Tom Holmes talks to Charles Allen, Head of Marketing at Arsenal FC.
Charles has spent the majority of his career working for multi-national FMCG companies before moving to Arsenal in 2010.
His experience ranges from commercial roles with Coca-Cola Schweppes in the UK, to international commercial and senior marketing roles with Diageo plc in Argentina, Peru, Chile, Mexico and the Netherlands and more recently in UK with PepsiCo International.
His move into sports marketing was fuelled by a passion for football, and also a belief that his consumer brand strategy and marketing skills would be transferrable and transformational in a sports marketing arena.
Charles is a Mentor at the Marketing Academy.
TH: Charles, as head of marketing at Arsenal FC what is your primary focus?
CA: My main focus is around building the membership base for Arsenal football club and engaging the fans in a timely, relevant and personalised way. This focus has led to two main initiatives. The first to build both our technological and human capability in CRM benchmarking ourselves against the best in class, not best in football! The second, to turn our attention towards the international opportunity, estimates vary on how many fans Arsenal has around the world – what I do know is
that only a small percentage live in the UK, and that we currently connect personally to an even smaller percentage.
TH: Your career has spanned Arsenal, Pepsico, Diageo and Coca-Cola & Schweppes Beverages, what have been the high points?
CA: I have made career choices around brands that I believe in, trust at a values level, and use myself and I have deliberately built my career in the premier league (pun intended) of brands. My time at Diageo included a 10 year period living and working in South America. Through my family I have huge affinity and love for the region – my father was born and grew up in Argentina, and I myself spent some of my childhood in Mexico. I deliberately looked for opportunities to live and work in the region.
The experience that gave me confidence to look for a career opportunity in sport was when I worked on the launch activation plan for the sponsorship of team Mercedes McLaren and Johnnie Walker Whisky. My background had made me believe, erroneously, that all companies had marketing processes and disciplines similar to those of Diageo and Coca-Cola. What I quickly learned was that while McLaren were set up to be a fantastic race winning technology and engineering company, marketing was not their strongest suit. It encouraged me to look for opportunities in sport where a brand or club would accept fmcg marketing principles applied to a sports brand. That opportunity arose here at Arsenal FC.
Working on the McLaren sponsorship was great fun, very high profile and has ultimately created the opportunity for me here at Arsenal.
TH: Along the way were there individual marketers who particularly impressed and inspired you?
CA: I am inspired by provocative thinkers – people who can open up new areas of opportunity for me with a single comment or intervention – and then importantly step back and let me develop the strategy or whatever around it.
TH: You have a wealth of international experience, particularly in Peru, Chile, Argentina, Mexico and the Netherlands, how important is this experience to your day-to-day job at Arsenal?
CA: As we expand our horizons internationally having had some in-market experience is very important. Although we may be dealing in different markets to the ones in which I have lived, it does allow me to consider our approach from different angles and ask questions that perhaps I would not have asked without that experience. In addition, being a fluent Spanish speaker helps when dealing with some of the Spanish speakers in our playing squad!!
TH: What does the Arsenal FC brand stand for internationally?
CA: Having worked in global brand teams before I understand the importance of building a brand consistently around the world. There is a beautiful fan articulation about how Arsenal is perceived around the world which is summed up in the phrase “the Arsenal way”. This is a fan articulation about how the club operates with class, is forward looking and is all about building belonging amongst fans. If we consistently communicate these core attributes of Arsenal football club through our marketing we will go a long way to building the Arsenal brand consistently.
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