Arsenal News 24/7Writer: Tim Stillman 
Date:Tuesday January 29 2013
Time: 8:56AM
UK time is: 12:08:45
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Gunners To Tour Indonesia
Arsenal have confirmed that they visit Indonesian capital Jakarta as part of their pre season tour for 2013. For the last two summers, Arsenal have toured Asia, playing friendlies in Kuala Lumpar, Beijing, Hong Kong and Yiwu. The Gunners will return to Asia again this July.
The club will start in Jakarta for the weekend of 13/14 July, where they will host an open training session and play a friendly against the Indonesian national team in the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. It is expected that, as well as tourning Asia, Arsenal will return to Nigeria to play a friendly. The Gunners had been due to play in Lagos last August but had to cancel their plans at short notice.
This represents the first time Arsenal have visited the country since 1982 when Terry Neill took the club there. Chief Commercial Officer Tom Fox said, ''Everyone at Arsenal, the players, Arsène Wenger and all the backroom staff are looking forward to coming to Indonesia after 31 years away. We know that Arsenal enjoys fantastic support in Indonesia, with over 1.3 million fans connected to us by Facebook alone, and we look forward to giving our loyal fans the chance to see their heroes in action. We are also looking forward to learning more about the country's rich culture and history.'
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Your Comments
Is it just me, or do the club always seem to announce these things right near the end of the transfer window?
Rocky7
Hehehe! Good spot, Rocky.
Naijagunner
1.3 FACEBOOK FANS!!!!! WOWWWWWW!!
shewore
I'm might be wrong here, but I detect a hint of insincerity in SW's post!
Rocky7
i thought it sounded quite impressive, until I found out Indonesia has a population of more than 240m people.
damiano_tommassi
ha. I just think that's a useless barometer, some fella in KL has liked an Arsenal page, does that mean he doesn't like Chelsea, or City? Social media is a p1ss poor yard stick in my opinion.
shewore
This is good news. I bet the players are excited about the trip as well.
FunGunner
I'm sure they're not expecting 1.3m to want to buy tickets, but marketing is always reliant on sample sizes and it's still a sizeable enough one to suggest interest. Same as when you put an advert on TV, you pay more at primetime not because you expect even 5% of the viewers to actually buy your product, but the more people watching, the bigger the sample size becomes. Social media marketing is an industry all by itself nowadays, it's a yardstick. The marketing bods will have the numbers worked out as to how good a yardstick it is, but it's still useful.
Little Dutch
Social media is just one measure but in the world of marketing it is one that's taken increasingly very seriously. It enables them to target markets with some degree of expectation. Arsenal does very well despite its lack of recent success though trailing the spanish giants and ManU but the jump that Chelsea had after winning the CL won't be lost on Tom Fox. For Kroenke to make money for himself and the club commercial development is very important but can't be divorced from success.
Amos.
It just strikes me as being extremely superficial. The Premier League is the most watched football on the planet, Arsenal are a top 4 club with a massive foreign appeal due to the players we've had over the last 15 years, any idiot could run this marketing. Make sure you set up a facebook page though! FFS I'm in the wrong game.
shewore
Everyone thinks they can do the other persons job better than they can. Football forums have loads of football managers many of whom could win the PL, CL, FAC and CC if only they weren't too busy driving cabs or cutting hair. Not any idiot could run the commercial department at Arsenal which is why it hasn't been as successful as ManU's for example until Kroenke brought his man Gazidis in to install one. If you're not an idiot with an appreciation of the role that social media and online marketing plays in modern marketing (try taking a look at advertising spend trends over the last 5 years!) or the growing impact social media mobile technology is having on marketing trends you probably aren't the right idiot for Arsenal's commercial department.
Amos.
Honestly, how hard can it be to get 1m likes on facebook if you're the official Arsenal site? It's gotta be predominantly driven by what happens on the pitch hasn't it?
shewore
It's not hard to get 1m likes per se. The marketing bods will know that a large percentage of the "likers" will have little to no interest in being any more "active" than hitting the like button. But let's just say that forecasting shows that 4% of the people who "like" something on Facebook are likely to further their interest, then you know you've got roughly 40,000 people to pitch to. A drop in an ocean of 1m, but still a big enough number to be getting on with.
