A (sponsored) piece this week in Marketing Mag looks at sport in the marketing mix. Overlooking my hatred for the term engagement, it raises some interesting points.
For context: I like sport, so I look at this from the middle ground of curious marketing professional AND target audience. This middle ground is admittedly anecdotal, but worth investigating.
Anne Parsons is absolutely right in saying ‘sport is the content choice that will always deliver a mass audience’. It’s demonstrated clearly in the value of broadcast rights, and in viewing figures. In a fragmenting industry offering more and more options for audiences, live sport is a constant.
But is there a high level of engagement for the sponsorship and advertising communications around the action? Surely the audience is sold as ‘highly engaged’ because it is absorbed in the actual game?
Parsons also makes two claims I can’t agree with. She writes: ‘what occurs in the two-and-a-half hours of an AFL match is the stuff that is then talked about at water coolers around the country for the rest of the week’.
With all due respect, this may betray the fact she’s not a sports fan herself.
From experience across sports, countries and environments, the ‘water cooler’ talk is heavily weighted towards the next game. As such, any marketing communications audiences were exposed to during the broadcast are no longer relevant (if recalled at all, which we’ll get to). The focus isn’t on the broadcast as a whole. What matters is the game, and how it shapes expectations for fans as they move towards the next one.
The article also states ‘[the consumer’s] level of animation and care…. is reflected in their attention to the game and their receptivity to the messages they receive as part of that environment’.
Did you spot the contradiction? ‘Attention to the game’ by definition precludes an ability to be receptive to ‘the messages they receive as part of that environment’. Don’t mistake watching the minutiae of the game for focussing on the broadcast as a whole.
Keep in mind the score, timeclock and other statistics taking up screen space. As a fan there’s a lot of constantly updating information to absorb before you can even think about peripherals like in-stadium advertising and broadcast sponsors.
This is borne out in a 2016 study by Ho Keat Leng, with research demonstrating that ‘when spectators were more involved in the…event, there was a significant decrease in the number of brands recalled’.
Not ideal if you’re paying big money.
Sport delivers a vast audience. But you risk wasting your marketing budget unless data reveals your target audience and its sport-viewing habits are genuinely receptive to the execution and delivery of your message. And this is usually only realistic for big brands.
Better ROI for SMBs may be driven by thinking broader than advertising during broadcasts, or at the ground. Consider other options available in your market.
Does a local team offer individual player sponsorships? Do TV and radio outlets in your market have weekly player segments you can sponsor or align your brand with? Look at popular sports podcasts you can partner with.
There may even be more value by investigating grassroots opportunities in markets around you.
Sport is big business, but leveraging it for measurably successful marketing demands an analytical approach and smart thinking.
In this game, due diligence is everything.
