sports social media strategy
TRANSCRIPT
Leveraging Social Media to Grow Your Fan Base, Maximize Attendance
and Increase Revenue
250 million websites, 300,000 Twitter apps, 550,000 Facebook apps, 150,000 iPhone Apps…and counting
2008-09
ContentPeople
SoftwareHardware
Bandwidth
Web 2.0
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Keeping pace with Digital (sort of)
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
MySpacefounded
MySpace purchased by NewsCorp for $580 million
YouTube Founded
One team’s perspective
YouTube bought by Google for $1.65 Billion
Twitter launched
“Facemash” is born in Zuckerberg’s dorm room Four Square
$500,000 Raised
Name Changed to Facebook
Move to Palo Alto
Face book opens to public
Turns down $1 billion offer
$40 Million raised
Facebook Connect
Facebook Like button
Facebook 500 million…
1997 Colts.com Launched 2007 Colts.com $$
Teams launch Facebook pages & Twitter accounts
iPhone proliferates
Broadband access increasingMySpace brand pages
U.S. Team Digital Landscape
1/31/31/3
Leaguevs.
Team
VisionResources
Pace of Change
Teams / Innovation Rules / Issues Leadership
NFL – NBA – NHL – MLB – NASCAR - AFL
Team Media: revenue potential?
Web
Radio
TVArena
Annual Unique Visitors
Sources: Scarborough, Omniture, TNS Research (ESPN Sports Poll)
Internet Arena Radio
Revenue Audience
Sense of urgency: perishable inventory
2009 Web Unique Visitors from Omniture2009 Radio & Arena visitors from Scarborough2009 Revenue data from club records
Revenue per unique:Arena: $32.09 Radio $15.63 Internet: $0.16
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Sports Team Digital : balancing act
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Ticket Promotion
Sponsorship Inventory
Revenue
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3
2
1
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10LOW Value HIGH
Visits, Views, Sales
EASYEfficient
Execute
HARDExpensive
Discovering the value of social media
Easy or affordable Low Value
Difficult or ExpensiveLow Value
Easy or affordableHigh Value
Difficult or expensiveHigh Value
Fans Create
Team news, video, photos, stats
Video or News that nobody sees
Community PR
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What is social media?
Media = connector
Connect customers to each other, and you connect them to your brand
Social = people
Why all the fuss?Paid Media
Earned Media “Word-of-
mouth”
Time
$$$
Social Graph
2 schools of thought (social)
Engage Fans where they are until we figure it out…
Drive fans to team Website, sell sponsorship; collect data and direct market via E mail.
A B?Collect the whole set Stick to your knitting
A
Segmenting is critical, (even with Beanie Babies)
Retail Sold$10 $3,000
1. People swarmed to collect2. Gained bragging rights 3. Is anyone making a living?
Peanut
Drive traffic & fan engagementSince implementing LIKE button:
Page views per user up 92%
Time on-site was up 85%
Overall visits went up 36%B
Team social updates: no links, no strategy?
Study of 10 pro teams, Aug 15 to Sept 1, 2010
Facebook TwitterNo link in update 35% 56%
What am I saying?
1. Have a strategy (what’s measured can be managed)
2. Know your limits (set realistic goals, timelines, budgets)
3. Know your fans(listen first, then join the conversation)
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Who is following the teams?16 teams, 4 leagues, 2 countries
Team social survey, 2010
Why do fans follow teams?
?
Team social survey, Summer 2010
Avid fan interest year-round
Source: AFL Social Survey 2010, Coyle Media
Club followers are interested year-round…
…and consume club news everywhere!
