A few thoughts on 2012 and the future of mobile & social media in sports
It’s impossible for me to predict what will happen in sports / social media in 2012 since there are so many variables in the mix. Hardware keeps changing, software keeps changing and user behaviors keep changing. Will rapid pace of change ever slow? Or are we going to live in a constant state of flux for the rest of our natural lives? Who knows?
That said, there are a few things that have my attention in the coming year.
First, big data will likely make itself known in the sports industry around both the sponsorship and ticket sales. When you think about the wealth of user information now in the coffers at Google and Facebook, it’s mind boggling. These guys can target users in so many different ways it’s scary. In 2012 I expect to see a lot more targeted and personalized forms of advertising (and sponsorship) not just from these giants.
Ticketmaster / LiveNation is building a data business that is being fueled by transactions as well as social data. The behemoth has the advantage of massive scale, plus it has data from all kinds of events, not just sports. Watch for them to learn and grow a lot in 2012. Also watch dynamic pricing companies like QCue and secondary sellers like StubHub who are themselves building up purchase pattern data and getting smarter all the time. Now add in social sharing data that is the exhaust of every ticket transaction. We might just see the efficiency and effectiveness of digital ticket marketing improve dramatically in 2012 as fans willingly share their transaction data (and their friend connections) with ticket sellers.
Speaking of fans sharing information…I expect we’ll see more and more fans trading their personal information in exchange for perks from the sponsors, teams and athletes they love. I’m not sure there will be widespread changes on the interactive front at stadiums since most still lack sufficient wireless coverage and WiFi bandwidth to really change the game for everyone in the coming year; But one place we will see these data for perks trades play out is the living room, or more specifically, the TV room.
Social TV is an emerging trend that seems too important to ignore. I’m particularly intrigued at the potential for smartphones to interact with televisions, both actively and passively. Watch companies like MISO and Shazam on this front; but also watch out for Microsoft and Nokia. When you consider the number of Xbox’s in the world, and you realize that new Windows based smartphones from Nokia will integrate with those boxes; and you recognize the size of Microsoft’s online advertising business and games business…and Nokia’s global distribution…it adds up to some HUGE potential. A Social TV experience that is powered by a smartphone which is integrated (in real time) with the set top box will improve life for the fans and for sponsors alike.
One cautionary thought: the person with the most information only wins if he knows what he’s got and what it means. Just because we have a lot of data doesn’t mean we will be smarter. Sometimes we have all kinds of information but cannot effectively assimilate it; or we misread the tea leaves because we want the data to say something they aren’t.
To help solve this problem in 2012 we will be introducing the “Social Sports Poll,” which will be the first-of-its-kind, multinational research project among fans who follow sports team on Facebook and Twitter. We expect we’ll be able to combine the qualitative data we collect from these polls with the quantitative data we already collect via our Sports Fan Graph in order to help teams better understand – and better monetize – their fan in social media and mobile channels. Watch for it!
Oh…and we’ll also be hosting two “fan-centric” digital marketing conferences in 2012. We’re calling the events “Fanographie, the science of digital fan marketing.” The first event is scheduled for March 27 in London. Registration will open in mid January. The second Fanographie event will be held in New York in the Fall of 2012.
Oh! Oh! One last thing…2012 will be the year we see LinkedIn gain traction in sports marketing. Why sports marketers haven’t yet begun to tap LinkedIn’s network to sell tickets, suites and sponsorships is beyond me. It’ll happen this year. And hey…folks at LinkedIn…if you need any help with business development in this vertical, give me a call!
Sports Marketing & Smart Phones (Part 2)
In Part I of this series we examined the Nike+ Running platform. We observed how Nike is utilizing smart phones to wrap user-powered services around its products. The Nike+ platform adds value for customer and company alike, and creates a network effect. In Part 1 we also pointed out the importance of comprehending the technical features and capabilities of the mobile computing device, and we identified three key characteristics which give smart phones the potential enhance the fan experience: smart phones have senses; they are cloud-connected, and crowd-connected. In Part 2 of this article we will dig deeper into the smart-phone-enabled customer experience, and we’ll zero in on perhaps this most important strength of the smart phone: location. Smart phones are HYPER local.
Context is king: location is the strongest indicator of consumer intent.
