By Mounir Zok
The sports stories of our times have traditionally been written, edited, and distributed at the discretion of the journalist or the media broadcaster – and are often based on the athletes with the biggest points tallies on any given occasion; the match-winners, record-breakers, and local heroes whose names appeal to the rights holder’s regional audiences.
Nevertheless, in the age of direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketing, sports content needn’t be confined to this single-track mentality. No longer should the stories which fans are fed in real-time or the highlights they stream post-event be limited to a blanket, one-time narrative. The personalization of content – while nowadays table stakes for digital-first (or digital-only) rights holders – is breaking new ground.
During last week’s Global Sports Week (GSW) conference, held in partnership with Viva Technology, in Paris, several of those executives leading the charge on fan segmentation shared their thoughts on the role of hyper-personalization in digital sports consumption – during a panel discussion I had the pleasure of being invited to moderate.
Readers can also check out my interview with VivaTech News during the event, which explored how the creation of owned digital touchpoints advocates the collection of first-party fan data and, in turn, helps sports organizations to personalize the digital fan experience.
Speaking on the subject of fan segmentation, George Aivazoglou, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Head of Fan Engagement and D2C in Europe and the Middle East, pictured below, outlined the importance for making content “available to people anywhere in the world, regardless of the country, the platform, or the time zone they live in”.
He added: “We do that through our social media channels, our broadcast distribution partners, as well as our owned and operated apps. We make sure that content is easily accessible and, as consumption [grows], it is personalized to your habits and what your preferences are.”
As part of the NBA’s digital evolution, North America’s preeminent professional basketball league launched a revamped mobile app last year, including its newly created NBA ID membership program, designed to serve and reward users based on their individual relationship with the NBA brand, and also provides paid subscribers access to NBA League Pass, the league’s dedicated streaming service.
“It starts with acknowledging the fact that fandom – or the journey to fandom – is not the same for everyone,” Aivazoglou explained. “Some people become fans by watching highlights, some others by watching live games. Some others by playing the game of basketball, some others because they want to interact with their friends and peers, and to share their different basketball experiences.
“Our job is to build accessibility for the fan, and to create the products and services for all of them. For example, I know a lot of people engaged with the NBA Top Shot, which is the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace for the NBA. No matter whether they were basketball or NBA fans, they were really attracted to that product. Overall, the NBA has north of 2 billion fans worldwide.”
GENERATIVE SPORTS CONTENT DRIVING FAN ENGAGEMENT IN GLOBAL MARKETS
Among the NBA’s content partners, WSC Sports uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology to create short-form, generative content during NBA games which is then personalized to individual platforms, markets, and fans, and distributed via the NBA’s owned and social media platforms to a global audience.
Speaking at GSW, Aviv Arnon, the Israeli sports video company’s co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer, pictured below, said that there are now “more capabilities to create more suggestive content and really personalize the fan experience”.
“All the NBA teams that are creating content internationally and distributing it to fans use our system to localize and tailor the content for each market,” Arnon continued, offering an example from a game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Golden State Warriors, which saw highlights of Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert drive engagement in his native France.
“On the same night he had six blocks, [the Warriors’] Steph Curry had 53 points, which was the biggest story of the day and the most-viewed video globally,” Arnon said. “But, in France, Rudy Gobert’s video had double the views because this is where Rudy Gobert’s fan base is predominantly based, as a French player.
“It’s the same for sports fans globally: there’s the local hero who we follow and like to see. Helping to automatically create content and create those different storylines, in different formats and for different platforms, that is what we do for our partners. The challenge of servicing sports fans is continuously developing and growing.”
DATA-DRIVEN CONTENT HELPS RIGHTS HOLDERS TAILOR THE FAN EXPERIENCE
In order to tailor the user experience, more sports organizations are consolidating their different streams of customer data, which broadens their ability to identify untapped content ideas and distribution methods that non-digital entities would ultimately miss out on. Motasem El Bawab, our Chief Information Officer (CIO), recently wrote about the importance of hyper-personal content for commercializing the fan relationship and identifying fans “willing to pay to stay” with your product.
By understanding how and why fans consume the content that they do, Mota stresses that, not only does data-driven content inform the rights holder on the products and services it should be adopting to drive engagement, but also gives the fan a choice of viewing experience. This is relatable to the ongoing challenges faced by media rights holders when enhancing the in-stadia experience.
“Fans want to participate in what they are seeing,” according to Pierre-Louis de Guillebon, the Chief Executive (CEO) of Orange Events – Paris 2024, a division that oversees the telecommunication company’s fan experience for next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games. Speaking alongside Aivazoglou, he outlined three simple initiatives Orange is working on for making the fan feel part of the in-stadia experience, including mobile applications for: (1) the rules of each individual sport and discipline on show; (2) in-game commentary fans would usually find while watching at home; and (3) an immersive experience for fans with visual impairments, so they can better follow the action via a mobile device.
“It’s about developing the immersive experience for the fans we are assisting,” de Guillebon continued. “If we think about the future, it will be about volumetric viewing, which requires a lot of processing power and a lot of bandwidth. While it won’t be ready for Paris 2024, it is something we are working on for the next Olympics, so to offer a really immersive experience of the sport.”
Belen Martin Leon, a GSW Young Sports Maker, who is currently working as a digital product manager in the sports industry, concurred. “As a fan, you want to feel part of the game,” she said. “Sometimes, you just want to watch content but, at the same time, you are always looking for ways to be a part of the organization. I feel like [content creation] is moving more in this way – to still get the attention of the fans, but also, at the same time, to allow them to be a part of the game,” she added.
WHAT’S N3XT?
Watching a sports event live is a magical experience. However, the experience will never be exactly the same from one fan to the next. This is why it’s vital that sports bodies and rights holders continue to offer their fans the tools and services to extract and package the multitude of stories bound to a single event, so to maximize their audience reach – whether it’s via their social media accounts or their owned and operated platforms – and to ensure everyone with an interest in their product can access live and on-demand content in a personalized way.
Data fosters creativity. As rights holders explore new fan engagement techniques and technologies, to achieve this, modern-day sports properties are taking a holistic approach to their digital strategies, including the digitization of their stadium infrastructure to augment the fan experience during major events. For instance, I had the good fortune of witnessing Manchester City beat Inter Milan to complete their first treble during the men’s 2023 UEFA Champions League Final at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, which – for a football fan – was a truly remarkable experience.
However, it’s hard to fathom what that experience would be without the digital capabilities at our fingertips; both those that enable fans to watch the biggest sporting occasions via the platforms of their choice, while the infrastructure that grants teams, leagues, and federations to capture fan intelligence continues to bring sport – at all levels – to consumers in a multitude of formats. This variety is key to capturing new fans. We must continue to nurture the fan experience to keep them coming back for more.
Our team at N3XT Sports works tirelessly to develop and implement digital strategies across a multitude of sports properties at federation level, competition level, and club level. To learn more about how digital transformation can support the growth of your organization, fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch. Our goal is to drive the digitalization of the sports industry and our clients.