The attraction of a sports property’s social media offering is becoming an increasingly important element in partnerships with brands – but maximising this relationship in editorial terms to the satisfaction of both parties requires a delicate balance, with engagement at its heart.
how can technology be used to drive positive change? By using technology to develop relationships with fanbases, sports organisations can hold themselves to higher standards of inclusivity and try to effect positive behavioural change amongst their devoted supporters. Technology could also help surface and deter the problems by making the process of reporting incidents far easier and perhaps more significantly, enable the ability to pinpoint and deal with the problem more efficiently and effectively.
I have read with interest various interpretations of how the Covid Pandemic will impact the sports industry. The general consensus is that it will accelerate the already rapid changes taking place as a result of consumption (how we follow, watch and attend sports events) driven by the smartphone and the rise of web 2.0 which will, in turn, accelerate the gaps between the richest and poorest sports federations, leagues and clubs, affirming a new world order.
There is no question that changes in consumption have been driving a greater gap between rich and poor in the last few years and this has shown in the numbers.
The biggest events increasingly command a greater share of fan attention, resulting in the bigger sports growing at the expense of smaller sports where audiences are falling.
There are lots of reasons for this including social followings increasing the importance of celebrity, meaning the biggest stars with the biggest followings drive interest in the team they play for and this drives the overall following and viewing of the league and sport overall. Witness the impact of Cristiano Ronaldo’s signing on the Juventus share price. However, whilst the Pandemic has certainly accelerated some consumer trends, I actually think that it will shake things up rather than simply follow the same path.
First of all bigger doesn’t necessarily mean less vulnerable. Larger event organisers, venues and clubs have larger balance sheets, but also far greater operational expenses which leave them exposed when there is no income coming in from live matches. It is well documented that Premier League clubs lose money when times are good. As a result of the Pandemic, the Premier League is having to offer rebates to its broadcast partners and 20% of the average club income is from matchday, which may not return for several months.
Secondly, bigger businesses are often less nimble or adaptable to change and this could be a problem. As McKinsey research shows, organisations with an agile operating model are far more likely to show improvements in both execution pace and productivity. The break in the sports calendar has offered them a chance to focus on adapting products and business models to the new norm and the price for not doing so may be very high.
Many sports in Europe are not centrally organised, which creates a fractured decision-making structure that can be an additional barrier to adapting to the current situation.
By contrast, smaller leagues and federations may be forced to work together to invest and adapt and this could be a big factor in growth, particularly in digital audiences and resulting revenue mixes. More McKinsey research shows that as much as five years of consumer and business digital adoption has happened in the last eight weeks.
However, this accelerated change does not necessarily mean that change has followed the same path that it would have without the Pandemic. Covid has changed the way we think about hygiene, the way we interact and the way we work and this will have a lasting impact.
The accepted norm in sport that the big will get bigger and the smaller will struggle to survive is hugely over-simplifying matters.
Many smaller sports have been dealing with the reality of not being one of the chosen ones scheduled on linear broadcasters for some time and have adapted their business models accordingly. The Americas Cup and the World Surf League have pioneered this approach over a number of years and it has actually led to more broadcast deals as a result of the success of its digital-first strategies, exponentially growing global audiences in the process.
We may well see a change in the world order as a result of the Pandemic but not necessarily as we might have expected. Strong leadership that is prepared to adopt change thinking combined with investment in the right areas will be the key differentiator, regardless of whether your organisation is large or small.
Boxing Day sport is a fantastic tradition. From Premier League football to Melbourne’s annual test cricket match, it is a true family occasion and has proven to generate well above average ticket sales. But what happens when your team is playing away? This is something experienced by many fans – left without a match to attend at a point in Christmas when, let’s face it, we probably all need something to get us off the sofa and away from Home Alone! So, what can be done to give those fans somewhere to go and something to do?
