Senior Innovation Manager – not a usual title at a sports club. Could you please briefly describe your role? What are the key areas you are responsible for at VfL Wolfsburg?
Being an innovation manager at VfL iis special because you might know that we are a 100% subsidiary of Volkswagen. And one of the many advantages that we have through that is that we have a very broad organizational structure at the club. This is a structure that you wouldn’t find in many professional football clubs in Germany. Basically we try to expand our ecosystem at the club because we are totally aware of the fact that it is not going to be only about football all the time. And we need to focus on topics that will diversify our growth. Thus we, amongst others, focus on any new topics related to non-football which have the potential for us to open a new field of business. It can be NFTs, the metaverse, start-ups, or any international activity that we as a club pursue.
According to reports, Bundesliga teams are facing a dramatic loss in terms of revenue, because of the pandemic caused restrictions. Do you think that this pressure accelerated the shift to innovative, digital solutions to create new revenue sources for the clubs and the Bundesliga as a league itself?
Definitely. I think that is not even an opinion, more so a fact. And that doesn’t only refer to us, but probably any organization in this world, not only in sports. One of our key revenue drivers has been people coming to the stadium to watch our games, people buying merchandise in our club shop, and people buying tickets in our museum. All of that broke apart with the pandemic situation, and that definitely forced us to think in other directions and to accelerate especially digital growth even more. So what we have done throughout the pandemic was, for instance, a project called Digital Asset Consulting. We dug into our social media channels, we dug into any social media or digital infrastructure that we have at the club. We then identified our potential on these channels and asked ourselves the questions: how can we monetize remote fans, how can we actually activate them and get them into our existing ecosystem, which resulted in a decent amount of additional digital revenue. And that would not have happened in that velocity without the dynamic situation.
Why does VfL Wolfsburg consider that innovation is key for long term success? How could you define the role of the club in the German sports ecosystem in terms of innovation? Are you one of the pioneers on the market?
I think you probably heard of VUCA, right? Personally, I’m not a big fan of the VUCA model itself, but the core message of the model is still very true: we are in a world which constantly changes and many things happen that nobody can foresee. Like the pandemic, for instance. The only answer with what we as a corporation are able to cope that future or this situation is diversity. So we need to have diversity within the club that does not only count for the people who live or work here at the club, or for the players who play for our club, but it also counts for any business related topics – any business model that we have and any ecosystem that we have and operate.
We are totally aware that to solve that, we need to be innovative. We need to have an innovative and open minded culture here. We need to be able to react quickly to changes in the world which is only possible if you stay innovative and if you are able to renew yourself constantly. That is basically our mindset, where we say innovation is not just a buzzword or a marketing phrase, like it might be for many others, but it is essential to survive in this world we are in right now. So yes, we are one of the top leaders in the Bundesliga when it comes to innovation.
Is this possible because of your corporate background, or how does innovation fit to the company culture?
Definitely! We have the right people here. I think it is the core essence: if you don’t have the right people at the company, you are failing to be innovative. I’m not only speaking about people like me, who try to think very broadly, but I’m also speaking about the people who try to think narrowly. Because you need both sides. We as a team have developed a very good way of discussing. We always try to understand each other’s position. If you don’t have that, you will fail, no matter how many people like me you would have in the company.
Due to us belonging to Volkswagen, we have access to their innovation network. I’m in a lot of meetings with them, and I speak with almost all the brands on a regular basis. I just spoke to Volkswagen this morning. They are also eager to get into NFTs, for instance. That is an innovation ecosystem that we have access to, which really helps us to accelerate innovation.
On which pillars do you build your growth strategy? What are the key elements? How do you scale innovation and business behind?
First of all, it is very important that in our club strategy, we can find innovation on the meta level. That sounds pretty easy, but if you don’t have the support of the management, innovation is nearly impossible. So having innovation as an essential part of our meta strategy is the first step for us. Then we have basically two departments being responsible for innovation, alongside the culture that we have. One is for the sport side, so anything surrounding our team, anything our women’s team and men’s team do. The other department is us. We focus on not directly football related topics which basically means that we are trying to engage with those who are not yet fans of our club. We are trying to find topics which are focused on people who do not know VfL, or who might not be interested in sports at all. What we then do is “trendscouting”. So we have a regular trend report where we take a look at the megatrends occurring in the world. For instance, the most prominent one currently would be sustainability. But there are so many microtrends, AI, for instance, or AR or NFTs, which are around there.
Through our trend reporting system, we are basically always a few steps ahead of any other competition that we have. So we pick out these micro trends and then try to make a business case out of that. That is how we, for instance, got to be the first club in esports in the Bundesliga. That is how we try to drive innovation and extend our ecosystem, which is an essential part of our growth strategy. How can we find new fans and convince them to think “Hey, VfL is a cool club”, even if they are not into sports.
