Keeping pace with fans’ shifting consumption habits

“If we fail to adapt, we fail to move forward”.

This quote from John Wooden – widely considered one of the greatest NCAA basketball coaches of all time – has arguably never been more relevant to us as an agency, and to the wider sports industry, than in the last two years.

Back in 2020, social media usage soared as in-stadium viewing and live-event attendance was replaced with second-screen highlights and throwback-driven, mobile-first entertainment. This meant rights holders saw an opportunity to drive visibility and engagement by placing more content in front of users than ever before – an “opportunity” which increased both the frequency and volume of posts, and led to platforms becoming saturated. Now, with COVID restrictions no more and fan attendance back to pre-pandemic levels, time spent on social media and the window of opportunity in which to grab the attention of fans is shrinking.

So, what does this mean? One thing that has continued to ring true is that these same rights holders have fought harder and harder to break through the noise, and in both instances, fans have been harder to reach and engage.

Coupled with the fact that users are now expecting more from the teams, athletes, and governing bodies that they follow, competition for time and attention has never been higher. Fans’ online behaviours, attitudes and passion points have changed considerably as a result of the pandemic and, as such, there has been a growing desire for more authentic, bespoke and personalised content.

Social listening tools like Brandwatch and audience profiling platforms like Global Web Index (GWI) provide us with the unique insights that allow us to delve deeper into audience mindsets. Through the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data, we are able to leverage what our clients’ target audiences really care about, and in turn, better understand how to connect them to the content we create. How we use this data is important and there are numerous practical examples of how audience insights impact our messaging frameworks and content strategies.

Using Brandwatch during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, we were able to monitor fan conversations in real-time for World Athletics and observe spikes in volume and sentiment around key words and topics. Throughout the 14-day period it allowed World Athletics to be reactive to trends, identify opportunities, and, crucially, remain relevant to their audience.

Likewise, we have been leading the promotion of England Football to fans around the country and conveying their messaging around grassroots football, inclusivity and diversity. The audience intelligence we obtained through the tracking of fan messages helped us to tap into what people want to see from England Football, what was resonating and what missed the mark, enabling us tweak the tone of voice and content output accordingly.

Global Web Index, on the other hand, has allowed us to adopt an even more tailored approach for clients. For Qatar Airways, we created multiple bespoke personas to help shape our creative direction and sponsorship activation around each of their partners’ sports audiences.

For FIFA, we specifically looked at the importance of podcasts among their target audience to better understand what drives listeners to engage with content across various platforms, what they value the most and what makes them tick, in order to more accurately inform our strategy around future ‘PlayOn’ podcast series.

The flexibility of GWI has also allowed us to set up bespoke dashboards for each client’s audience so that we can track how demography, behaviours and attitudes change on a quarter-by-quarter basis. This then helps us to adjust our approach when necessary throughout the year.

Ultimately, how the world of social media content and sports sponsorship will develop in the post-pandemic climate is not yet clear. That said, our data and insights approach puts us in the best possible position to navigate our clients through this period. The more we understand, the more tailored our approach will be and the more relatable our content will be to fans.