What do we mean by ‘context is king?’ Simply this: if you know a person’s location, then you can probably guess what he or she is doing, or intends to do. (If he’s in a store, then he probably intends to shop). Once you surmise a person’s intentions, then you might have an opportunity to serve and to make money.
Google has made billions by collecting a database of (buying) intentions. Every time people do Google searches, they are informing a massive database of consumer intentions, and sending valuable buying signals to marketers. Google uses this database of intent to connect buyers with sellers – adding value to both sides – and making billions in exchange for its efforts. Unlike Google which requires a user to type a search query to signal intent, a smart phone can identify a user’s location automatically (once he or she opts-in). The user’s location signals his or her intent. Once we know the user’s location, we can create ways to engage, inform, empower and add value to the user’s experience in order to (ultimately) monetize the relationship.
So how might this work in sports?
We’ve already seen how Nike uses location-based insights to add value for runners. Now let’s discuss ways other sports marketers could do the same for their customers and fans. Since smart phones go wherever fans go, sports marketers now have a means to identify fan location, or context, in real time. As said above, if you know the fan’s location, then you can surmise his or her intentions and imagine ways to help improve the fan’s experience. Still, with millions of fans in thousands of locations it would be impossible to customize experiences for every context. So let’s pick out three fan locations to begin with and consider ways to engage fans via their smartphones in these contexts: the TV room, the stadium, and the retail store.
Context One: the TV room
If you only have resources to plan for one fan context, make it the TV room. On average Americans are spending 34 hours per week watching television. And the good news for your smartphone strategy is that TV viewers today love to multi-screen. According to a recent Nielsen poll, 60% of Americans are online even while watching TV at home, and many of those have smart phones in their hands. This large multi-screen audience has caused quite a stir in the entertainment world lately and led to a phenomenon that is being called “Social TV.”
The early days of “Social TV”
Younger people today are growing up in a world where entertainment is becoming more inclusive and more immersive and much of this entertainment revolves around TV. Over the past few years TV producers have been experimenting with multi-screen engagement enabled by mobile phones. Tune into the X Factor, for example, and you’ll see communication and engagement flowing between the show, its actors, its sponsors and its viewers and friends of viewers. Fans are still paying money to vote, but in addition to those transactions there’s a social layer around every program that exists in the cloud and is accessible via mobile phones any time: before, during and after a TV program.
Sports are fertile ground for Social TV
X Factor and its cousin American Idol are not typical TV programs. They stand out in their abilities to attract live audiences night after night. In this they are similar to sports. Like Idol, live sports are TiVo proof, or at least TiVo resistant. Sports are appointment programming for avid fans, and consequently become fertile ground for “multi-screen” interactive programming.
So we know sports fans are watching live, but are they looking for a “social” or “second screen” experience too? Yep. Avid sports fans who own smart phones are even more likely than average to be online while watching sports on TV. A recent Coyle Media poll of sports fans indicates that over 80% of fans who follow teams on Twitter are likely to go online via smart phones while watching sports on TV. (Coyle Digital Sports Poll, October 2011).
So you know your fans are watching your game, and you know they’ve got their smartphones in their hands.
What are you going to do about it?
It might seem unnecessary for sports teams to be asking this question. After all, the league sold the broadcast rights to the games, so it’s the broadcasters who ought to be thinking about the Social TV angles, right? Right. And wrong. Clearly the NBC’s and ESPN’s of the world have ripe opportunities to leverage smartphones to drive deeper interaction with sports fans watching games on TV, but sports teams do too.
There’s an entire city (within your league-sanctioned trade area) filled with fans who are watching your game with smartphones in their hands. Why not get them to tune to YOUR mobile signal rather than the national networks? Your fans will love it. Your (local) sponsors will love it too!
How can a sports team leverage smartphones while the game is on TV?
To answer this question you’ll need to think about the fan’s intentions. Some fans are playing fantasy and want stats from their players. Some are using Twitter and Facebook to create and share content about the game. Some might be interested in playing a social game (based on the real game) that leverages augmented reality or other cool tools on the smartphone. Other fans might be interested in special deals or opportunities offered by your sponsors.
Before you begin devising ways to push offers at your fans, remember, the smartphone isn’t just a mini browser. The smartphone has senses, and these senses can be employed to create new engagement opportunities. The cable show, Cover Affairs, for example, is experimenting with innovative technology from Shazam which picks up signals from the sound track of the TV program, and allows fans running the Covert Affairs app to gain access to premium content. Read about it here.
