: Ravi Puskur explains how pop-culture references help FC Goa reach newer audiences on social media #IndiaNEWS #Interviews Social Samosa talks to Ravi Puskur, Vice President – Strategy, FC Goa to

Ravi Puskur explains how pop-culture references help FC Goa reach newer audiences on social media #IndiaNEWS #Interviews
Social Samosa talks to Ravi Puskur, Vice President – Strategy, FC Goa to bring you a slice of action from the teams Social Media Pavillion.

With the pandemic taking away stadium experiences, FC Goa had to strengthen its social media presence and strategy to ensure that fans dont miss out on the action. It has been a consistent effort towards focussing on present audiences and reaching newer ones, expanding the scope to include non-fans. To this extent, they have been experimenting with pop-culture references dipped in the hues of all things football. Ravi Puskur, Vice President – Strategy, FC Goa tells us more.

Could you briefly tell us about the journey of FC Goa as a sports brand?

We’ve always been a football first brand for our fans — our internal ethos, our attacking gameplay, building our player profiles, the way we recruit players, how we are building our grassroots programme through the Forca Goa Foundation — make the brand story. Simple and consistent messaging around these aspects has been our endeavour. Especially since there is a socio-cultural legacy of football in the state. Now, our endeavour is to be the voice for Indian football nationally and increase the reach beyond our loyalists.

FC Goa has a narrative-driven approach on social media — could you tell us a bit more about it?

There was a shift in the way we drive communication this summer and it was a conscious decision to do so. We wanted to be integrated into the conversations of the regular day Indian — this includes both our fans and beyond.

We were able to find intersections between pop-culture, lifestyle — movies, shows, music, dance, iconic characters in mass media, past, present and upcoming — and football (after all, football is at the heart of it all) as pegs for our storytelling and moment marketing capsules.

And these, in turn, have yielded high views and shares, laughter and conversation and notably, brought, in several cases, new audiences and new perspectives to weigh in on a sport that can often seem inaccessible/elusive to a non-fan.

In August and September, we hit the highest ever non-follower accounts on Instagram at 750k and on Twitter, 37. 5k profile visits, the highest there ever.

Not to mention, created a new sense about what Goa represents beyond the usual — a hope for Indian football.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by FC Goa (@fcgoaofficial)

What are FC Goas objectives from social media promotion?

Everyone loves Goa. And Goa loves football. This is none the more evident than on our social media which has always celebrated its players, coaches, and attacking/ assertive brand of gameplay.