Mr Bugter will also be a speaker at our ESSMA Summit 2024 in Amsterdam in the theme ‘Marketing & Commerce’. More info and tickets here >

The second screen experience

ESSMA: Mr. Bugter, thank you for making the time for this interview, we appreciate it very much. For our ESSMA members who might not know you, could you please introduce yourself to the ESSMA community?

Lucas Bugter: I will start with my personal story. Then you know a little bit who I am and why I work for this company. And I will tell you a little bit about who we are. So my name is Lucas Bugter, I am 34 years old. I came to work here when I was 29, so 4,5 years ago. Previously I worked for Endemol, where I did everything on a digital level for the sports department. We did everything for Fox Sports, ESPN, and that includes the website, social media… The world of TV channels was great to work in, but for me it’s pretty limited. Because everything is about getting as many people to watch paid TV as possible, for as long as possible.

But in football for example  I noticed that I don’t watch a match for 90 minutes anymore. I just don’t keep up with that anymore, I’m on my phone during a match, like the younger generation does these days also constantly. The audience started to expect that clubs would give away their content for free. And 433 was, back then, kind of able to do that in a certain way. Nowadays we have a lot of big collaborations and we are the world’s largest football community on social media.

At the moment we have more than 100 million followers on all our accounts combined. And with more than 7 billion impressions per month, we’re the largest community on Instagram worldwide. How do we get those gigantic numbers? That’s because we have a team here who are super passionate football fans, but in addition to being football fans, they are even more passionate about creating content. And that shows in the most beautiful designs. We are very well known for that. Not only for providing some of the most beautiful designs but also for providing them quickly. A fantastic goal is scored and we already have a design ready. So we havereally become a second screen for football matches for a lot of fans.

During the Champions League we see that the activities and the engagement on our content is really strong. We have an engagement of about 16%, which is great compared to even some of the top football clubs, which are mostly at about 2% engagement. So we are doing that really well. And we do that with the graphics, but we also do that with a lot of video content. And that video content is partly content that is created in cooperationwith our partners.

And those partners are football clubs, football leagues, but also the brands that are partnered with football clubs and football Leagues. So we get fantastic collaborations with them. And besides that content we also create our own original content which can feature a lot of players. And I believe that we do that really well, because we have built that big football community online and we do things a little bit differently than others.

One of our owners and a huge inspiration for what we do is Demy de Zeeuw (former player for, among others, AZ Alkmaar, AFC Ajax, RSC Anderlecht). Demy didn’t like those typical traditional interviews around football matches. Because it was always focused on specific things in the match and often focusing on “bad moments”. While we really want to celebrate the beautiful moments with the clubs and the players.

So one of the things that we try to do is to not show any negative messages, but instead celebrate the beautiful game together. And the players feel that too. A lot of them think or content is great and therefore it’s a lot easier for us to be in direct contact with them and cooperate with them. If we ask players if they want to create content with us, I would say that we receive a positive response 9 times out of 10.

Besides the graphics, and the video content, we also have very good copywriters. They help us to create and adapt texts on all platforms.

And that’s, I would almost say “part one” of our story, because “part two” is that we now also have created our own 433 platform. And with that we are trying to create an experience that would not be possible on social media and that is bigger, better, bolder. Because there are still some things that we can only do in a certain way on social media, but not in the way we would like to. So that 433 platform is actually part 2 of the 433adventure.

ESSMA: How many people are currently working with 433 creating content?

Lucas Bugter: It depends on whether you’re counting freelance or not, but we’re now at about 40 FTE.

Succesful partnerships

ESSMA: You told us a little about your successful partnerships. When you start a new partnership, where does it usually start? Is it more common to start at the league-level or the club-level? 

Lucas Bugter: Good question. Very often it’s at the league-level. We get access from the leagues which sayswe can use certain content under certain rules that we have to respect. For example, Bundesliga is a great partner of ours, just like the MLS which now has very sought-after content thanks to Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami. We have a collaboration with the MLS, which is going really well. And at the moment of course it’s more popular than ever, because the storytelling of what’s happening there is just great content.

We definitely notice growth in America. It’s been going on since the World Cup and has only accelerated. Wenotice that the American market is waking up and it seems like they just found out that football is pretty fun.

Besides that, there are also certain countries where the IP-rights are not controlled by the leagues, but rather by the clubs themselves. And in that case we have a collaboration with the clubs. We have a good relationship with a lot of leagues and clubs and so far, the cooperation on taking and developing that content has been great.

ESSMA: When you start a collaboration, how do you decide on KPIs and goals for the cooperation?

Lucas Bugter: Well, it’s different for different leagues. But one of the core KPIs is often brand recognition. Meaning: to sell the brand to the younger generation in a good way. You see for a lot of leagues, that peopledon’t watch full games anymore. That viewing time just decreases. So if they want to attract the younger generation, they need a partner like 433 to be relevant for that.

When we are meeting with a league, we ask what the biggest goals for them are. What we see now is that all the leagues are talking about how to become a strong brand worldwide. Or how to become a strong brand again, because they are losing the communication with the younger target group. Another goal that issometimes discussed is selling stadium tickets or merchandise. But so far I never noticed that to be the biggest KPI.

ESSMA: What sets 433 apart from other parties who offer content development partnerships?  

Lucas Bugter: There are certainly other parties who offer something like news publication, but they do it in a different tone of voice. Our tone of voice, as I said, is always positive. Always celebrate the beautiful game. It’s very personal, as if 433 is a person talking with you. As if we are making a transfer known one-on-one with Fabrizio, instead of being the big news channel. I don’t see others as competitors because we look at the market differently. We look at the market with different goals, but of course we are often named in one breathwith other companies. But they have such a different approach.