What is the current share of the international and domestic fans of VfL Wolfburg? Which international markets are the most active, and from which foreign country do you have the most fans?
We roughly have a share of 15 percent of domestic fans and 85 percent of international fans. Our core markets are China and the United States, which might seem weird. However, you have to understand that, in Germany, belonging to a company is not good. At least if you ask the football fans in Germany. The fans in Germany do not really like a club like VfL Wolfsburg or RB Leipzig, for instance. Whereas in China or in the US, it is exactly the other way around. If you belong to a corporation in China or in the US, you are a great team. And that is why we are one of the strongest German teams in China and in the US when it comes to publicity or image, which really helps us. This explains the rather small portion of domestic fans we have compared to our international reach.
How do you activate your remote fanbase? What kind of challenges do you face when you want to monetize them?
This is a question we ask ourselves all the time, which is already one of the main barriers that we have to overcome. So we are very good at engaging our fans. We do a lot of content topics on social media and we have many social media channels that our fans can use when they are remote. However, how can we get them into our ecosystem? So they can actually be part of our ecosystem and also start experiencing VfL? It is a very tough question. For instance, what we did so far is visiting the US or China with our first team. We play friendly games over there. Furthermore we have merchandise partners in China and in the States. However, right now we think that NFTs and also the metaverse might be key elements of not only engaging, but also getting people interested in our club. They can really experience our team, experience our brand, even though they are not at Wolfsburg at the time. So we are pre-convinced that this might be the answer. Of course, these are new forms of engagement and monetization, but these are just the first steps in a new world so it is very complicated and there are lots of barriers to overcome.
What kind of digital solutions do you have for monetizing them besides the NFTs and the metaverse. Do you use, for example, a CRM system or other solutions?
Of course, we do have a CRM system, and very soon a BI tool as well. So when it comes to data we do have that. However, it is not on a level that we would be satisfied with, yet. It is also one of the topics that got accelerated through the pandemic to be honest. We are totally aware that digital infrastructure, especially when it comes to data or big data, will be essential in the future for us as a club. However, we did not reach the level yet that would make any relevant revenues out of that.
In Germany/Europe, we have a very strict data protection policy. That is one of the main barriers that we have when it comes to data. We have a lot of data but we are not allowed to use it. We are trying to figure out a way how we can make that data more efficient when it comes to revenues or getting to know the fans who are behind this data without violating their personal rights.
You are also the head of VfL Startup Program. What is the main goal of this initiative? Which were your drivers when you founded this project? How can a club become a successful accelerator/incubator for startups?
As I said, we are trying to reach people who are not necessarily fans of VfL, or who don’t even know our club or the projects we are involved in. One of them is the startup program. Being able to reach a target group that we have not been able to reach before is very attractive to us. But besides that we want to learn and we want to deliver solutions within our club. I do interviews, just like you do right now, with my colleagues from different departments of the club and ask them: “Okay, what are your needs? What do you need to be successful in the next few years?” And whatever they tell me, I then go out there and look for a suitable startup to fulfil their needs. It is basically like a venture client model. We try to become a customer of our own partners, of our own startups, and use their solutions to solve a problem that we have in the club. And by doing so, we think that we create a very successful partnership with the startup. It solves a problem and helps the startup grow more valuable at the same time.
Of course we also hope that in a few years, through our support, through our name and us being a customer, the startup will grow valuable, and then one day we might be able to cash out. That is also one of the goals that we have with the program. We get to know so many founders, so many bright and brilliant people and they are very agile and very innovative. We, as a corporation, are also innovative, but compared to a startup, we are very slow, so we can learn so many lessons from our startup partners. That is a very valuable thing to draw out of our startup program.
What kind of ideas are you looking for in this project? How can these newly founded companies/spin off teams create value for the club? Are you problem focused or more like an ecosystem focused researcher?
It’s a little bit of both. So derived from the metastrategies, we have three target areas we are looking at. Those three target areas are our ecosystems we want to expand. And within these areas, we then look for the needs our colleagues have.
Firstly, we have sustainability and smart facilities. So anything surrounding sustainability is a no-brainer. As a club, we have a huge stadium. And we have so many other buildings, academies and whatsoever. And buildings are one of the key drivers in sustainability questions, that’s why we take a look into this area. Second would be anything surrounding our fans, so anything concerning fan experience and fan engagement and entertainment. For instance, NFTs. And the third target area would be anything around sports science, health and well-being.
