‘BIRDS’ DON’T NEED A CEO’

MBABANE – Halfway through the year Mbabane Swallows announced a new management committee that saw the introduction of a new position in Communications and Marketing Manager.

The man at the helm of the club’s Communications and Marketing department is Mancoba Mabuza. He has served as a communications and public relations professional in various organisations.

He was tasked with leading the branding, marketing and communications programmes of Mbabane Swallows.
The Times of Eswatini Sports Desk took some time to sit down and have a lengthy interview with Mabuza.

Times: Mancoba, you obviously bring with you some wealth of experience in marketing-communications, and we are aware of some good progress that you’ve made at Swallows already. How have been the first few months at Swallows?

Mancoba: Thank you for the compliment in that regard. Quite honestly, we have not yet started on a vigorous marketing-communications drive; we are about to begin the actual work. The past few months have been setting up the operational infrastructure, doing consultations and developing strategies. We are happy to announce that the club now has a four-year marketing-communications strategy, together with an operational plan. We are working on implementing this and we have started delivering on a few areas.
Times: Which are those areas?
 
Mancoba: We have been able to develop a club website that is up and running and gets regularly updated; we are in a digital world and a website is very important for a club as big as Swallows. We also have well-managed social media pages and we update them on a daily basis, communicating authentic messages to our supporters and all stakeholders.

Currently, we are working on a ‘Swallows App’ to make is more easy for our supporters to get information about the club and get to interact with them effectively and efficiently. Then we, obviously, have the fortnightly column with the Times of Eswatini and we constantly reach out to our fans through radio. Basically, we have been preoccupied with the basics so that it is easy to roll out a strategy and implement a concrete plan.

We will not divulge some details pertaining other initiatives, lest we start being unprofessional and jeopardise some relations with partners who are helping us on many fronts. The best is yet to come!
Times: As communications and marketing manager, you are also a spokesperson for the club, what happened to the position of CEO in the club?

Mancoba: There is no such position in our current structure. We have a Management Committee headed by a chairperson; then we have the Club President Bheki Lukhele, who is at the helm of the club.
Times: Mancoba, I want you to clarify this: other clubs have PROs and you have a communications and marketing manager, what is the difference?

Mancoba: Well, I do not want to come across as talking about how other clubs are running their affairs and how they have put together their structure.
But at Mbabane Swallows we view public relations as being a component of a broader marketing-communications department and its not about the name but the function. Public relations is about building organisational reputation and managing perceptions and stakeholder relations; that is being taken care of by the various officers in our department. We should avoid confusing a public relations officer with a spokesperson. You can be a spokesperson without implementing or managing any public relations programme in your organisation and vice versa.

At Swallows the communications and marketing manager is the spokesperson of the club and we have five other officers in the department working as: public relations officer (among others, doing events and promotions as well as stakeholder relations) brand and sponsorship officer, supporters liaison officer, content development officer (responsible for coverage as well as graphic design) and monitoring and evaluation officer.

These are all part of the marketing team and doing incredible work behind the scenes! I am the manager and responsible for strategy and also work as spokesperson.
Times: This is a new area altogether and Mbabane Swallows have never had such a comprehensive marketing-communications department before, how has been the reception within the club?

Mancoba: At Swallows we do things together as a team. We support one another and as a department we have received huge support from management and the club president.

Our president is a very supportive and dynamic leader who understands the importance of things such as digital media in contemporary football. Our supporters are also fully behind this marketing-communications drive and they use our social media platforms, website and are excited about everything.
Obviously, everything starts from somewhere, we are not yet there but we are gradually making some progress.

We are also learning and doing lots of research on marketing-communication for football clubs.
Times: The club have undergone some transition from one administration to the next; you have a new club president. You also have a new coach. How has been the transition and how are the players and everyone adapting to the changes?

Mancoba: Our president has a great vision for the club and he wants to take it to even greater heights.
We all appreciate and support his vision. As you know at Swallows we have always had one leader and we all support that one.
The same applies to our coach. He is a very good and professional coach and we are happy about him. Now, change is a process and we are all adapting to the new developments but it has been for the better; we are making great progress and moving from one level to the next. Mbabane Swallows has a great future ahead! These changes are not interfering with our philosophy and tradition;they are simply adding to them.

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