Thousands of empty seats and thousands of fans wanting to buy tickets
The Premier League designs a schedule to ensure away fans don’t have to travel too far on Boxing Day, but there are still thousands of fans missing out on attending sport with their families.
Ticketmaster’s State of Play research (http://www.ticketmastersport.com/stateofplay) shows that family time is a major reason for attending sporting events and Boxing Day stands out as one of the biggest on the UK calendar for family gatherings. At the same time, there were 350,000 seats left empty in stadia around the country because teams were playing away games. So, we have empty seats and families desperate to fill them. This is an open opportunity for rights holders.
This is an opportunity to promote Women’s Football to a fanbase that would not normally attend. The FA could schedule local derby matches which would give greater context to the match whilst enabling both the home and away teams and spectators to easily attend the game.
Here is a list of matches that would have been possible in 2018; had these gone ahead it would not only have made for an effective promotional campaign for women’s football, but I am sure clubs would see good attendance figures.
There are, of course, mis-matches above although I am not sure that matters (it doesn’t for the men’s FA cup). There could also be issues with policing these events when another football match is happening just down the road but this can be managed with scheduling across 26 and 27 December.
This “away day” problem for fans is even more apparent in rugby union. When Boxing Day falls mid-week, as has just done, it is not possible to schedule a match without cancelling one of the weekends either side to allow for proper player recovery time.
Other teams (e.g. non-league, schools, Barbarians) could step up and take on the annual Boxing Day slot at each of the 12 Premiership Rugby grounds. It would not take much for this to become part of the Christmas holiday routine for rugby loving families; perhaps something for CVC to consider as part of their new investment in the sport.
For both of these examples, ticketing is going to be the greatest revenue stream for those involved and costs will be manageable without the larger player fees to consider. Focusing on marketing the event well and investment into the fan experience will be crucial in creating an annual, much anticipated event for football and rugby fans.
Furthermore, without this match being confined by the usual playing conditions or regulations (these matches would not be part of the Women’s Super League for example) they could involve star players drafted in from the US leagues to provide an additional layer of interest for fans. It is also an excellent time to involve charity initiatives as Sunderland have done so successfully with their recent “Gift of Football” campaign. There are a multitude of possibilities!
Christmas time is all about bringing people together after all. I love Boxing Day sport and think there there is huge potential for organisations and clubs to promote women’s sport, provide opportunities for lower league teams and reach out to communities around the UK.
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The sports industry is changing & at InCrowd, we help our clients adapt & evolve. Using technology and insight, we give rights holders & their commercial partners the power to deliver personalised content and experiences, for every fan.
Find out more at www.incrowdsports.com
InCrowd’s Dan Lipman takes a look at the top five digital trends and discusses their impact on the sports landscape in 2019 and the future.
1 – Virtual Reality (VR): Is it now or never?
Although forecasters predict that the VR industry will grow by 700% in the next five years, increasing to a whopping £169 billion, VR remains the most polarising topic in the sports and tech industry right now. Major brands, right holders and players are throwing their weight behind it. Prime examples include Ceek’s partnership with Dani Carvahal which will show behind the scenes access to his life at Real Madrid, European Tour allowing fans to take VR tours of famous courses and European Championship Athletics recently launching their own VR app. Perhaps 2019 will be the year that the VR debate can truly be decided.
2 – OTT: The opportunity with owned audiences has never been greater
OTT seems to be the topic on everyone’s lips right now. The recent Premier League and EFL broadcast negotiations have been fascinating, in particular the impact of the increasing capability of rights holders to deliver higher quality OTT to their growing audiences. With a recent Facebook study showing that 45% of live audiences would pay to see a favourite athlete, team, or performer on an online stream we’re certain to see more innovation in this area. Eleven Sports new “room” functionality, which allows stream viewers to invite up to four other people to watch a specific live event, is a great example of this innovation. While in the room, users can see, hear and message each other during the live broadcast of the game.
