Sponsors discovering “Coltsville,” the ultimate target market

If all Americans (12-years+) who say the Colts are their favorite team got together and formed a new city, that city would rank in the top 5 U.S. DMAs in terms of population.

And if you invited other fans who rank the Colts as their second favorite team, then this new metropolitan area would have a popluation approaching 14 million, which is larger than LA, and closing in on the NYC market.

Just for fun, let’s call this new community “Coltsville“.

“Coltsville” cannot be found on any map. It has no skyline, nor traffic jams. This new community might sound like a fairy tale, but it exists. Virtually anyway. The only road in and out of Coltsville is the team Website, www.colts.com, making it a rich environment for fans and sponsors alike.

So why would a sponsor care about Coltsville?

The answer is simple. The team website offers the best reach and frequency opportunities for sponsors looking to reach Colts fans and tap into this emotionally charged group of consumers.

While its overall audience is larger, ESPN.com doesn’t offer the same thing as Colts.com.

• ESPN.com reaches 8% of men 18-44, but Colts.com reaches 100% of Colts Fans 18-44.
• I am a big NFL fan and I really like ESPN, but my PASSION is for my favorite team, the Colts.

The issue isn’t the media, it’s the target. Do you want to reach “sports fans” with a general message, or do you want to reach “Colts fans” with a relevant message? Do you want to be an advertiser? Or do you want to be a SPONSOR?

National ADVERTISERS try to buy media as efficiently as they can. They want to “reach” as many people in their target market and gain “frequency” so that their message is experienced by the target more than once in a particular period of time. From an efficiency perspective, it may seem illogical to buy a team Web site rather than a national media channel. Unless you think like a sponsor.

Sponsors form partnerships with teams. These parterships add value to the fans’ experiences, and thereby drive better results for all parties.

Before now, targeting team fans on a national scale wasn’t possible. Teams haven’t done a great job quantifying their Web audiences. But now, when you add up the benefits, and realize how easily sponsors can leverage team sites like Colts.com to customize messages not just to Colts fas, but across all 32 NFL team sites.

Because it allows sponsor the ability to tailor messages to team fans, the NFL “network” becomes a much better opportunity than any “generic” mass channel. Together, or individually, the NFL team sites offer sponsors better reach, frequency and relevancy than anything else on the net.

I hope national sponsors will put us to the test.

Once they see that Coltsville exists, I expect sponsors will want to use it to reach target audiences efficiently, position brands effectively and increase sales. If you can afford TV, keep doing it, but supplement with sponsorships on team Websites instead of “team agnostic” media channels like ESPN.

Geography is taken out of the equation. Team Websites give sponsors opportunities to reach NFL fans wherever they live and customize messages by tailoring them to each team’s fan base. So if you feel compelled to buy a tangible “market” buy Coltsville. It’s big enough to matter yet small enough to manage.

Where did these stats come from?

According the ESPN Sports Poll 2005, the Indianapolis Colts have nearly 6 million Americans (12+) who claim the Colts as their favorite NFL team. This ranks the Colts in the top 10 of all NFL teams.

A recent Harris Poll expands on this research. Harris asked fans to indicate their top 2 favorite teams. When that data was tabulated, the Colts jumped to #3 in the league. Nearly 8 million fans rank the Colts 1st or 2nd on their favorites list. Only the reigning Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers and perennial fan favorite Dallas Cowboys rank higher.