Insights from Beatriz Indurain
A staple of sports organizations, it is easy to forget that sports marketers didn’t always have access to social media channels to freely promote their brands and deliver news to their fans.
Nowadays, the industry’s ongoing digitalization delivers digital solutions that connect rights holders directly with their followers. Social media was among the first to grant sports properties such privileged access to its fan base online, as well as fertile ground for nurturing broader appeal for their product.
While among the biggest digital disruption to society in recent decades, the proliferation of social media continues to offer sports properties a shop window to their brand at every stage of the fan funnel and a platform for testing innovation. Whereas broadcast media and TV advertising have traditionally granted sports entities global exposure, the advent of mobile and virtual communications at the beginning of the century broadened sport’s horizon and has, in turn, deepened its connection with the casual fan.
“Sports properties are seeking new ways to capture first-party fan data via their own digital products,” explains Beatriz Indurain, N3XT Sports’ Marketing and Communications Director. “Before you are able to personalize the user experience, properties must first capture the user’s attention – and their hearts – which is why social media continues to act as an effective marketing portal for brands yet to invest in their digital acumen.”
This can be demonstrated by findings from N3XT Sports’ recently published World Cup Data Report, which assesses the digital transformation efforts for all 32 participating member associations (MA) at the Qatar 2022 men’s FIFA World Cup. According to proprietary research, while the maturity of the field’s respective digital inventories and data collection capabilities varies, most MAs (81.2 percent) are active across five or more social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube – though only two in five (18.8 percent) score maximum points for social fan engagement based on their cross-platform activity and total user engagements.
“This indicates a certain level of digital maturity among every MA represented at Qatar 2022, albeit there is room for many to improve on their social engagement,” Indurain continues. “By demonstrating daily activity via multiple channels, the health of a sports organization’s social engagement shows an aptitude for growing and retaining interest in their brand – and therefore a foundation for converting casual fans into paying customers, within a diverse digital ecosystem.”
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT GOOD MEASURE FOR FAN BEHAVIOR
Just as there is no one-size-fits-all approach to digital transformation, an organization’s social media strategy shouldn’t be restricted to industry norms. On the contrary, social channels are often used for testing new forms of digital content and experimenting with fan activations on specific channels or as part of a cross-platform marketing strategy.
For example, in order to build interest in the club’s BVB Frauen brand during the women's team's inaugural season, Patrick Eckholt, Borussia Dortmund’s Social Media Team Lead, explains that their focus is on driving “fan engagement and information”, including the publication of live and non-live women’s football content across all of its BVB channels.
“We have many fans who are interested in women’s football,” Eckholt told N3XT Sports in October, “so it’s vitally important that we are able to show the character of the team and the division we represent. We want to create an ‘approachable’ brand that our fans relate to and to make them feel a part of the team and the journey we are on.”
According to data published by N3XT Sports and Relo Metrics in August, the majority of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022’s most popular social media posts (ranked by engagements) were posted via TikTok, highlighting a growing appetite for short-form social video content among football fans.
During the 30 days leading into 1st August – the day after the final between Germany and the host nation England – national team and TikTok accounts generated more than 2.83 million engagements and 26.34 million video views around the tournament. By comparison, collective national-team and UEFA’s affiliated Facebook and Instagram accounts generated 3.94 million and 6.19 million engagements respectively.
According to Brian Kim, Relo Metrics chief executive officer (CEO), the wide array of social content demonstrated during the tournament not only highlights “the speed in which the digital landscape is changing”, but also “the democratization of social media channels across women’s football”.
Furthermore, this will help increase the sport’s “commercial viability”, Kim explains – highlighting the opportunity a social-marketing strategy offers rights holders inside and outside of women’s sport to grow their fan base and generate value by building fan loyalty across platforms.
Indurain concurs, stating that “organic growth is vital for gaining consumer trust before you are able to tailor the relationship and introduce them to other paid and targeted marketing campaigns”, adding: “When it comes to converting casual fans into loyal patrons, sports properties require a clear [marketing] strategy … at the early stages of the fan funnel.”
RIGHTS HOLDERS DRIVING REVENUES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA
The digital transformation of sports is forcing other digitally focused industries to adapt, too. Notably, the relationship between sports and social media entities carries mutual benefits for growing and connecting audiences. As sports properties seek to take greater ownership of their digital products and data management, this is leading social media companies to adopt a new role within the sports-marketing space.
Whereas social media has historically been a platform for sports organizations to grow appetite for their product, sport is now a platform for promoting social platforms and their individual services. For example, TikTok has signed several agreements with sports properties in 2022, including a global sponsorship deal with the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 tournament, an agreement to become the title partner for the Women’s Six Nations through to 2025, and a partnership with the Extreme E all-electric motor-racing series.
Before you are able to personalize the user experience, properties must first capture the user’s attention – and their hearts – which is why social media continues to act as an effective marketing portal for brands yet to invest in their digital acumen.
Beatriz Indurain, Marketing and Communications Director, N3XT Sports’
Meanwhile, social media platforms are augmenting the user experience to create new revenue streams for their rights holder partners. For instance, in 2019, Spanish rivals FC Barcelona and Real Madrid became the first football clubs to launch respective subscription portals for their Facebook followers, while English football club Liverpool FC launched a subscription content offering via its YouTube channel.
Elsewhere, some social media companies are dipping their toes into live sports rights in a bid to attract fans to their platforms. “We did a tremendous amount of experimentation and learned a lot about what happens if you put a live event on a social media platform,” Rob Shaw, Facebook’s Director of Sports Media, told SportsPro’s StreamTime podcast in October last year. “There is a pretty big business opportunity in going live on our platform – but it’s for the publishers, not for us.”
WHAT’S N3XT?
While social media offers sports organizations a space to drive engagement with their product, and in some cases, even create additional revenue, sports properties are also finding new ways to leverage fan data to drive fan engagement via social media. This might include how rights holders segment the sale of tickets to their fan base, by offering subscribers in their database the option to receive marketing materials via social platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram Messenger, or Telegram, by way of example.
“Social media properties are adapting to meet the needs of the sports rights partners and their fans,” Indurain continues. “In order to maximize the opportunities social media presents rights holders for growing engagement, driving revenues, and personalizing the fan experience, a social media strategy therefore shouldn’t be considered an alternative to digital transformation inside an organization but a key component for its entire digital evolution.”
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 and how to expand your digital inventory, 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.