LAFC billboard spotted in Los Angeles

Wondering when 2018 MLS expansion team Los Angeles Football Club was going to start putting up billboards around LA? Wonder no more.

One supporter tweeted out the proof on Friday:

BOOM

You may wonder why a billboard matters very much. After all, there are so many ways to market a new sports team.

But billboards are one of the best ways to grab a giant cross-section of the local population. The segmentation of popular culture means neighbors can live next door to each other and never watch the same TV shows, never get their news from the same sources, basically never come into contact on a cultural level. But everyone has to travel on the roads around town, and we all see the billboards.

It’s easy to target local soccer superfans who don’t want to support the LA Galaxy on social media. It’s a lot harder to get the word out about the team to the wider population, make sure more casual fans know that a team is coming.

Speaking of the Galaxy, even if billboards are considered an “old” marketing strategy, they have consistently put money into having their brand up on billboards around Southern California, so they get it. It’s something Chivas USA jettisoned at one point, and while it’s not a total cause-and-effect, attendance dropped off a cliff once the team stopped putting billboards up.

So yeah, billboards are important. Keep it up, LAFC.

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