Harrison McIntire

Watford’s Digital Reimagination and Innovation

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs.

The digital landscape is one that is still so new that it continues to have changes on a daily level that go on to have massive ripple effects. Because of that, people often times feel like they are only trying to catch up. With the feeling of a time crunch, you forget to breathe and you look to someone who is doing well to mimic. However, “if they can do it, so we can we”, isn’t always true, especially when you’re comparing two Premier League sides that have budgets with are off by tens of millions.

A year ago, Graeme Ford was brought in as CMO of Watford to be their disruptor. He immediately started with a full departmental review. He understood that trying to be like the Big 6 but with incomparable resources wasn’t a proper strategy. Over this time he’s gone to place an emphasis on targeting international followers, a distinctive voice, and taking risks. He’s also been able to uncover nuanced, yet important factoids about the club’s follower base, like which types of players are preferred in certain areas of the world, and then being able to better target that back to those fans.

While there are lofty goals set for the club for digital growth it seems like they are heading to the front of the pack of the Best of the Rest.

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Categories: Digital Content, Europhile, Premier League