New York City FC

New York City FC: how 100,000 fans participated in creating their logo, long before the club had played a single game

• A year before New York City FC (NYCFC) officially began to play, the club launched a badge initiative, asking fans to vote for their favourite and handing the final decision over to them.

• Matt Goodman, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Commercial Officer at NYCFC, explains all the small details that made the project a big success.

• The club hosted a “Badge of Badges” campaign, where interested individuals were given an opportunity to show their artistry by submitting their own badge creations.

• Executives looked to the club’s mission statement and values, which emphasise empowerment and inclusivity, to create the initiative.
  
  

For any new club, the big question is: how do you build a robust fan base when you have to begin from scratch? Creating a strong fan engagement platform proves to be an essential measure. This was true of NYCFC, which in 2014 – a year before the club officially began to play – launched a programme that put fans right at the centre. 

NYCFC had some challenges to overcome, despite being part of the same group as the New York Yankees and English Premier League giants Manchester City. Mainly, the club had to contend with the fact that it resided in a market deemed to be one of the most competitive for sports, media, entertainment and more. 

In considering how to reach a new fan base to build a groundswell of excitement, executives looked to the club’s mission statement, of empowering people to have better lives through football, for some answers. They also took account of NYCFC’s values, in which inclusivity plays a big part. 

Given the many and varied strategic issues involved in launching the club, the powers-that-be landed on its logo initiative as the best means to engage fans and hand the ultimate decision on the design of its permanent badge over to them.

“The primary goal is establishing the tone of the relationship with your fans at the outset,” says Matt Goodman, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Commercial Officer at NYCFC.

Part of this meant ensuring that NYCFC supporters could feel as though they were taking part in building the club while participating in the creative process. Listening to fan feedback was imperative in fostering a dialogue from which to move forward. 

In March 2014, NYCFC unveiled two designs created by artist Rafael Esquer, intended to reflect the uniqueness of New York City. For example, the typeface of the badges were done in the Gotham style (an American typeface) to replicate the lettering used on many buildings across the city.

The white, blue and orange colours are a nod to the New York City flag. One of the badges, the “shield badge”, mirrored the official seal of New York City, which is considered to be historic. The other, the “circular badge”, was inspired by the New York City subway token. Created by the Transit Authority, this token was in use between 1953 and 2003. 

The badge’s binding nature –  tying the fans, the club and the city together – shows the true importance of focusing on fan engagement. “It isn’t just the city that’s being reflected, but also what the club stands for,” says Goodman. “When you look at the storyline around the creation of our badge, it was very purposeful,” he says. 

The results were telling. Over 100,000 people participated within a four-day voting window. This, says Goodman, was strategic on the club’s part to create a sense of urgency in order to build momentum. “It shows the power of our population, too,” he adds, pointing to the excitement that New Yorkers demonstrated in having a football team they could call their own. It is also a testament to how international the city is, with football sometimes serving to connect people who support it elsewhere in the world. To have it closer to home meant something big.

The badge initiative was not limited to Esquer’s work. While fans could vote on their favourite badge, the club hosted a separate digital activation that had launched a month prior in the lead-up to releasing Esquer’s two designs. Known as the “Badge of Badges” campaign, interested individuals were given an opportunity to show their artistry by submitting their own badge creations over a two-month period.

NYCFC set up a “badge configurator” – a tool they could work from for their designs, which would then become a pixel of the official team badge mosaic. This fan-generated piece of art remains on permanent display within the club’s facilities. 

The success of the overall programme came in the form of fans contributing and sharing in the club’s creative process. This, in turn, sparked great fanfare around NYCFC’s pre-launch. The club had 20,000 season ticket holders in its 2015 inaugural season and drew an average attendance of 29,000 that same year. 

Goodman sums up why this fan engagement platform was so successful: “It authentically connected the fans to the club,” he says. “For them to have the opportunity to vote on and have an impact on the identity of NYCFC – it doesn’t get much more meaningful than that.”