazon carries or all the millions of tracks available through iTunes.

Carlsberg may have seen a plan in trying to aggregate fans connected to football/soccer, but I just don’t think that’s going to happen. I see a need for Amazon aggregating books and iTunes aggregating music. But I see no need for Carlsberg trying to aggregate fans.

I wonder if during the development process, Carlsberg actually got input from real fans? If so it would be interesting to know what these fans had to say about the concept as such.

So what should Carlsberg have done instead?

First of all they could have focused on players. Wait, that’s what Nike is doing, and which is making a lot more sense. After all the only thing that would probably unite a Manchester United and a Real Madrid fan is the common view that Christiano Ronaldo is a great player.

Second, they could have looked beyond the games and to the broader impact of the sport on the local communities that the clubs and teams live and breathe in. Made some kind of connection along the tunes of “American Idols Gives Back”. That would have been a nice approach, although perhaps it could have been an issue seeing an alcohol related company embark on community projects.

It’s definately not an easy game.

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