3 – Betting: US online betting landscape takes shape
At the time of writing, eight states now have full-scale legalised sports betting, up from two since the New Jersey bill was passed 5 months ago; another 23 states are not far behind. Since then it’s been hard to keep up with the news, from organisations across sports data, technology, casinos and rights holders getting on board. In the last week alone, The NBA announced its first betting data partnership with Sportradar and Genius Sports & Major League Baseball teamed up with MGM Resorts International to manage their sportsbook. With these sporting superpowers shifting into high gear, 2019 is going to be an enthralling year for the sports betting industry in the United States.
4 – E-sports: The worlds of e-sports and traditional sport will become ever more intertwined.
With more fans tuning in to the League of Legends tournaments than the Super Bowl Final and numbers closing in quickly on the scale of the Champions League Final, it’s no wonder sports bodies are moving quickly to get a piece of the e-sports action. Whilst it’s now increasingly common for most sports clubs to have their own dedicated e-sports team, the trend on the rise for 2019 is the in-game partnerships that are starting to emerge. The NFL are one of the rights holders leading the pack, with their virtual shirts and shops in partnership with Epic Games’ Fortnite; NFL team “outfits” are now available in the Battle Royale Item Shop for fans to purchase – very cool! Keep an eye out for more of your favourite sports teams appearing in the virtual universes.
5 – Cryptocurrency: New revenue streams emerging
It’s no surprise that Crypto brands have very quickly seen the attractiveness of partnerships within the sports industry. And it’s an exciting time for audience owners in sports with a new revenue stream presenting itself here; not a common occurrence. We’ve seen big rights holder partnerships announced over the last 18 months such as Arsenal and Cashbet and many with players like Lionel Messi, Sirin Labs, Eden Hazard and Sergio Aguero endorsing All Sports Chain. Some players have launched their own crypto-brands like Ronaldinho with Ronaldinho Soccer Coin and James Rodriguez and his JR10 token. In 2019, it will be worth watching how these partnerships start their activations; the Ronaldinho Soccer Coin will give fans access to so-called “digital” stadiums, real-world grounds with the technology to record and analyse player performance. According to WSC, Ronaldinho Digital Stadiums will be developed in 300 locations around the world, with construction plans already “confirmed” for over 10 locations.
So what can you do to keep up with the fast-paced change of the digital sports landscape? Give us a call, or drop us an email to find out more!
Everyone is talking a good game about data. Single customer views, segmentation, ROI, buzzword after buzzword and it appears most rights holders and brands know what they want to achieve in this space. However the reality is that the majority are not really set-up to deliver their ambition. I’ve witnessed this time and time again, hearing very forward-thinking audience owners explaining what they are trying to achieve, and then continuing on to admit the struggles they have, or the reality simply not living up to their original ambition. If this story feels familiar, then don’t worry, you’re not alone.
I wanted to share some thoughts on how audience owners can choose a sensible route on the road to successful data strategies and segmented communications. I’ve broken this into five actions.
We could all keep slicing and dicing our data into segments, by age, by gender, by interest, by motivation and so on. But the reality is that each organisation is going to end up with a communication and content plan that suddenly has significantly more stories, emails and posts to create, schedule and distribute; something that clearly requires resource to activate. Does your organisation have people sitting around twiddling their thumbs? I expect not.
The emergence of AI technologies is going to be central to this moving forward, but we will still need to create variations of each content piece. Firstly we need to be realistic with the number segments we create and secondly, look for more efficient means of communication and content creation. This is where short form communication such as mobile push notification is a really attractive route if your organisation or brand has a mobile app. Each identified segment can receive an individual push, with only 10-20 words needing to be written for each, to drive maximum click-through to your promotion/offer.
Of course your plans are going to change over time as you begin to have new business goals, or want to / start to work with new partners or advertisers. However, if you can create a data strategy, with a strong base of what you’re trying to achieve, you will be able to ensure your data architecture and tracking is set-up to collect the most commercially useful data. So put simply know what you are collecting, not collecting, and why!
