Digital Marketing In The Sports Industry 2021

A Brief Summary

The digital revolution in the sports industry is alive and kicking with an unscripted global pandemic fast-tracking the marketing landscape into a solely digital focus. The past year has seen brands, teams, and leagues adapt to challenging times and find new ways to meet their business goals and the needs of their customers.

The adaptation has been a mixture of strategic marketing decisions and following audiences onto social, paid entertainment and digital spaces.

Changing Audience Habits

Unsurprisingly, media consumption increased as the emerging pandemic began to take hold across the globe. The sports industry had to rapidly adapt to meet this increase and fill the void left by live sports cancellation.
GlobalWebIndex’s Online Survey captures this increase in media consumption with watching TV & news coverage, streaming videos, being active on messaging services and using social media for longer posting the most significant increases worldwide due to the impactful global pandemic.[1]

Digital Marketing In The Sports Industry 2021 — Source: *GlobalWebIndex: Worldwide, March 16-20, 2020, 16-64 years, online survey*

The sports industry also saw an increase in media consumption of sports-related content with behind the scenes (exclusive) features, posting archival content and hosting real-time conversations with professional athletes proving the most popular with sports fans. [2]

With such a captive market, there are lots of opportunities for the sports industry. For example, industry giants Amazon and Netflix quickly took advantage by broadcasting new sports competitions such as The Autumn Nations Cup and streaming bespoke documentaries including The Last Dance and Rising Phoenix.

Sports marketers should also utilise the latest digital marketing tools available to allow them to be where their target audience is in a heartbeat. Utilising these tools will enable Digital Playmakers (like us) to be hyper-targeted, personalised and data-driven with their marketing campaigns.

The current landscape allows us to advertise to an individual or specific audience across their whole digital ecosystem of devices. We can market device-optimised sports content to them and track their engagement throughout the entire digital customer journey. What a time to be a marketeer in the evolving sports industry revolution!

Sports Industry Investment In Digital

Digital Playmakers believe the industry’s ongoing shake-up is ideal for investing in sports marketing, whether you are trialling a new product or launching your latest digital campaign. Consumers are primarily at home due to lockdowns restrictions and consuming large amounts of their content through digital platforms and devices.

Your new product’s or campaign’s success should feature a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that will feature scroll-stopping visuals, a functional customer journey, and a clear call to action.

One of our strongest recommendations is to continue to utilise paid and performance-based campaigns in your digital marketing strategies, as ad revenue estimates remain forecast for growth from 2020 onwards. The ability to advertise to your target audience through social media and online video could provide the opportunity to grow your ad revenue [3] – even in challenging times.

We also believe CPM across platforms like Facebook will rise to the highest level in Q1 of 2021 and provide a cost-effective way to target your specific audiences. This prediction factors in the tourism market reopening, global vaccination programmes taking effect, and digital marketing spend helping us return to a stable landscape.[4]

Summary And What The Future Holds

The unscripted global pandemic has impacted the digital sports industry and digital media consumption, unlike anything seen before. With a captive audience with a high level of digital consumption and global spending on advertising in digital media nowhere near predicted estimates; the time is now to launch a robust digital marketing strategy.

Digital Playmakers has the vitally important ability and expertise to implement and execute your strategy. We can lead your company to success and onto the many screens of your target audience.