There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Mexican football is the highest rated league on US television. Based on numbers, they beat the Premiership as well as other big league being televised on North American television.
What is smart is that they decided on our appeal to the fan’s desire to predict and also to compete with their fellow Facebook fans. Although the success of Mexican football on television is great, the nature in which the game was marketed with new audiences in their biggest market might have left lots to be desired. This trend is slowly turning around as the social media start to tap into the interests of the fans; aiding them towards becoming more interactive. The initiative taken by Azteca América was to develop the Gol O No Gol App on Facebook.
The purpose of this app is to post highlights of Mexican league matches and then have the visitor decide on whether the play ends up being a goal or not. It is a very entertaining way of Azteca to be use their content in alternate ways as well as helping spread the word about their league to everyone from the hardcore fan to the novice observer that is slowly getting the intricacies of the game in Mexico.
The app is as simple as can be when it comes to navigating and participating in its weekly competition where the top contestants win prizes. All you have to do is click on the player to play the video, then when the video stops you scroll down to decide whether it was a goal or not. If you guess right, your chances of being amongst the winners that week increase. If you get it wrong, well there are quite a few more chances you will have in order to redeem yourself.
It is a vital step for Mexican soccer networks to really start to reach out to the newer generations through social media in order to start generating fans. Azteca América are also looking for ways to promote the teams that they televise here in the United States and have been able to spread the word effectively via this tool. Teams like Cruz Azul, Monarcas Morelia, Jaguares, Puebla and Xolos Tijuana have received even more publicity since this application has gone live. Since its inception, the app has been flooded with traffic and has seen a great deal of participation from fans. Fans can always log on to the Facebook App and “like it”.