Yes, I’m going to mention GDPR (sorry), but we need to make sure when we are collecting data that we are able to use this data in all the ways in which we want to. It’s time to get the crystal ball out with this one.
You need to understand which segments are actually going to drive a different (and useful) response for you and your partners. This is where you might want to bow to the data and research experts, perhaps working with a third party agency to support your data intelligence. Also, using digital/social marketing as a marketing research tool is great here. Running some low-cost digital adverts to different audience sets, and testing against different messaging and images, is a quickfire way to see how different segments respond to your messaging, and whether it’s worth segmenting in this way moving forward.
Too many audience owners simply don’t have enough depth of data about their customers/fans to truly make a difference through segmentation. Understanding transactional and demographic information is useful. However, understanding what interests, motivates and engages your audience base starts to make things really interesting. Your segmentation will start to make more sense and deliver results.
At InCrowd we have expertise in all of the above. What I find most exciting is where we can help our clients with the fifth action and their key audience – their fans. InCrowd create audience engagement tools, primarily through mobile applications and digital integrations. These help sports organisations and brands gather data about each individual fan. Then, we can support them in developing a strategy to commercialise this data in a way that requires a pretty light amount of resource.
If you’re keen to find out more, visit www.incrowdsports.com
or contact us now – enquiries@incrowdsports.com
It is no secret that the world of eSports is growing rapidly year on year, with bigger tournaments and larger prize-pools attracting a worldwide audience of gaming enthusiasts. The International, arguably one of the largest eSports events on the calendar, has seen unprecedented, consistent growth since its inception 2011 with a prize pool of over $24.75 million at the 2017 tournament, a majority of which is funded directly by players of the game. Often selling out traditional sports stadiums with audiences of 50,000+ combined with online viewership soaring above 60 million (in the case of the League of Legends World Championship 2017), eSports are increasingly giving traditional sports a run for their money.
With greater presence and an ever-increasing audience comes a tangible opportunity for sponsors to engage with fans. In March 2018 it was announced that Snickers would be the official sponsor for Season 5 of Rocket League RLCS (2018), joining the likes of Old Spice, Mobil1 and StateFarm who are also holding sponsorship positions. This takes an interesting side-step from other tournaments which are typically sponsored by gaming hardware (and related) brands such as PlayStation and G FUEL in the case of Call of Duty World League Championship 2017, and Alienware, Dell and HyperX in the CS:GO ELEAGUE Major in the same year.
Where exceptions do exist, it has previously been the more prominent title sponsorship positions that have been taken by brands which appeal specifically to a gaming audience. It is clear that as the term “eSports” becomes more mainstream, so too do the brands sponsoring it; and since virtual sports have evolved so rapidly over the last few years, it seems the lines between the two camps are becoming increasingly blurred.
The RLCS along with many other eSports tournaments is streamed to fans via the world’s most well known dedicated live-stream gaming platform, Twitch. Now owned by Amazon, the service saw 43.6% of live streaming traffic in the US in 2014. However, when it comes to advertising, the key difference between traditional sports and eSports is the way in which sponsors are using the platform to better engage their audience.
Snickers sponsorship of RLCS is a great example of a brand recognising the need to interact differently with their audience, given the new challenges which eSports pose to advertisers. Everyone is familiar with this confectionary giant; yet it is clear that the marketing team behind the nutty snack went out of their way to appeal to a cohort who are not used to (or keen on) long drawn out, high-budget, advert breaks. The centrepiece of their RLCS campaign is an amusing 30 second video punctually shown after each game finishes, featuring a news anchor blindly following autocue prompts from an operator who has fallen asleep on his keyboard due to being “sleepy” – Snickers being the obvious cure to this predicament!
The beauty in this campaign, however, is not the use of an amusing video on its own – Snickers have realised the value in the in-stream chat utilised by viewers who have signed in through Twitch.