You know, football is constantly creating content. So it has a lot of content and a lot of editors all over the world that try to reach everyone. But at the same time, I don’t feel like they have a soul, a heart, of what it really stands for. With 433 I really have the feeling that we have a kind of personification of football and its community.

ESSMA: When you talk about a lot of content, there are certain technologies out there that make it easier to process content. Are you for example working with AI and the potential that it could have in content generation?

Lucas Bugter: Yes, we have a whole team that is working on that. And that is really crazy, because it helps with the acceleration of things. And in the end, it could also mean that we could offer more content but our quality requirement is very high because we don’t want to lose that personification, that soul. So we are working very hard on that. To make sure that everything is told in a certain way and shown in a certain way. But there are tools, that will help us a lot with designs for example.

The 433 platform

ESSMA: You just mentioned a move to your own platform. Would that also allow you to collect more data from fans and with that further improve your approach to content development?

Lucas Bugter: That helps, yes. But than you always have to ask the question: what can you do with that data? Instagram has a lot of data, and that data is used to make sure that your algorithm is always showing you the content you want to see. I can maybe optimise some things, but my ideal picture is that a Messi fan, but also a fan of Barcelona, when he opens our app, will see the last MLS goal of Messi and then the news about Barcelona where Lewandowski was injured. So that it is optimised for real football fans. Where we can create our own football algorithm. So that everyone who watches football and uses us as a second screen, really gets what they need the most. That’s one part and the other part is the gamification. You can do polls and quizzes on Instagram, but it’s still limited. I think there are some opportunities there.

ESSMA: Some clubs keep their content development for their own platforms completely in-house, others work with freelancers or specialised companies to develop content. Is 433 a company that can help clubs with their own content development?

Lucas Bugter: I’m always open for a conversation. That is not our core business, but it is funny that you mention this because it is something that is constantly changing. You know, a manager will come along and say its better to keep everything in-house. Then another comes along who says working with freelancers will be faster.

So when I hear about this way of making content, this is a constant movement that you see in the media landscape. One person says that content developers should be cross-media, so that they can do everything, work horizontally. And the other says that a designer should only be a designer, a video editor only a video editor… I believe that a mix is possible, and that is actually the case with us. Some of our colleagues are really cross-media, so they can publish the content, but they can also make a quick video if necessary. But we also have a lot of specialists who are purely focused on design for example and therefore really top of the world in this.

Creating content for a new generation

ESSMA: It’s often said that the younger generation has a shorter attention span and wants its content to be short and quick. Did you have to adjust your approach to content development because of that?

Lucas Bugter: No, not so much, because I think we’ve actually been a pioneer in that field. From the moment I started working here, we’ve actually been doing that already. We had some really short clips where our main goal was that the clips would be watched completely because we saw that if they were watched until the end and then maybe even were watched again, then you were better represented in the algorithm.  We already did that on Instagram and on TikTok. You can see it is super important.

What we did with our own app was to include more long-form content. We started with a beta version just before the World Cup. Then we had 2 million downloads in no time, what gave us a lot of insights about watch time and user flows within the app. So we now have a beta version of an app, which was launched two weeks ago. There are still a few things that need to be optimised, but it now features a TikTok-like home feed in which people can find themselves in a recognisable system and also a recognisable content creation system for the editors. We believe in that. Where some people might say you have to offer everything, we say let’s set the basis very well.

The new 433 platform is a very important part of our strategy. We will never say goodbye to social media and we will never do it less. We will constantly trigger ourselves to be the best and to move forward. And when new features or platforms come out, like threads, then we are the first to dive in and use all the facets to see what works. But, as I said, the app is bigger, bolder, better, so it’s a big focus for us.

Advice for content development

ESSMA: How would you advise a club which is just starting out with developing club content, how would you advise them to deal with that? 

Lucas Bugter: That depends on their goals and how fast they want to reach those goals. But I understand the commercialisation is often one of the main goals. Because it is often said that if we can use content for our sponsorships, then that represents a great advantage. To get there you will first have to build out your content channels.

So start with strong content so that it can be translated to the sponsors eventually. Collaboration with 433 helps a lot because you can speed up your growth. We do a lot of giveaways with clubs and leagues.

If you do a giveaway with game tickets, they get 50,000 to 100,000 followers. But that is on the growth side. And on the quality side, I would really bring my own content creators in. And at that moment, if you don’t have that much money, because that’s where it often comes down to with mid-size companies or clubs, then you really have to look for a bit of everything, so that “cross-media creator” we talked about earlier.

Maybe you can’t have that perfect design yet, or that perfect videographer, but then go looking for a content creator who allows you to start at least, and who allows you as a club to learn a lot from the process.

433 has been around for 10 years. In the first years, they didn’t earn a dime, but kept the vision that they hadto become the biggest on social media because that is where the future lies and once they grew out their channels and community they had the chance to commercialise it. That has been a very powerful vision and strategy. Now we can easily integrate brands with that clear tone of voice: a love for content creation and football. And fans feel that.

ESSMA: One last closing question. Where would you like to be in 5 years with 433? 

Lucas Bugter: When I came 4,5 years ago, the task was to become the biggest on social media and to commercialise it. I already mentioned that in my introduction, there’s a “part 1” and a “part 2”, so what we focus on now is that own 433 platform where we can create the same, even more intense, community and commercialise it. I really believe that in the next 5 years we will be the home where you, as a football fan, feel at home and are part of that big dressing room where you can find everything. Whether you want to play a game in that dressing room against your football friends, or that you will see the last goals of your favourite team… it will all be possible on the 433 platform.