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Social Media Personality: differences
Understand what fans will do, and what they won’t do… …before devising plans
Spectator Talker Joiner Critic Creator Collector Inactive
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Produce Content
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90% of content producers more likely to gain awareness, consideration, purchase and recommendations
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My Father started taking me to PGA & LPGA golf tournaments in 1977 to watch Ben Crenshaw, Tom Watson, Nancy Lopez and Betsy King. We had a lot of great memories. My Dad would be mistaken for Nancy Lopez's Dad in the gallery at times and we ended up meeting her family at a Corning tournament. He is passed away now, but would be proud that I will always have a love of golf because of him. In 2005, I had just had our youngest child when Crooked Stick was hosting the Solheim Cup. I attempted to drive over to the course, but was not physically able to watch the matches. My dream would be to take my oldest daughter to the U.S. Open this year. She is almost 14, the age I was when my Dad would take me to tournaments. She has a natural swing and ability for golf and what an opportunity to see the greatest players who ever lived up close! It would be incredible to make and relive memories and have her experience a part of history.
Engage fans: they’ll generate great content
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80% of fans can be motivated to purchase by causes / charities
Cause Marketing goes viral: locally!
1. Fans compete – word of mouth
2. 60,000 cans of soup to local food pantries
3. Learn about sponsor product
4. Play football themed game
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Location-Based Services
Just 4% of U.S. Online consumers have used location-based services
Relatively high % willing to engage
Check in & WinFacebook Places
Seat upgrade
Team prize
Sponsor prize
Social fans: ticket buying?
Team social survey, Summer 2010
70%
Value of each “share”
$1.78 Ticket Sales
7 Site Visits
Consistent across all types of events: large, small, free, paid.
Grow fan baseFocus on fan experience (offline, online)
Deliver: Camaraderie, Consistency, Recognition, Access
Maximize AttendanceTeam promotes experience
Fan promotes experience
Grow RevenueTickets
Sponsorship
Merchandise
Use Partnerships :
League, players, other teams, media, influencers
Use Social Graph:
Content, contests, causes
Cross promotion:
Team media: Web, E mail, Twitter, FB, radio, TV, etc.
@KingJames: 1 million + followers @nba: 2 million + followers
Partner for Ticket promotions
Hornets: 15,761 followers
Player shares a standard offer as if it’s a special offer for his followersPlayers also partner:
Chris Paul: 248,625 followers
Social Graph:Invite fans to do the work
1. Photo contest – post photo on Jets Facebook album (sponsored by Motorola).
2. Most “Likes” wins
3. Fans motivated to enlist friends
4. Drove more traffic to Jets Facebook page
Cross-promote1. E mail offer to “Bee Mail” list
2. “Like” to win
3. Added 1,400+ FB followers
Web
FacebookTwitter
Partners
Team Media Channels
Long way to go: focus on attendees?
.8% 3%
Example: NY Knicks. Source: TNS Research (ESPN Sports Poll 2010), “Fav team fans.” (Sept., 2010)
FC Barcelona Facebook: informationSource of ticket information, customer service
Cleveland Indians “social deck”Invite influencers to blog
Face-to-face connections
Tweet for Charity (#
Sell tix, build database
You are not the center of the fan’s universe, so be ready…
Fan’s Life
Mobile
Your Website
MarketingDatabase
FacebookWebsite
x
Celtics: Build database, engagement
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Barclays ATP World Tour FinalsEmail Marketing Case Study
1. Program at center of event digital strategy
2. Effective results, best ROI: over 50k tickets, $3M in revenue
3. Program life cycle established for upcoming years
4. Best practice for other ATP World Tour events.
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1. Barclays Window
2. Preferred Database /
Pre-Sale
3. Public Sale
4. UK Season
Push5. Player
Qualifications
6. Summer Series
7. Fall Europe
Push
8. Tournament Mode
9. Recap / Thanks
Push ticket offers when sport is in the news
Takeaways• Invite engagement, and build database
– Content– Contests– Causes
• If you can’t monetize on social, then drive traffic to event Website– Include links back to Website in all updates– Pump the volume: don’t be afraid to update– Leverage social apps on site (Share, Like, comment, etc)
• Use all your tools and partners – cross promotion & distribution– PGA, players, fans, other tour events, local media, etc.– Find content producers & influencers ASAP (Tom Sawyer)– Piggy-back on news (social media is real time)
• Major events• Player news• Charity news
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Sportsmarketing20.com
Linkedin Group (Sports 2.0)
@sports20, #sports20