Seemingly one doubtless, timeless fact concerning gamers when presented with a chatroom is that they will inevitably spam it – the act of repeatedly posting the same word or phrase over and over again. “AAAAAAAAAA” is a very easy phrase to type, and even easier to copy/paste. Viewers of the Snickers advert during the 2018 RLCS stream were unable to contain themselves when Snickers handed them the opportunity to spam this brand message for the full 30 second duration and beyond.
In a previous InCrowd article, Seb Lear wrote about the importance of “talk value” in a recent Bud Light commercial. This is a perfect example of what I would like to coin; “spam value”! Gaming fanatics relish the chance to be part of the mischief of spamming and in doing so, reinforce the message and draw attention to the ad for all viewers.
Granted, the Snickers ad is not exclusive to RLCS streams, but the marketing team behind this have demonstrated appreciation for the worth of achieving “talk value” in the stream by introducing the Snickers branded “AA” emoji (see below). Relevant and on-point, when appearing inline this emoji stands out from the rest of the chat, unashamedly drowning out all other messages to give itself prominence.
in-stream Twitch chat
Participation requires that viewers sign in with their Twitch account, but anyone is free to view the stream without doing so; so what if they haven’t signed in? Rocket League are a step ahead – anybody watching the stream through a connected Twitch account is rewarded at random with in-game items unique to Season 5 of RLCS. Once RLCS is over, the items can no longer be obtained, making them rare and collectible. This keeps the fans watching and interacting, and once logged in, there’s no reason not to participate. Rocket League has traditionally taken full advantage of distributing branded in-game cosmetic items since it was released, with notable partnerships from; DC (comics), Nvidia, Rick and Morty, and WWE.
RLCS Fan Rewards promo (2018) – Credit: rocketleague.com
As a viewer, it is clear how impactful the Snickers campaign has been in this RLCS series. This may in part be down to the fact that the core viewer demographic is currently considerably more defined than that of traditional TV-based sporting championships. With the average eSports viewer being male between the ages of 18-24 (across Europe in 2016), the majority of the viewership is no longer used to being bombarded with 5 minute commercial breaks which interrupt content. This audience wants something quick, to the point and engaging.
This case study indicates a swing away from ‘lazy’ traditional advertising towards a new era where engagement is key – a move which we are seeing in other sports too. The success of this is clearly demonstrated in the viewer responses in which Snickers is met with a barrage of ‘spamming’ on a level which surpasses that of a game winning goal being scored. The value of a single, appropriately targeted ad, is of considerably higher value than many which are not.
In many ways, eSports are becoming increasingly similar to mainstream traditional sports. Starting from humble beginnings as one-off LAN events and slowly building towards specialized global tournaments, eSports are now seeing booming revenue and increased following, with one estimate suggesting that by 2020, collective eSports viewership will exceed that of baseball in the US. eSports has provided a platform for change and diversification from mainstream counterparts – targeting a new type of audience with innovative use of technologies. The necessity to target viewers in more meaningful, platform specific ways has enabled eSports to offer a more compelling fan experience.
Fan-centric experience has always been the natural direction for eSports in particular given that their developers lean towards this mindset in their day-to-day working. Compared to traditional sports, eSports have been offering predictors, rewards and stats trackers since their inception, and it is good to see how eSports are also beginning to forge their own path in regard to sponsor interaction.
I am in no doubt that new exciting ways to captivate fan interest will continue to be refined into the future as the success of moments like these are realised.
I leave you with a selection of top plays in the RLCS EU promotion tournament:
Why sponsorship has the potential to be stronger than ever
I read a fascinating article recently by Michael Broughton titled ‘Sponsorship is burning’. It highlighted the recent growth in digital media, specifically programmatic advertising, and how this growth threatens the sponsorship share of advertiser’s budgets from which rightsholders have historically benefitted.