Little Dutch
And as soon as they see our shexy football up close, our popularity will rocket.
FunGunner
I wonder if you know just how much information not only Facebook but other sites gather about you? as a simple example Arsenal were able to tell that 1.3m of those liking their page were in Indonesia (they probably know which towns to visit too)- not information a facebook user would see as readily. Useful information to a marketeer. Facebook (and other sites - what does twitter know about you?) are also able to collect information on every site you visit even after you have logged out. The more 'likes' you have the more you know about people who 'like' you, what their tastes are and which buttons they can get you to press. The information gathered is valued so highly it is worth billions dwarfing anything a football club makes and raking in fortunes for those involved in gathering and selling it.
Amos.
@ shewore - it's not like you to have a negative take on good news. ;) The official site also claim that our Twitter account has the fourth highest number of followers of any sports account in the world. That bears thinking about. Not just of any football account, of any sports account. The commercial potential of this club is huge and if we do this right, we could easily rival ManUre's income in a few years.
FunGunner
Over 40,000 people attend each and every home game... how much do Utd, say make from foreign markets at the moment? Compared to home markets. Where moody shirts/merchandise isn't the norm... how quantifiable is it? Facebook knows i checked in to the Louvre, or i went to Brighton, or I went to the Queen's Head - then what? I get emails about Art, Village People and poncy lager? **delete**
shewore
Isn't it just as important to build up a new fan base in countries not full of Arsenal supporters, such as the US? We have an American part owner so why aren't we also touring the states?
Wyn Mills
Bali? why not? lets GO
JohnnyOz
I think the America thing has been tried before and failed before, miserably, and not just by us. Plus what do we have to trade on? Seriously? We can't go over there bleating about 16years of CL football - in Asia i'm sure some of em were fans around 2004?
shewore
Asia is seen as "virgin territory." Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barca etc go to the States a lot. At the risk of sounding horifically colonial, in the club's eyes there's probably greater interest in Arsenal in particular in Asia and less teams are touring places like Malaysia and Indonesia. The populace is big, the national leagues don't have any kind of renowned footballers (the MLS has Beckham, Donovan, Henry) and it's not the biggest sport over there. In short, it'd be a very, very competitive field compared to Asia.
Little Dutch
I guess Africa is also a big untapped market. I remember wandering around the souk in Marrakesh and being offered a fortune for my commemorative burgundy away shirt. I, of course, declined. ;)
Wyn Mills
I meant the 2005 redcurrant home shirt of course.
Wyn Mills
You're being far too parochial shewore. Sure the domestic market is the biggest but the biggest growth is overseas. How much do ManU make from overseas? Difficult to quantify but not difficult to imagine how it might build up. Subscription for MUTV? Membership packages? Arsenal added Arsenal player as a benefit for members not all of whom buy tickets but look get access to 'exclusive' content membership provides. Take a peak at Deloitte and the benefits that clubs like Real enjoy because of their appeal in Latin markets and it's not difficult to see why the PL attachs so much importance to international revenues. As for those poncy emails you get the point is that someone is paying someone for the opportunity to send them to you.
Amos.
You should have sold it Wyn. Hideous thing. I did get offered cash for mine in Maderia in 2005, but I wouldn't have called it a fortune. Plus I don't think the restaraunt owner would have appreciated me sitting there with my fat gut hanging out at the front of his place.
Rocky7
One consideration that may be hard to quantify, though, is the extent to which revenues from the domestic market are boosted by foreigners' purchases. This is especially so with merchandize sales. Africans, for instance, would not just order but make the trip to London and the Arsenal shop (The Armoury) to buy shirts and other club memorabilia directly. I know a few season ticket holders in Nigeria who would probably only attend a handful of games, as well, while also being fully subscribed to various members' options. The foreign market offers growth, reflected in the fact that you will find that Asians and African "fashion designers" reproduce fairly good imitations of replica Jerseys and these are snapped up and adorned by those who can't afford genuine ones. Makes you see what opportunities that are available if well harnessed.
Naijagunner
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