And remember, fans want to have FUN
WWE has gained a lot attention lately for its ‘social TV’ efforts. For more on WWE read this blog by Peter Stringer. But WWE has an unfair advantage over “real” sports in that WWE is theater disguised as sport. The folks at WWE have the luxury of scripting their events and broadcasts. They’ve got the complete co-operation of their actors (read wrestlers) and just as X Factor fans are willing to tolerate the blatant commercialism embedded in the show in exchange for closer connections with the talent contest, WWE fans are willing to suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves in the wrestling narrative. They do this because its FUN.
What business are you in?
The sports business straddles the fence between news and entertainment, and as long as it does, it will have difficulty taking full (commercial) advantage of social media. News organizations resist social input. Entertainment embraces fan interaction. So as the entertainment world is moving forward with social TV, the sports world will remain challenged. Allowing athletes to tweet from their own homes is one thing; Athletes tweeting from the sidelines inside game broadcasts is strictly forbidden. Clearly there are immense risks to allowing unfettered interaction between the players and fans, but given the emerging economic opportunity in social TV, (and the demands of TV rights holders) we wonder how long these rules will remain in force.
Bottom line on the TV room: Next time you’re sitting on the couch watching a game ask yourself, “What would make this experience better?” How can you anticipate and serve the needs of your fans? Ask around. Do other fans feel the same way you do? If so, then you might have discovered a great feature for your smartphone app in the TV room.
One caution: be careful not to think of the “TV room” too literally. Sports fans will watch games on the best available screen. The TV room could be anywhere.
Note: I intended to cover two more fan contexts in this post, the stadium and the sponsor location, but I’ve already run WAY longer than I expected and I’m just getting started. So I think I’ll cut off this post here, and pick up with the next context in Part 3 of this series. I’ll try to push that next post out soon.
Social Sports Fans Like to “Check-in” (Infographic)
According to a 2011 Forrester Research study quoted in AdAge, just 5% of Americans use location-based, check-in services like Foursquare on a regular basis. This number is up just 1% from 2010 indicating very slow growth in this behavior. However, while regular usage of check-ins services has been flat, awareness of such services has nearly doubled in the past 12 months from 16% to 30% according to the same Forrester study. We wondered if sports fans are checking in, so we investigated. Turns out they are!
Social Sports Fans Like to Check-in
Our most recent Social Sports Poll (TM) found that fans who own smartphones and who follow their favorite teams on Facebook or Twitter are up to 8x more likely to use location-based, check-in services than average. The infographic below shows the the highlights. These data from the October 2011 Social Sports Poll (TM) and seem to indicate that social sports fans who own smartphones are quite willing to check-in under the right circumstances. This finding could spell opportunity for sports properties as they develop their mobile marketing strategies.
Sports Marketing from Coyle Media, LLC.
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Sports Marketing from Coyle Media, LLC.
A few observations from the Social Sports Poll
In all the research we've done we've seen that Twitter users tend to be more active than Facebook users when it comes to using social media via smartphones. And this hold true for check-in behaviors.
- Forty-three percent of fans who follow U.S. professional sports teams on Twitter have checked-in at least once.
- Thirty-three percent of Facebook sports fans have done the same.
We've also noticed that NHL fans seem to be quite active on smartphones and social media. As illustrated above, NHL Fans are twice as likely as NFL or NBA fans to use check-in services when attending games at the stadium.
It's also important to note where fans have checked-in, and why they would check in:
- More fans have checked-in at restaurants than any other location, including stadiums
- Fans cited "discounts or deals" as the number one factor motivating them to check-in
So now we know that social sports fans are likely to check-in. We know where they'll check-in and why they'll check-in. With these three pieces of information we should be able to begin running marketing campaigns for team direct sales (and for sponsors) that leverage check-ins as an engagement tactic. I'm in the process now of writing another blog post which will explore some possibilities in this area. I hope to publish that article (which is a follow up to this earlier post) later this week.
About the Social Sports Poll
The Social Sports Poll is an ongoing research initiative among global sports fans who follow sports properties on Facebook and / or Twitter. The Social Sports Poll is designed to help sports properties understand fan preferences and behaviors relative to social media and mobile, and to uncover trends that might impact the digital sports industry. The Social Sports Poll is operated by Coyle Media in co-operation with the Indiana University Sport Marketing & Management Program, and will be updated quarterly in 2012. Any sports property with more than 5,000 followers or fans is invited to participate.