The question posed, is that given programmatic advertising can target the right person, at the right place, at the right time…why on earth would you do anything else? Why spend money on sponsorship which is often expensive and cannot accurately track the subsequent benefits, when you can run a programmatic campaign and track every penny of revenue?
It is a very real question, and one that is currently being posed to rightsholders from potential sponsors, and ultimately having a dramatic effect on the market.
However, through the doom and gloom, there are 2 key reasons why sponsorship has the potential to be a stronger proposition than ever before, in today’s ever evolving and complex world. But as Misha Ser wrote recently in ‘Sport asleep at the wheel’, rightsholders need to ‘evolve’, and in this piece, I discuss why I feel rightsholders should begin to view themselves as both creative agencies, and media owners in the face of the rise of programmatic advertising.
‘Content is king’ is probably one of the most used statements in the last year or so in the marketing industry, but is obviously a relevant one. With consumers now seeing on average 5,000 adverts a day, brands need a way to stand out from the crowded market place, and communicate with their target audience. It is often the job of creative agencies to come up with ideas that create that emotional bond with the consumer, and media agencies to then to deliver the message to that audience in the right environment. However, given the sheer amount of content now available through social media, websites and elsewhere, delivering that compelling brand message is becoming increasingly difficult. Take the recent McDonalds ‘Fillet-o-Fish’ campaign disaster as an example, where, if nothing else, it highlighted the extent a creative agency went to create a story that would resonate with the audience. It failed, on a quite spectacular scale, and I imagine at quite a cost.
This is where sponsorship still has its unique position. At a cost, arguably comparable to the work of a creative agency, it helps provide brands an identity to align with, ideas for inspiring content, a platform to share their brand message, and a credibility that will attract consumers. In a world where data and research influences every penny of marketing spend, the fact that 64% of people would rather buy from a brand that sponsors their sport, than one that doesn’t, highlights sponsorships unique offering (PSG Sponsorship). Sport generates a passion in humans that is rarely matched, and brands can tap into that in a natural and meaningful way.
I remember everything from the first ever Southampton FC game I attended at the Dell as a 6-year-old. I remember the soundtrack the players ran out too. I remember the smell. I remember the chants. And yes, I remember the Sanderson shirt logo, the Carling Premiership branding and the Draper Tools signage around the scoreboard. Why? Those brands stuck into my mind because of the sheer passion I had for Matt Le Tissier et al. Content therefore, ranging from fans unique experiences, to the epic, emotional battles on the pitch, provide brands with ammo to align their overarching message with.
This is something programmatic simply cannot do.
Programmatic is not a magic wand that can magically generate results, which is often the perception. The hard graft (and cost) of creating a brand identity remains.
However, back then, the 6-year-old me was clearly not in any need of power tools for example, and therefore you could argue that the Draper Tools sponsorship was wasted on me. And of course, it was, back then at least. But a prime target for power tools would have been my Dad, who as well as being a devout Southampton fan, also regularly did DIY work in the garden and around the house. Therefore, if there was a way back in 1996, for Draper Tools to subsequently translate his passion for Southampton FC and need for power tools into direct, trackable revenue, in a targeted and efficient way…then I’m sure they would have jumped at the opportunity.
This is what programmatic can do.
Surely then, rightsholders should be thrilled that their partners, have a way of further translating the benefits of sponsorship into trackable revenue, in the same way a creative agency would be thrilled if a media agency translated their work into a successful, profitable campaign. And in that sense, rightsholders should begin to view themselves as creative agencies, providing brands with ideas, stories, and an identity, which can then be amplified through programmatic and other channels. The fact that the activation-to-fee ratio has passed two to one for the first time ever, and that 98% of brands use social media to further activate their sponsorship, highlight this is happening, which was not the case back in 1996. (IEG)
This philosophy alone, however, assumes that money grows on trees, and that brands can afford to not only spend a chunk on sponsorship, but also spend a further amount activating through other channels to ensure revenue from that sponsorship is driven. Michael Broughton in his article is actually a big advocate of sponsorship, but questions how rightsholders will fare when brands are allocating budgets.
