From Adweek Review by Jenny Hansberry in KIN 332 (section 2)
Stuart Feil does an outstanding job of proving that social media is a vital way for sports teams to build a better organization amongst players, employers, and fans. Today’s marketers want to take greater advantage of the powerful emotional attachments leagues, teams and athletes have with the fans that follow them. The responses from fans on social media, whether it’s for a specific player or entire team, have showed their loyalty and in return, organizations have been able to make a better understanding of their followers.
Social media is constantly enhancing and the need to consistently be adapting is essential. A perfect example of how a sports team utilized social media to connect with its fan was the New England Patriots decision to host a virtual tailgate. Not only did this allow fans to interact with thousands of others with the same loyalty to the Patriots, but it allowed them to ask questions and speak to the coaches and staff. The most avid fans loved this engagement with the coaches and felt a sense of participation in prepping the NFL superstars for the game. Pat Coyle, the president of Coyle Media, stated that “fans want three things: camaraderie, recognition and access. Camaraderie comes from interacting with other fans. They want recognition from the team for their passion and loyalty. And access means they want to feel close to the team or the athlete. Social relates to all of that”. Fans want to feel as though they are a valued part of a team, and in today’s society that feeling is not hard to come by.
Beyond just the fans having the ability to be more involved, the business side of social media gives insight to fans demographics and psychographics. It’s crucial for an organization to know its fans and be able to deliver what they need in order to make money. Whether a company uses an athlete known across the world to push a product, like McDonald’s did with Dara Torres for the 2012 Olympics, or simply giving a large opportunity to engage with your favorite sports team, everybody wins. Fans feel more passionate about staying a loyal fan and the organizations are striving off of the extra support from its fans.
After Feil explains all the benefits of the social aspect of sports, it is difficult to people that anyone would shy away from it. The results clearly show one thing: everyone wins.
The National Football League has created a joint venture with Competitor Group to implement a road racing series in hopefully every hometown that houses a NFL team. The goal of this joint venture is to promote health and wellness while also promoting the NFL’s back to football marketing plan right now. The races started with a soft opening with only 4 out of 32 teams this preseason; the teams that were included were the San Diego Chargers, New Orleans Saints, Tennessee Titans, and the St. Louis Rams. Competitor Group is the only racing entity in the world that can manage this multi-race platform because they already have 83 races every year throughout the world, while 75 of those 83 races are help the in United States and most are held in a city housing an NFL team already. They hope to have all 32 teams agree to hold a race in the next few years coming up.
The marketing potential for the NFL to promote the health and wellness kick that they have been trying so hard to promote over the last few years with the rule changes and stuff to protect players and to combat obesity, is great for them. The issue that I see is that there were no real promotions anywhere on the web or in the different multimedia avenues giving information about the NFL Run Series. I understand that there probably were some marketing ventures in the cities that were housing the events, but with the current increase in the popularity of marathons in the last few years I would have thought that they would have tried to spread the word better than they did. Marathon runners that I know travel to different states and cities regularly to participate in events and with having fans of the teams that held the races this year, I am sure that there are some fans that live outside of those areas would love to attend the events if there was a better promotional plan that could have gone more national, which I also believe would have helped spark the interest from other teams to join.
The article I chose was an article recently written on ESPN.com under their Sports Business section. The article talks about how the New England Patriots have decided to install Wi-Fi in their stadium so all of their fans could access it for free. This has been a common theme in the NFL and the Patriots join the likes of the Jets, Giants, Panthers, Buccaneers, Saints and Colts to do so.
The NFL has seen a reduction in ticket sales over the past few years but nothing to drastic. The shocking statistic is the ESPN Poll that showed fans no longer prefer the in game experience over watching it at home. In 1998, over 54 % said they would rather watch the game at the stadium in contrast to at home. ESPN’s most recent study conducted last year revealed that only 29% of people would rather watch the game at the stadium instead of at home. This is the biggest drop in any professional sport.
The reasons for this drop is in large part due to being out of the loop while at an NFL Game. You no longer have access to other score or highlights. Fantasy football has also played a huge role as fans no longer have access to all of their fantasy players stats. The NFL in their meetings in May began to brainstorm to try to make the in game experience better for all fans. Their main focus has been the addition of Wi-Fi. Although not all stadiums have installed it due to its high prices (upward to 6 million), more have begun too. The NFL will also be researching the Wi-Fi statistics and usage from these stadiums to share it with the league as a whole to find the best strategies and solutions. The NFL’s goals within the next 5-10 years will be not only to challenge the at home experience but surpass it.
I believe this article relates to marketing in numerous ways. The NFL I feel has been proactive in their approach to fix a minor problem before it escalates. As any good marketer should do. They spent this past May brainstorming ideas and solutions to help enhance the in game experience. They have already began advertisements and marketing campaigns to help entice fans to attend the game with the new addition of Wi-Fi. They believe this will entice fans to return to games who were originally deterred by being out of the loop. The defined a problem, came up with solutions and implemented them. They used a marketing strategy to implement this campaign.
