The similarities between the sports and social media industries are hard to ignore – attracting mass global audiences ✅, rich in scroll-stopping content ✅, and highly competitive spaces for audiences’ time and engagement ✅.
The global pandemic’s impact on the sports industry has provided a unique opportunity for businesses to rethink how they generate content and engage with their on social media audiences.
But, we hear you ask, how do you win on social media in sports marketing in the new landscape? Let’s dive in and look at how to achieve success in the current industry evolution.
Adapt, Evolve and Win
The active global social media population is estimated at 4.14bn [1] with daily users averaging 145 minutes on social networking platforms [2]. The large scale audience and time spent on social offers limitless opportunities for those utilising social media in the sports industry.
Build Sustainable Relationships
As most sports fans are getting their entertainment fix at home these days, rights holders and brands have the chance to greet them without even having to get off the sofa.
You can utilise a mixture of paid and organic content to connect with your audience on a personalised level and cut through their cluttered feeds with user-centric content that benefits their lives. The expectation from audiences is already there as Salesforce reports that 76% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations [3].
Now is the time to act and use sports at home to get to know your audience, develop a personalised connection and craft a sustainable relationship.
76% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations
Explore Creative Boundaries
The opportunity to explore creative boundaries with audiences in your content production process can also create and strengthen a sustainable and personalised relationship with them.
Brands and rights holders are actively encouraging their communities to get creative with user-generated content as current restrictions limit conventional production. The audience can become a voice, a brand advocate or a social mouthpiece for global brands and industry giants.
Inviting your audience into the creative process can help them feel deeply connected to your brand by representing you – promoting future engagement and helping to enhance brand authenticity. Social media is a fantastic catalyst for self-expression – TikTok is a supreme example of this! And by engaging with your audiences on these platforms, you bring to life the key values of sport – togetherness, enjoyment and being part of team – all whilst being at home!
Capitalising on Industry Trends
Live-tweeting and social commentary
Social media also provides the ideal platform for teams and leagues to recreate the sporting experience – bringing live sport to their audiences’ screens. The use of live-tweeting and digital commentary to generate a live sports atmosphere drives real-time engagement and embeds your brand into conversations surrounding unmissable global events.
Dusting off the archive
Rights holders and brands are always rethinking their content strategies and how to maximise engagement with audiences on social – especially in the absence of live sports and fan restrictions.
ESPN, FIFA, and ITV were among the industry brands to replace the absence of live sport with a welcomed return to the archive and provided audiences with a chance to relive unforgettable sporting moments. [4]
Revisiting the archive can help you provoke audience engagement with a warm feeling of nostalgia and trigger emotional responses in likes, shares, retweets, and positive earned media.
Image Source: Unsplash
ESPN, FIFA and ITV all dipped into their respective archives to create a ten-episode Netflix series, showcase reruns of classic World Cup matches and broadcast England’s Euro 96 heroics.
Embrace The World of Digital Sports
Every sports fan relishes watching great sporting moments and creating their own sporting greatest by playing Esports (who doesn’t love the FIFA franchise?) and building their audiences through streaming platforms.
Virtual sports can provide a prominent growth opportunity to engage new fans and generate prospective partners leading to alternative revenue streams. In the 2020 landscape, Statista valued the global Esports market at $950 million and estimated the market revenue would exceed $1.6 billion.[5] An attractive opportunity to jump into Esports if you aren’t already there, right?
The growing revenue in the Esports market and increased popularity for virtual sport amongst sports fans provides brands and rights holders with the unmissable opportunity to utilise Esports and streaming platforms to capitalise on growing sustainable revenue, drive brand advocacy and expand your audience in a highly captive market. Are you ready to win?
Source: Mediacom: The future of the sports industry.
The combined viewership on the leading streaming has increased by 40% as of March due to the global pandemic.
The New Landscape and Beyond
The global pandemic’s continuous impact on the sports industry has provided a unique opportunity for brands, teams, and leagues to re-examine and evaluate how they engage with their social media audiences. Digital Playmakers are continuing to help our clients to achieve success in the evolving industry by exploring new ways to win, adapting to sports at home and embedding industry trends into our social strategies.
As digital playmakers in the industry, we can be your additional player to assist you with sustainable growth, achieving your marketing objectives and mastering the 2021 digital landscape. Consider us as a free agent and ready to sign for your team!