And that is why, it is crucial, that rightsholders also begin to see themselves as media owners.
Put simply, the days of impressions are dead.
It’s a worthless metric.
Not only in sponsorship, but in the advertising industry as a whole. Brands are now under incredible pressure from board room level to deliver results from every penny of marketing spend. As a result, post campaign presentations no longer focus on impressions, reach, or even clicks. It’s all about that headline number. Test drives. Hotel bookings. Bets placed…Revenue.
This of course, is where programmatic has thrived, and forced the channels of print, TV, and even social media to think hard about how they service this requirement.
Sponsorship, and specifically rightsholders are now very much now in the same situation. IEG research highlights this, by showing that assistance measuring ROI was the most desired service expected from a rightsholder. Thus, in the same way that traditional print media owners have had to evolve from print to digital, to then working with data management platforms (DMP), simply to survive…rightsholders also need to act. They need to think like media owners.
A logo on the front of a team’s shirt, in isolation, is no longer enough. Don’t let the short termism of Chinese betting brands or Premier League sleeve sponsorships this summer cloud that statement…rightsholders need to prove to brands that they can drive trackable ROI from the partnership, otherwise, as Phil Stephan from Two Circles suggested in his blog, “they risk being left behind”. In today’s world, that means being digital first. The 2017 report ‘What sponsors want and where the dollars will go’ summed up these challenges well when explaining that sponsorship spend may have dipped due to “a lingering gap between sponsor expectations and properties’ ability to deliver when it comes to both personalised marketing opportunities based on data, and valuable digital content and platforms”.
Rightsholders have the huge advantage, that they have substantial, passionate fanbases waiting to be unlocked. Listening to Gareth Balch, CEO of Two Circles, recently was fascinating. He explained that his message to their clients, is that there is a treasure chest of fan data, just waiting to be opened to the rightsholders benefit. As Two Circles are proving, this is true, and they are helping rightsholders drive revenue using data through ticketing, retail and sponsorship. In a similar vein, rightsholders should also be confident that they have another valuable treasure chest, which they can offer to their sponsors.
As the latest Nielsen report points, “the smartest rightsholders are already using their in-depth knowledge of their fan base to ensure brand partners are activating in the most effective way. The smartest brands are already demanding such information from their sponsorship property”. It’s only a matter of time before the majority wake up, and if rightsholders begin to show to brands, that through a fan focused, owned digital platform, they can clearly drive a trackable ROI from sponsorship spend…then I feel rightsholders will have gone some way towards protecting themselves from programmatic cannibalising brands budgets.
Obviously, this is where I begin to talk about InCrowd’s work in this area. For another time…
In summary, yes, it might sound weird to describe rightsholders as both creative agencies and media owners, because of course they are not. Rightsholders are unique and powerful in their own way. However, by thinking, and learning from how those organisations work with brands in today’s complex world, then rightsholders will ensure that sponsorship has never been a stronger proposition for brands.
Advertising is a dynamic industry; that much is a fact. If you are in need to evidence, any number of sources will show you how budget spend has moved from area to area and how it is projected to continue to do so.
Advertising evolves to follow the consumers, who are remarkably fickle in how and when they expect to be communicated with. Timing, whilst always important, has never been more crucial; and this is due at least in part to the rise of mobile connectivity: Because instant became possible, it became expected with the immediacy and locational transferability of a smartphone altering the way in which consumers can respond to marketing messages.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that they will.
Digital marketing messages can be exceptionally well targeted; that much is undeniable. On lines of demographics, interests, and purchase history it is possible to target the most relevant people; but are you targeting those people at the time they are best hit? In all likelihood, probably not.
Timing is essential. But that presents its own set of challenges; many of them logistical. The chart below demonstrates this fantastically well; and it would also be interesting to know the style, form, quality, and consistency of moment-responses generated in such short timeframes.
