If we did a push-up every time someone said “engagement” at Marketing Brew’s The Sports Marketing Playbook: Mastering Fan Engagement and Experiences event in New York on Tuesday, we wouldn’t have any arm strength left to type this story.
At the event, marketers from brands and organizations including Apple, ESPN, the NFL, State Farm, Olipop, and Unrivaled came together to talk about all things sports marketing and fandom. Below are some of the biggest takeaways from the conversations that happened onstage.
Embrace the power of local: A holistic marketing plan that incorporates local touchpoints to reach fans is a central part of the marketing behind MLS Season Pass, a streaming service that is available on Apple TV as part of a partnership between the tech giant and Major League Soccer, Emeka Ofodile, global head of sports marketing at Apple, said onstage. To help engage local clubs and fans during MLS’s 30th anniversary season, Apple and MLS coordinated with the 30 MLS clubs to design specific Apple logos for each club
“Apple can tell a story on a global level, but the clubs and the league are also trying to tell a story in-market that’s relevant to their fans,” Ofodile said.
Shelby Williams, head of integrated sports marketing at Amazon Web Services, took note of the varying viewing preferences of fans of the German soccer league Bundesliga, whose games can be watched on Prime Video. “Enabling localization of content: watching the game that we want, the plans that we want, and the way that we want to consume it” is a key priority, she said.
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Put fan engagement at the center: For State Farm, becoming a partner of the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league Unrivaled, which just wrapped up its first season, was a “no-brainer,” according to Patty Morris, State Farm’s head of brand.
“When a new league is formed, this doesn’t happen very often, especially in women’s sports, and [with] the expansion that was going to happen there, we got really excited,” she said.
Financing could be another way to engage fans in the future, Jon Stidd, CMO at sports finance outfit DealMaker.
“This next wave of fan participation, whether that’s watching your favorite athlete in some behind-the-scenes content that you get access to, or owning shares in their company, unlocks a new level of participation that is engaging,” he said.
Lean into athlete-centric storytelling: Brands can lean on athletes’ personalities and what they stand for as a way to connect with consumers, particularly amid the rise of NIL deals, Emily Sisson, SVP of sponsorships and athlete and partner marketing at OneTeam Partners, said. The WNBA, she noted, could offer a particularly timely opportunity: the WNBA draft is next week, and its season kicks off in mid-May.
Radhika Duggal, SVP and CMO at MLS, emphasized the programming that Apple and MLS have teamed up on, including the documentary Onside: Major League Soccer, to help support viewership of MLS Season Pass and grow excitement around clubs and the league.
“Our goal is to grow fandom,” she said. “The single, simplest way to do that is to connect a potential fan with a player.”
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