Sports marketing has come of age. It’s no longer just about selling products or stocks, it’s about a lot more. Building credibility, especially when there are an abundance of multi-channel communication sources and the consumer has the ability to select, include and capture innovation-related eyeballs, is the only way to revolutionize the sector and create value-driven real estate.
With the influx of digital diffusion, access to information, video, and content marketing are important touchpoints for understanding consumer behavior and creating a litmus for the product. The goal of a sports marketer is to harness the emotions and passion of sport and combine them with technology and innovation to create a true fan experience.
The brand experience is made up of a dedicated fan experience and innovative integration of content to introduce the “brand story”. The world of sport is developing rapidly and advertisers will have to explore new landscapes in the short and long term.
Understand fans, maximize opportunities
Sport has traditionally been an incredible, unified forum for communities to come together, and the pandemic has shown us how sport can make a difference.
Sports-driven content has the upper hand not only to be a leveler in difficult times, but also to have the strength to calm people across borders or to unite emotions with them. It helps to get in touch with fans, and the highest increase is observed when sports real estate has successfully contacted consumers, creating a successful advertising effort.
Having content that is intriguing, engaging, and nostalgic always goes beyond maintaining a short-term engagement, which offers versatility and eliminates the need for second screen paywall.
In order to maintain the attention of fans, especially during the pandemic, when they are mostly not yet allowed in the stadium, the approach of the sports heroes and the excitement with engaging videos lead to a stimulating conversation for the brand.
According to a study by CISCO, 82 percent of consumers are more engaged in video content, and as a sports marketer, those touchpoints that get both the broadcaster and advertisers into a loop mean maximum brand benefits.
AI & ML in sports
Pandemic, as most people may agree, was what triggered the use of technology to create a spectacle through innovation among AI & ML. In a game like Kho Kho, our goal is to introduce AI & ML based on on-field contact detection and improve live and post-match performance analysis never used in the history of tag sports around the world.
Such innovations certainly add to production performance, which in turn provides an enriched on-air product for the audience with accurate dates and multiple monetization options.
Social channels
When building the fan base and leveraging brand opportunities, trust is critical to creating the bond between the consumer and the brand. It is important that the social channels and their engagement power are optimized.
While social channels help build an organic fan base that can be used for brand visibility, branding is done without accountability. If you can’t measure it, you can’t justify it.
Sports leagues are now trying to create unique brand values in the main league, grassroots, school contact programs and international expansion. Among other things, the connection to the hinterland audience will be a decisive success factor in advancing the brand history.
With the expansion of the display on the second screen, in addition to successfully activating sports sponsorship, sports technology will help brands identify a receptive target in the times ahead.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)