Amid the jubilation, as Borussia Dortmund Frauen (BVB Frauen) celebrated their promotion from the Dortmund District League in Germany’s seventh tier of women’s football, it was appropriate that the Black and Yellows would receive praise for the team’s on-field success in their inaugural season and the dominance they displayed on the pitch.
By the end of the 2021/22 campaign, a 4-0 win over Brechten II, live-streamed on Borussia Dortmund’s digital channels in May, saw BVB Frauen finish their debut season having scored an astounding 143 goals and only three against as they sealed promotion from the Kreisliga division.
The vision for Borussia Dortmund’s first-ever female football brand was directed by Svenja Schlenker, BVB Frauen’s department head, who helped devise a survey of the club’s fan base before deciding on the club’s approach. “We decided to introduce a BVB women’s team at the lowest division after consulting with our fans,” Schlenker tells N3XT Sports.
“We wanted to ask them which way would be the best and it was really important for us to know that our fans stand behind us and the decision we made. We asked about 50,000 members with an 80 percent response rate. Of those, 80 percent chose to go this way – to grow the team organically, from the bottom up. It is important that our brand is authentic.”
This – Schlenker continues – is what executives within the club call the “BVB way”, and the culture runs throughout every BVB department, she says. While BVB Frauen’s on-field performances show promise that the team will one day go on to compete in the Frauen-Bundesliga top division, it is behind the scenes however where seeds for BVB Frauen’s future are being sown.
FAN ENGAGEMENT BVB FRAUEN’S PRIMARY FOCUS
Notably, it is within the club’s digital department where the club is setting the tone for the women’s team’s rise to prominence. Despite electing to begin their journey at the lowest reaches of Germany’s football pyramid, the decision has granted the women’s team freedom to foster a dedicated, digital following – both in Germany and overseas – that will continue to serve the BVB brand and its future.
“Our strategy is focused on fan engagement and information,” says Patrick Eckholt, BVB’s Social Media Team Lead. “There are many possibilities working in the women’s team at the lowest division. When I have a look at our channel here, we have content generated during those team-building moments, including the team sailing, for example, which stands out compared to our other BVB channels.
“We have many fans who are interested in women’s football, so it’s vitally important that we are able to show the character of the team and the division we represent. When we were promoted, we published a video of the speech from the coach in the dressing room which proved very successful for engagement. That particular post reached 31,000 followers and was viewed 15,000 times. We want to create an ‘approachable’ brand that our fans relate to and to make them feel a part of the team and the journey we are on.”
Into their second season and as the BVB Frauen outfit continue their journey in Germany’s sixth tier for women’s football, their original marketing approach is reaping rewards. By comparison, the BVB Frauen social following surpasses many of the Bundesliga’s affiliated women’s teams, including 40,000 followers on Instagram, which is beaten only by FC Bayern Munich’s, VfL Wolfsburg’s and Eintracht Frankfurt’s Frauen-Bundesliga channels.
This was achieved after Borussia Dortmund’s digital team promoted the channel via its global @bvb09 channel, which reached 400,000 BVB followers, of whom 40,000 engaged with the post.
“In Germany, at the level we play, there are no legal restrictions around broadcast either,” Eckholt continues. “That means, within the BVB brand, we are able to livestream every game with our cooperation partner Staige. We also broadcast some highlight matches via BVB-TV and our dedicated Twitch channel. When we talk about strategy, we want to generate a ‘home’ for BVB Frauen live streams, including across our other BVB social media channels, which are also used to livestream the BVB Frauen games that are in high demand.
“Most of our followers are from Dortmund and have a big connection with BVB,” Eckholt goes on. “They’ll watch all the teams, from the men’s to the academy and the women’s games. But there is also another opportunity to build an audience internationally via digital. For example, we know that in America there’s strong interest in women’s football channels among fans. These opportunities will only continue to grow as we climb the divisions.”
KNOWLEDGE-TRANSFER BEHIND BVB BRAND’S GROWTH
BVB Frauen’s immediate success has also seen the women’s department incorporated in the Borussia Dortmund social media partnerships, including an expanded club-wide deal with Footballco, owners of the Goal direct-to-consumer (D2C) platform. While the partnership will help drive exposure for the men’s team in Asia, the deal will also incorporate a BVB Frauen social series via Footballco’s women’s football Indivisa arm.
Speaking in September, the head of Indivisa, Morgan Brennan, said: “BVB Frauen are a fascinating team and project, and show Borussia Dortmund’s ambitions for women’s football. This combination of lower-league success and [a] leading European football brand aligns perfectly with Indivisa’s mission to cover the women’s game from the grassroots to the elite level.”
Schlenker concurs, adding that – while there will undoubtedly be opportunities to commercialize the brand in the years to come – the focus for now is to grow exposure for the club’s rising women’s product and requires a disciplined focus on driving digital engagement and exposure among existing and new BVB supporters.
“In my opinion, there’s no point comparing men’s and women’s football,” Schlenker continues. “It’s the same game but we have to acknowledge that they are very different products. That said, we are very happy to use the BVB infrastructure – our teams have the best training facilities available to them, and we can work with the coaches of the men’s first team, for example. That’s all about knowledge-transfer and extends to the partnerships that will help to grow the women’s team and the women’s game.”
N3XT SPORTS THOUGHTS
Analysis by Arianna Criscione
In a sport historically dominated by coverage of the men’s product, sports marketers understand the importance of D2C media for generating interest in the women’s game, writes Arianna Criscione, N3XT Sports’ Director of Women’s Football. When launching a women’s product, some football clubs more often than not adopt a business strategy focused on growing exposure and attracting sponsorship, while others don’t have an approach for growing the women’s product.
Borussia Dortmund has taken a different approach. By beginning their story at the bottom rung of German football – and including their fans in that decision – BVB Frauen’s inception stands out from other Bundesliga clubs as its focus, for now, isn’t to commercialize its status as a BVB brand, but to grow the brand organically and, in doing so, sets it apart from BVB’s men’s products.
As a result, while the team has proven too strong for women’s football’s grassroots in Germany thus far, the BVB Frauen outfit is carving out a unique position where it is able to leverage the support and knowledge of a world-renowned Bundesliga brand in Borussia Dortmund and set out its stall as a bona fide sporting entity that its fans connect with and understand deeply.
By building exposure for its brand organically, this will present BVB Frauen with a strong platform for sustained fan engagement as the team seeks promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga in the coming years and helps the club to develop an attractive commercial proposition that will serve the success of the BVB Frauen brand – both on and off the pitch – whenever the team reaches the highest levels of women’s football.