Changing behaviours
The biggest battle right now for brands, is the battle for attention. Want to grow? Want to pivot? Want to launch? Without attention, let’s face it, your chances are slim to none.
Sports marketing originated with collectible baseball cards in cigarette packets in the early 1900s. Ever since have utilised the popularity of the sports industry in gaining attention amongst new audiences and global fanbases.
As brand engagement and marketing channels have evolved. So too has the tailoring to attention. Short formats properties are said to be 2.5X more engaging than long form sports fans. While cross device campaigns are even more important when we consider 94% of Gen Z is uses multiple devices when watching sport.
Brands have realised that it’s not enough to just be in front of audiences. They have to move audiences to action. Engagement across changing habits.
Research
In conducting research, we spun up an instance of Google’s Cloud Vision API. Ran it across various sports to track screen time and logo placement across different sports properties. A case study for valuing the UFC’s huge deal with Draft Kings and understanding the factors in a $1.7M per show advertising investment.
Brands have to look deeper than vanity figures like social media impressions and gross audiences, to really understand reach. That means really understanding the true market size by considering:
- Audience size, averages 2.5X higher when considering factors such as co-viewing
- Logo positioning and placement across the viewing screen
- The impact of consistent logo placement, on a sports property, over time (+75% people buy from brands they trust).
- Viewing patterns across preliminary events, advert breaks and use of multiple screens during a broadcast.
- Co-viewing reduces TV advertising recall rates to 43% (from 63% when watching alone)
The case study ends there but the challenge to move from awareness to consumption rages further. Strategy and planning with a deep understanding of the brand sector is key. This applies to both brands and any sports rightsholders, that are fully committed to creating value for their fans.
The smartest brands will be trying to make sports fandom and supporting a club a natural step to their offering. Understanding the fan and their profile is crucial to making your brand a natural extension of their interests and needs.
Enter Web 3.0
Web 3, where there’s a direct attempt to place a value on attention should offer some new ideas.
Web browsers like Brave, or the Permission platform, directly pay users to consume adverts and interact with brands. Peer-to-peer betting platforms like Overt1me, focus on the social nature of sports and declining appeal of bookmakers.
While “middlemen” still retain a hugely significant role in traditional finance. The refinement of decentralisation offers both a new opportunity and threat in increasingly competitive markets.
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Building an engaged customer base
Both sports clubs and financial markets firms will have an eye on churn.
For clubs, it’s season ticketholders and memberships that fans choose not to renew. For trading firms it is accounts that are opened that become dormant.
A financial markets sponsor may be effective in cross selling to fans of a team. But this does not mean the conversion into an active trader will happen.
By knowing the profile of fan acquired. The trading firm will be better equipped to estimate the average revenue per user (ARPU). They may also become better equipped to generate content to convert their target user.
Summary
- 94% of Gen Z is uses multiple devices when watching sport so a multiple channel strategy is essential.
- Putting together a valuation of a sponsorship deal is complex even with the power of Google A.I.
- Understanding behavioural insights and fluctuations in viewing patterns is a must for any brand considering using sports sponsorship.
- Brands can look Web 3.0 to understand new themes to target when engaging fans.