Credit: eMarketer
However, producing great content at the right time can be – and has been – done exceptionally well as the two examples below demonstrate. They also demonstrate why 67% of digital marketers in the UK expect to increase their spend on moment marketing in 2016.
One of the most famous example of moment marketing. The lights go out at Superbowl XLVII and OREO produced this Tweet in around 10 minutes, before the lights came back on. It was retweeted 10,000 times within the first hour.
AFC Bournemouth all but guarantee promotion to the Premier League in their penultimate match of the 2014/15 Championship season. Their goal difference makes them near impossible to catch and they celebrate accordingly; with Charlton their last fixture of the season.
These examples both had the moment created for them, and they acted on it, but wouldn’t advertising, or digital content, be easier if you knew what the moment was going to be? Or even better: What if you could create the moment?
Within direct advertising, it will be difficult to create that moment. However, great sponsorship activations create great moments and what’s more, they create them at a scheduled time. This is a move away from the immediacy of moment marketing, to right-moment marketing.
Thanks to mobile connectivity, anywhere can be the right place and if you can get the right content at the right time, it can go a long way.
Gamers aren’t usually linked with the sporting community but nearly as many people go to eSports events (over 12 million) as attend Premier League football matches (just under 14 million). I think there is an opportunity for sport to integrate live gaming competitions that will embrace the Millennial Generation.
When I hear the word gaming it conjures up images of teenage boys hunched over a console in a darkened room. That was before I discovered eSports, live gaming events where attendance is growing exponentially. With 67% of gamers wanting to go to more events more often, this growth is set to continue.
This is a brave new world for sport’s administrators but gamers are looking for the same experiences that sports fans have enjoyed for centuries. They want to be part of a community, meet their heroes, enjoy an atmosphere and watch their favourite teams and players. Sound familiar?
Sport’s rights holders need a strategy to engage the millennial (18-34 year old) generation. 69% of this group (more than any other age group) can be persuaded to attend more sports events according to Mintel. In fact as this graph below shows, the older someone gets the less likely they are to change their sport viewing habits.
75% of gamers are in this age group and 54% of these also watch traditional sports. If sports clubs in particular want to position themselves at the centre of a community then they can’t ignore gamers.
Take two of the largest communities in the UK. I would like to see football teams in each of these cities working together to create a new rivalry.
For example, Arsenal could create its own London based gaming team under the Gunners brand and play against a similarly constructed team from Manchester. The gamers could then play on the eve of an Arsenal vs. Manchester United match, juxtaposing the competitions to increase the reach of both events. Gamers would take an interest in how their team does on the football pitch and traditional United and Gunners fans would take interest in their gaming counterparts.
eSports is still relatively underdeveloped and the industry would benefit from having big sports brands like Arsenal involved.
For major sports teams, this is an opportunity to expand fanbases, create additional rights and generate new commercial opportunities. Ticketing is the most obvious income stream but there would also be new sponsorships, licensing deals and a whole host of digital rights. As the table below shows, when gamers attend an event, they like to buy more merchandise than the traditional sports fan:
And why stop there? Perhaps the International Olympic Committee could include gaming as one of its sports? That may well irritate squash’s governing body which has spent over 20 years unsuccessfully campaigning to become part of the world’s biggest sports event. All the same, embracing the gaming community would certainly see an increase in Olympics followers. It would also put eSports on the map in a big way.
If so many gamers are interested in live sports then at the very least sports events should build interactive products to engage this audience. Generation Y want to be connected and entertained during a match. It is no longer enough to rely on the atmosphere of a football crowd – without developing additional engagement the in stadia experience will fall further behind TV.
This is a group that rights holders can’t ignore, they behave differently to traditional sports fans but are becoming increasingly important. Sport should take this opportunity to broaden its appeal.
If you want to be truly amazed by the world of eSports then watch the first 30 seconds of this video:
