On-line fans are early adopters, influentials

I believe that “avid” fans are more valuable to the team and to sponsors. And I believe that teams websites represent the best and most efficient way to reach avid fans. I’d like to prove both of these hypotheses, but it’s tough. After all, what does “avid” really mean? And how do we measure the value of an “avid” versus a “social” fan vis a vis team revenue and sponsor brand purchases?

These are the questions I’d like to explore over the coming months. I’d welcome input from the marketing community. If it’s true that avid fans who are frequent site visitors are more valuable, either because they buy more or because they influence their friends, then we ought to be talking about it. Proving these theories could be lucrative for teams and sponsors alike.

Here’s some data that seems to support my theories:

A recent Mediamark Research (reported by ClickZ) reveals the on-line behavior of average Americans, and documents the rate at which new media behaviors are being adopted.

It’s interesting to note the differences between U.S. Averages reported by Mediamark and the recent surveys we’ve done of Colts fans on-line. I borrowed a few of Mediamarks questions and tried to match them up with similar questions I’ve asked to visitors to Colts.com. I don’t have perfect apples to apples comparisons in every case, but a few are similar enough to talk about.

Here are a few highlights:

Obtained sports information online

Mediamarks shows 24% of U.S. Adults have gone online for sports info.

Here is what Colts.com visitors are telling us:
- 82% access sports info online at least once every day
- 70% access information about football at least once every day
- 70% go to Colts.com several times each week, and another 21% visit once each week

Played online games

Mediamark reports that 22% of U.S. Adults have played on line games. I don’t know if this is solitaire, or world of warcraft. It just says “online games”

Here’s what Colts.com visitors are telling us:
- 34% have played “multi-player” online games

Downloaded Music

Mediamark reports 16% of U.S. Adults have downloaded music from the Web

Here’s what Colts.com visitors are telling us:
50% have downloaded music or movies to their iPod or similar device

Watched online video

Mediamark shows 11% of U.S. Adults have watched online video.

Here’s what Colts.com visitors are telling us:
- 45% have downloaded music or video to their cell phones
- 15% have uploaded video to YouTube or similar site

Visited blogs
Mediamark reports that 7% of U.S. Adults have visited blogs

Here’s what Colts.com visitors are telling us:
- 26% have created their own blogs
- 53% have created their own profile pages inside a social network site.

The avid sports fan who is a heavy user of the Web seems to be an early adopter for many of the fastest growing new media technologies. This fan may also be a key influencer and genarator of word-of-mouth recommenations (30% of Colts.com survey respondents say they’ve posted at least one produce review online in the past month).

Again, I’m working on a hunch here. Please share your thoughts and data if you have it. I’ll continue to dig and publish what I find.