Media Coverage and Club Communications

JonnyBiscuits

Just listened to the Dub and Jerome referred to Benson as the Head of Marketing and Communications. Now, that’s not his job title, but Jerome will know how things work behind the scenes so it’s potentially an accurate reflection of what his role is.

And so if we DO have somebody in the role I’ve been describing, then he’s doing a really shit job.

And probably because he’s a commercial marketing director by trade and not a communications professional - the two professions are a mile apart, particularly in a community football club.

TrevorAylottsHeadband

Well, it seems that the CRM thingy has been fixed. I do like how in the email asking us to reset our password it contains a line asking us to contact the club if we haven’t received the email…

oxblogger

Chris Williams leaving?

JonnyBiscuits

oxblogger It seems that way. I have a lot to say about that, but I will save it for now.

brinyhoof

JonnyBiscuits leaving or agency contract not renewed? He wasn’t a club employee was he? All a bit whiffy though.

Joe_Citrone

brinyhoof He’s leaving for a role at Oxford City I believe.

JonnyBiscuits

brinyhoof He wasn’t a club employee, no. Off The Ball Media is his company and he works as a contractor. He also does stuff for Kidderminster and Braintree.

Don’t know the circumstances of his leaving but as I’m fairly certain we mentioned in the early days of this forum, the way the club was going, it felt inevitable they’d weedle out the few remaining people with links to the club’s past.

TrevorAylottsHeadband

Joe_Citrone Correct. A general manager type position.

JonnyBiscuits

This is the bit I meant…

JonnyBiscuits I reckon the ‘disconnect’ thing essentially means that the social media accounts and the digital content have lost the personal touch, which makes some supporters feel ‘the club’ is less approachable/accessible.

By personal touch, I mean the manic over-friendliness of Sarah Gooding’s tenure on the Twitter account, or the nicely pitched mix of professional, good quality and personable stuff that @t3dkath brought to the party, or the good-natured endearingly ramshackle Chris Williams video content, like him and Martin Brodetsky doing their Statler and Waldorf “to the camera” bits in the preview videos not that long ago.

As we discussed in a different thread, losing that stuff does feel like it’s a step away from having a community club feel, and I think losing that is what people mean by feeling a ‘disconnect’.

oxblogger

If he’s got another job, it sounds less sinister. I imagine having a bit more influence at Oxford City is an attractive proposition, a little less stressful etc. I imagine the novelty of working for the club for 23 years does begin to wear off. I agree, what they lose is some personality in their comms. Even in a changing environment, Williams and Brodestky could have been used better as a face for the club’s longer standing fans.

Gingermoods

In his programme piece he says he is looking forward to returning to the club “as a customer” which is surely a dig at Tim Williams and the corporate direction the club is taking.

TrevorAylottsHeadband

Gingermoods That’s exactly how I read it too.

JonnyBiscuits

He also said he’s “not bitter about leaving”, and I’m not sure you’d choose that word if you were simply pursuing a new opportunity.

Now it might simply be that he’s seen the writing on the wall just as we all have regarding the direction of travel at the club and has jumped rather than wait around to be pushed. I’m sure he’s being truthful when he says all that and that he’s looking forward to something different, but either way I’m fairly certain he’d probably rather this wasn’t the situation.

JonnyBiscuits

As a general principle, as much as he’s an all round good egg and I’m disheartened that someone that carries club memories won’t be at the heart of what we do, I do think that perhaps he’s a bit too much of the old school with his wobbly tripod, tinny microphone, his overly fatherly manner with the players and persistently earnest questions about how great the fans are.

The world has moved on, and while the club is currently doing the more modern stuff really badly, I can understand why his schtick doesn’t fit anymore.

I guess what I want is someone with his history and links to the club, but with modern day production methods and professionalism.

TrevorAylottsHeadband

JonnyBiscuits I guess what I want is someone with his history and links to the club, but with modern day production methods and professionalism.

Is this your job application?

JonnyBiscuits

TrevorAylottsHeadband Ha - no chance would I ever work for Oxford United.

TrevorAylottsHeadband

I’m sure that the club will write an appropriate tribute to Chris Williams on the website, recognising the breadth and depth of his work over the past 23 years. What? Eh? Oh.

https://www.oufc.co.uk/news/2024/february/chris-williams-departs/

Gingermoods

“Would like to place on record” is a really odd way of wording it. Bit snidey maybe? Things clearly haven’t ended well, which is such a shame.

TrevorAylottsHeadband

Indeed. It’s definitely interesting to compare this with the announcement of Andy Caton’s departure a couple of days ago.

JonnyBiscuits

TrevorAylottsHeadband That’s a good point.

JonnyBiscuits

TBF they’re wording everything really badly at the moment, so it might not be deliberately snidey-sounding, they might just be crap at writing, which is plausible because they are demonstrably crap at writing.

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