The digital age demands almost all kinds of jazz, shows, and ads, etc. that current-day sports brands are doing. However, it is almost difficult for every individual to be completely familiar in respect to all sports marketing facets. Employing a sports marketing agency here is one of the best ways to get the problem fixed.
OTT (Over the top) content
Amazon Prime, Netflix, or Facebook are the best examples of OTT offers. OTT full form stands for ‘over the top and means the content can easily be received on a terminal device.
How do these platforms exactly help sports brands? Platforms such as Amazon or Facebook turn the sports rights market because it has been popular for decades. For instance, Primera Division, one of Spain’s best expert soccer leagues, runs best on Facebook, particularly on the Indian platform. And, short news service namely Twitter is one of those social podiums involved in sports rights.
Thus, if anyone wants to watch a soccer match, he can not just approach the same on television but also through social media channels on their device. Thus, not just the former niche sports channels can avail profit but also the streaming social platforms can. Note that Facebook has secured the rights to World Surf League & aims to pay thirty million US dollars for the 2 years.
Competition from the net is causing problems for traditional media organizations. And the podium has a big benefit: ‘They form profiles of their users to know exactly who views their content and when can they be targeted for advertising’. This specific database takes sports marketing to another new level. As per Macaulay, an organization has second decisive benefit, for instance, companies like Amazon have what most brands do not have: One of the largest online shops in the globe. Thus, any content can get capitalized directly.
AI
AI is the full form of Artificial Intelligence. AI today is changing the globe and there is no such doubt about this. But 3 crucial things are required for this namely – Data, Data, and Data. And yes, a fast internet connection.
Chatbots are a great form of artificial intelligence (AI) for sports marketing. A brand like FC Arsenal has built a chatbot known as Robot Pires with a specialist from GameOn that interacts simply with fans through Facebook Messenger, Slack, Skype, Telegram, and Kik.
And that is really entertaining. Robot Pires – the name of the AI is derived from the Arsenal legend Robert Pires that provides the users with statistics, results, news, and also exclusive videos about the Premier League Club in simple and humorous language.
Chatbot use in sports marketing offers different benefits:
A clever and entertaining chatbot can simply reach out to the new target group and strengthen fan loyalty as it provides extraordinary content.
Sports companies/clubs present themselves as creative leaders and thus even strengthen their brand in the B2B category.
Chatbots accumulate data or information that can endow crucial hints on the fan/customer wishes.
Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) & Mixed Reality (MR)
Development in AR, VR, and MR is impressive. In the past, AR and VR were costly and uncomfortable but now the concentration is on the advantages. The online shops require struggling with the high CPAs i.e. cost per acquisition as the free delivery conditions had resulted in unpleasant behavior patterns:
The customer earlier would order each of the products in 3 distinct colors and sizes, try all of them at their home and ultimately decide on the one they would be happy with. However, with the development of AR, customers can try out sports shoes virtually. Through smartphones or glasses, the customer can check out how the shoe looks like on their foot and hopefully choose more precisely.
Wearables
Wearables in the market have emerged from their niche and have become one of the crucial fields of the whole sports industry. As per the study, the sales of the global wearables are expected to surpass 95 billion US dollars in the year 2021.
eSports
No sports marketer can afford to take eSports seriously. Video games have become increasingly famous and an increasing number of gamers are figuring out their way into the eSports field. As per the forecast, a huge number of global sports enthusiasts is anticipated to rise to more than 500 million by the year 2024.
Dark social
Dark social is when all the website traffic cannot get accurately attributed. Note that more than 80% of the global traffic is from dark social. This traffic takes place when users send the links to others through Instagram, WhatsApp, or email. Adidas was one of those brands to understand the phenomenon and saw it as an opportunity to initiate an exciting dark social campaign using Adidas Tango Squads. The chosen influencers got provided with the best products and were invited to the event.
Sustainability
Sports and sustainability now are closely related. About 80% of the products are bought for emotional purposes and 20% are for functional purposes. As per most sports experts, sports marketing works towards endowing the customers with the feeling that they are doing good. Perfect instances of sustainable sports products are the outdoor jackets/sports shoes designed from recycled plastic goods. This trend on environmental protection also goes a long way wherein blogging, picking up rubbish/garbage when out for jogging, etc. become a serious movement.
In Great Britain, high-end good gyms are spread out. Here, the point is to perform good work while jogging, for instance shopping for your old neighbor when returning home. However, ethical consumerism even knows its limits as stated by one of the experts in the field of sports marketing. It is crucial to ensure that the campaign even fits the brand. One such negative instance can be of Gillette’s advertising surrounding hashtag me too, for which the organization had exceedingly lost great brand popularity. Their tone was formed in a completely incorrect manner.
Women participating in sports
For over decades, the sports business had been dominated by males. However, with the changes in our society, the sports industry now has become a strongly mixed bag. It is also because women are comparatively one of the strongest buyer groups. Like many other sectors or industries, the sports business is experiencing a high target group of segmentation. However, organizations like North Face, which also is attracting the much-needed attraction with their campaign called ‘She Moves Mountains’ are particularly campaigning for women's sport.
Kids or children in sports
At times when eSports was booming & the news regarding overweight kids as well as adolescents was getting disseminated regularly, counter-movement is what caught others' attention. Not just it favours noble goals, it also brought in digitalization offer as an opportunity. Manufacturers of different niche products like thee mountain bikes or climbing shoes in the kid’s sizes can also be advertised and sold particularly on the internet.
As per some sports enthusiasts, it is crucial that kids are introduced to different kinds of sports as early as possible in their life. It is crucial to do as early as possible as introducing a sport later in their life would lower their motivation quotient for that game. Note that ‘The Daily Mile’ is considered one of the best instances by most sports marketing experts. This is because this campaign had influenced almost 2 million kids towards sports in the UK. Here, the principle for the campaign was very simple, kids were suggested to jog at their own specific pace for fifteen minutes during the school visit.
Seniors in the sporting arena
If you clearly at large most of the public advertising campaigns of the sports companies then you would realize that they use the photos of very sporty and active individuals who are filled with life. However, here in this section sports marketing agencies like us are giving a rethought on this idea. Owing to this, an increasing number of sports goods for the older section of the group are being available on the market. On the other side as the target section of the senior citizens are evolving from year on year basis, they are becoming more and more demanding. Note that many of the western society oldies are aging day by day, which forms enormous expenses for the health system. In response to this, one of the famous marketing experts cites the ‘Make Health Last’ campaign from Canada as one such instance for active seniors. The motto of this campaign is ‘What will your past 10 years look like?’ and the campaign provides a variant with or without sport in consideration to illustration purposes.
Sports marketing trend – Summary
Individualization, digitalization & sustainability are 3 of the crucial trends in the sports industry and they even need a fundamental change into sports marketing. Note that the world is witnessing an extreme number of changes and digitalization is the basic power accelerating it.
To attain success in sports marketing, one must always know what is exactly going on from left to right. Have knowledge about all the possibilities that are available and can become the mainstream. Also, ensure to consider the above-mentioned trends.
Commentaires