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- City Football Group CMO Nuria Tarre is responsible for building Manchester City's brand around the world.
- Tarre told Insider that the Premier League champion is increasingly focused on growing its brand in the US.
- Tarre says there are key differences in marketing to American sports fans compared to fans in Europe.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
As chief marketing officer for City Football Group, which English Premier League champions Manchester City is part of, Nuria Tarre is responsible for marketing one of the world's most popular soccer clubs.
Speaking to Insider, Tarre said that she and the rest of the club is placing an increasing focus on the US market as it seeks to establish itself as a global sporting brand.
While Manchester City has existed since the 1800s, it has only been among soccer's elite for just over a decade since being taken over by Emirati billionaire Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2008.
City was listed as the just eighth most popular soccer club in the US, according to a 2020 survey by Gilt Edge Soccer Marketing. Its cross-town rival, Manchester United, was third on that list.
Tarre told Insider that her goal is to boost the club in that ranking, and not only expand Manchester City's popularity in the US, but expand soccer's popularity as a whole through the club's growing brand.
The biggest audience that Tarre is targeting is young soccer fans under the age of 13, and the team's biggest target market within the US is New York.
Targeting New York Sports fans, she says, takes a different approach to that used in Europe.
"Each of the markets require a localized approach," Tarre told Insider.
"Just take New York and compare to Manchester in England, the way of experiencing a soccer game is completely different.
"In New York, watching the game is a lot more casual, so some people stay in their seat but maybe they are eating or having some drink consumption while they watch the game. This would be completely unimaginable in the UK!"
Tarre said her approach to engaging soccer fans in England and other parts of Europe largely takes into account the fervent passion fans have for their team.
Getty/Chloe Knott
But while fans in both the US and Europe are passionate about soccer, leisure and amenities are a bigger aspect of the professional sports experience in the US than they are across the pond.
Another unique aspect of fan engagement in the US compared to Europe is in the college arena.
A marketing strategy that is exclusive to the US, Tarre said, is partnerships with college sports programs, as America's college sports culture is unique in the global sports landscape for its scale, both financially and in terms of mainstream fan engagement.
"We have a specific initiative around college programs," Tarre told Insider.
"We have a network of super fans in different colleges that take the initative to organize activities and events for their friends in the college and we have them organize those events so that's a very specific US initiative."
Meanwhile, in terms of appealing to American fans that place a higher emphasis on leisure and convenience, Tarre said that City focuses a lot of its attention on engaging fans digitally, often through tailored content made by independent American digital creators.
"First, we invest a lot in digital engagement, this is true globally but particularly in the US market," Tarre said. "In the digital world it is important to be authentic and to have content that is US-led and US-specific."
Manchester City's recent success has helped put the club in position to grow in popularity among US fans. In May, the club captured a fifth Premier League title in 10 years, and made a run to Champions League final, though it lost 2-1 to English rival Chelsea in the final.
But for Tarre, marketing Manchester City is not just about marketing the team's wins, but its philosophy as an organization.
"Success helps. It raises visibility, it raises the interest around the game but it's not just about the success," Tarre said.
"We see soccer as a game of many opportunities, to help our communities, wherever we are to give opportunities to young kids, to train healthy habits too, so we truly believe in soccer as a game for good."