/christophers-website-6418/images/CPT103405967_hd-u6ad8.jpeg)
What Could’ve Been with Joao Felix and the CPL
/christophers-website-6418/The_CPL_Drafts_Missed_Opportunity_-_the_sport_marketeer_-_issue_23-sa594.jpg)
Chant Photo/ CPL
Last night, the 8 teams in the Canadian Premier League selected 1 player in each of the 2 rounds from Canadian university athletics, in the annual USports draft. We for sure learned our lesson regarding mock drafts - don’t trust them. We read three and the top pick in each one didn’t get picked…
With that, 16 new players were put in the spotlight to enter Canada’s top soccer ranks and fight for a professional career - to view selections click the link below:
https://canpl.ca/article/2022-cpl-u-sports-draft-view-all-16-picks-here
This is The Sport Marketeer, a white whale mktg newsletter, therefore we know you didn’t come to this article to read some draft analysis. So let’s begin… Last night, to announce José Cunha, a Portuguese product, getting drafted first overall to Atlético Ottawa, they went into their bag of tricks and called parent company Atlético de Madrid for a favour. The result? Who else other than Portuguese phenom and Atleti star João Félix. His message was sent from one capital in Spain to Canada’s capital in Ottawa.
Love it! Fernando, or whoever, at Atleti that came up with the idea, props to you. The ripple effects of this gesture I’m sure will pay dividends for the club and league going forward. The issue? Their dividend yield is approximately 5%, pretty good! But, they could’ve had 8.1% (a whole lot of finance being dropped in this week’s issue). Their collaborated Instagram did well as their social media received more than 110 likes within the first 10 minutes, which is impressive considering their audience size. We hope actions like these continue to take place as it will do wonders for the league and their club.
Unfortunately, staying on the Portuguese talent train - all good things come to an end, as Nelly Furtado says. The athletes drafted last night came up short. Half the battle of marketing is being timely and relevant. Yesterday was the perfect opportunity for these blossoming stars to capitalize on the spotlight but they didn’t. Not only did the league not tag all players on their draft post, but some players also had NO SOCIAL MEDIA! Are you kidding me? What’s worse than no social media, you may ask? It’s PRIVATE. What a joke. Frankly, we’re disappointed in Canada’s latest round of professional soccer players but more so on the CPL and USports.
These athletes are your greatest assets and the faces of your brand. To not prepare them, nor educate them on the potential social media has is saddening. The CPL and USports have tremendous talent that often gets overlooked and at white whale mktg we’re going to do our best to help future athletes not end up in the same position as they did in this year’s draft. The CPL, USports, and other Canadian athletes should expect to hear from us in the near future.
The reason we’re so passionate about what took place last night is the potential it could have had. Using a sports analogy, bases were loaded, down one run, no outs, up on the pitch count and you’re thinking about what condiments you want on your hot dog. Thus, you strikeout.
For all parties involved, I’m sure you’ll be seeing ghosts for the next little bit. Don’t worry, next time, don’t call Ghostbusters, call white whale mktg, we’ll hook you up.
Published: January 24, 2022 - Issue 23 of The Sport Marketeer