About Coyle Media
Coyle Media is a digital media consulting firm based in Indianapolis. The company specializes in helping clients build digital business through training, strategy and research. Its clients include sports teams, media companies, technology companies, and consumer brands. Contact.
“Social” sports fans love their smartphones – infographic
According to a Sept 2011 Nielsen study smartphones have grabbed 40% market share in the U.S. That means 4 in 10 Americans who own mobile devices own smartphones. The other six own feature phones for now at least. Nielsen projects that smartphones will pass feature phones in the U.S. and reach 50% market share by Christmas 2011. This is all the more amazing considering only 21% of American wireless subscribers were using a smartphone as of the fourth quarter 2009. Data such as these are sending marketers into a frenzy as they rush to engage consumers in this new and exciting channel.
Given this rapid adoption of smartphones by average consumers, we were curious to see if social sports fans (i.e. fans who follow pro and college sports team on Facebook and / or Twitter) were adopting smartphones at similar rates. Turns out they’re not. Sports fans adopting smart phones WAY faster the mainstream average. In some cases, 9 of 10 avid fans already have smartphones. So for any sports marketer who didn’t get out of bed this morning thinking about smartphones, then consider this your wake up call.
Check out the graphic, then meet me at the bottom of this post so we can consider some of the implications of these data.
Sports Marketing from Coyle Media, LLC.
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So what does this data mean?
As you can see, fans who follow American team sports on Facebook & Twitter are in some cases 2x more likely to own smart phones than average. In some cases, nearly 100% of survey respondents indicate smartphone ownership! That’s staggering. And for sports marketers who still thinking the iPhone is the only game in town, it’s not. While more Twitter followers own iPhones, more Facebook fans own Androids. And since Facebook has more people, Android has actually surpassed iPhone overall.
So what does this mean for your organization?
The answer to this question will depend on the state of your current mobile strategy. If you don’t have a mobile strategy, you better get one since your most avid fans are adopting smartphones at alarming rates that far exceed the national average. If you’re not there, you’re missing an important opportunity.
If you’ve only got eyes for iPhone, you better get serious about the Droid too since as of this minute, more fans have Androids than iPhones. (Before worrying about iPad, perhaps consider do something for Android phones first).
And get ready for a long and exciting road ahead
It’s early days for both social media and smartphones, and these are just a couple surface level insights. For deeper “ah ha” moments, you’ll want to dig through some of the other 50 questions in the Social Sports Poll so you can see how fans answered questions about not just how they use their smart phones, but how they use social media overall.
More information about the Social Sports Poll:.
The Social Sports Poll is an ongoing, global survey of people who are following sports properties on Facebook or Twitter. Coyle Media manages the Poll and creates the survey which is distributed directly by sports properties to their fans via Facebook and Twitter updates. The Poll has been fielded by more than 20 sports properties across three continents so far, and over 20,000 completed surveys have been collected. To date we have fielded two waves of research, keeping the number of participating sports properties small, and tweaking the questions to yield the best data. Now that we’ve got the survey in good shape, we plan to expand.
Will you join the Social Sports Poll?
In 2012, Coyle Media will be opening up the Social Sports Poll to all comers. Any sports properties with sufficient numbers of social media followers is invited to join the poll. As the number of participating properties increases, not only will we collect more data, but we’ll be able to make better assessments of the data and draw more accurate insights for all Poll participants. We believe that sports properties (and the sports industry) will benefit from working on this collective (i.e. crowdsourced) research initiative.
The Social Sports Poll will provide track important digital media trends in a sports context (e.g. the percentage of smartphones, use of check-in, content sharing, social commerce and mobile Commerce), and it will help sports properties to strengthen content and engagement strategies in Facebook, Twitter, mobile E mail and Web channels.
Drop me a line
If you’re interested in learning more about the Social Sports Poll, or in getting your property involved, please drop me a line via my contact form. I will make sure you get more details, and send you our schedule of survey dates for 2012.
Remember, despite their widespread adoption among avid sports fans, smartphones are just beginning to make their mark on sports marketing. Sports industry pioneers doing amazing things, but the rest of the industry is just waking up to the possibilities. Time to make the donuts!!
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