NFT is a big buzzword, just in one year or six months, it went to very high amplitudes. What is your opinion about this monetization tool and where is VfL Wolfsburg currently in the adaptation process, in terms of NFTs and the metaverse?
It’s a great question. I went to a fair two weeks ago where they had a few keynote speakers from the United States who call themselves future heads of NFTs. They told us that they do not know what is going to happen here. So they are experts on blockchain, NFT and the metaverse, but even they do not know what the future is going to bring. This is where we are at as a club, too.
My personal opinion is that this is a new emerging market for all of us. Like any emerging market, it is going to have a crash and it is going to have a crash pretty soon. We are totally aware of that. It is either going to happen this year or next year presumably. I think it is really important that when the crash comes: who are your strategic partners?
If you ask me what NFTs are for our club, we believe in three directions: collectibles, gamification and utility. Collectibles, because humans have always loved collecting things. Only because now it is digital and you don’t have your Panini album down here, it is not going to change. So collectibles are definitely going to be there. Entertainment is the second topic. Humans like to play, like games, like being able to play. That’s why football is a big world game, too. That is why we think anything around fantasy gaming will survive. The third is utility, because you need to have a value to the NFT. It is not enough if you only have an NFT which defines that a certain digital item is in your possession. You need to make sure that there is a utility, not only in the digital world, but also in the physical world. I will just give you an example. We partnered up with one NFT startup, which is The Football Company. They pursue that gaming factor. So you can basically go in their app and you can enter the game view for Wolfsburg against Bayern Munich. Then you can pick out your players you think will play well and put them in your first formation. Then you just wait and see how the game goes, and how your team is going to score. If you buy an NFT on the platform, let’s say you buy our club jersey, some of our jerseys have a utility, for example, you get 30 percent more score than any other person not having that NFT, even though they have the same formation, the same squad. So that is the digital utility.
The next step will be bringing digital NFT utility into the real world. For instance, if you buy our club jersey as an NFT, with that NFT and with that NFT only, you could have, for example, a personal interview or a personal meeting with one of our players. But only if you have that NFT. In this way you are able to bring the digital utility into the real world and monetize it. These are the three pillars we believe in when speaking about NFTs. We are looking for these values in our partnerships as well because we think they are going to survive the crash with a fair chance.
What about the metaverse? What is your metaversal strategy right now?
We think it is an opportunity, and we believe that it is going to be a decentralized metaverse ecosystem, so there is not going to be one metaverse, but many. We think, as a corporation, or as any participant in the economy, you need to ask yourself the question, who is going to be my customer in five or 10 or 15 years? If you ask yourself this question, the customer in five, ten or fifteen years is probably going to be somewhere in the metaverse. They are probably going to be raised with NFT and blockchain technology and with so many digital assets. If you deny that, you are going to lose fans in the future. We think it is a great chance and opportunity for us if we are in any metaverse at all, so that we can position ourselves in front of that huge audience and be present there. Just imagine you are a 14, 15, 16-year-old digital native and you enter a metaverse and you find VfL Wolfsburg. That’s why we try to get in the metaverse and try to deliver content that you only get there and not somewhere else.
How do you see the club in 3 years? And what would be your personal role in this future?
I think that we need to be a 360 degree football entertainment platform. That is what I believe in and we as a club have to be able to achieve. When I say 360 degree, I’m not necessarily saying we need to have all kinds of sports in our club, but we need to be able to relate in topics. People are not solely going to ask, “Hey, what was your last game like? How did you play against Bayern Munich?” But they are going to ask, “What is your purpose or your opinion on sustainability and diversity? What is your purpose in human-centric approaches and socializing? What is your opinion on the metaverse or on esports?” They want relatable topics. That is what I mean when I say 360 degree platforms.
About my personal role, I would like to be the storyteller. The guy alongside our team who is able to tell the stories that define VfL. Stories that are having an impact.
We have, by the way, one of the strongest women’s team in the world, to give you an example. We have the vision that anybody should have access to football. Especially in our world, women don’t have that.
In the United States, one of our market entry strategies is to support female athletes. This is why we have created strongHER which is basically a worldwide unique program that supports any young girl that doesn’t have the social background to afford football. Not only physical football, so paid training camps, but also education-wise football. We set up a program that has three parts. One is training, one is mentoring and mentorship and one is education. We give that to the girls for free because we believe that football has the power to transform our society. What we do there has an impact. Nothing more, nothing less. That transforms people into fans of our brand and not because we want to earn money, but because we want to change something and tell a meaningful story. That always needs to come first. If you want to make money first, it doesn’t work. Nobody believes you. You need to have it in your heart. If you don’t have that, you are not being authentic.