Everton journalists Greg O’Keeffe and Patrick Boyland discussed all the latest goings-on with the Toffees on the most recent edition of The Athletic’s Gwlad Tidings podcast. During the show, the pair spent some time talking about the Merseyside club’s signing of James Rodriguez from a marketing perspective.
Everton completed the signing of the Colombian from Real Madrid earlier this week. According to the BBC, the Toffees spent ‘about £12m’ on the player’s transfer fee.
This is the third time that Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti has signed the 29-year-old midfielder, with the Italian coach having previously worked with the Colombian at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
With that in mind, it certainly seems as though Ancelotti is confident in the player’s ability on the pitch.
However, while Ancelotti and Everton fans will be hoping to see the midfielder have a positive impact at Goodison Park, O’Keeffe and Boyland spent some time talking about the impact that this signing could have for the Toffees off the pitch during this recent edition of the Gwlad Tidings podcast.
O’Keeffe said: “That’s another strand of the thinking behind signing James, isn’t it? It’s what it does for Everton’s brand and what it does for their PR really, in a much sought-after market, which is South America.”
Boyland then replied to his co-host to share his thoughts on the potential impact of this signing from a marketing perspective, saying: “You look at it already and Everton have launched Spanish and Portuguese social media channels to try and exploit those markets.
“They’re likely to open pop-up stores in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, but they’re also exploring the possibility, some way down the line, of having a headquarters, a base, in either Miami or southern California.
“I spoke to somebody the other day and I was told that US views of Everton’s YouTube channel have gone up by over 700% in the last three years.
“Now, you put that together with the record sales of all the Hummel kits this year, and you can see that the club is taking some strides commercially, here.
“James will help with that. He’ll help inordinately. He is Colombia’s David Beckham, as I think it was phrased to us by one person.”
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As can be seen from what these journalists had to say, it’s clear that they believe Rodriguez’s transfer to Everton could be a big commercial success for the club in their attempts to boost their standing in the South American and United States markets respectively.
Considering that, as of July, the ex-Real Madrid man was the eighth-most-followed athlete on Instagram, according to PledgeSports, it may be understandable why these journalists believe that the Colombian midfielder could have a positive impact on Everton’s brand worldwide and it will be interesting to see if that does prove to be the case.