The Impact of Euro 2024 on Programmatic Advertising
The UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament has not only thrilled fans with exciting matches but also significantly impacted programmatic advertising. England’s dramatic defeat to Spain in the final, watched by a peak audience of 23.8 million across BBC and ITV, became the highest combined audience for any television broadcast in the UK this year. This record-breaking viewership highlights the massive reach of live sports events.
Globally, Euro 2024 has been a spectacular success across participating countries, with a projected cumulative audience exceeding 5 billion viewers. This vast audience awareness presents a golden opportunity for programmatic advertising, allowing brands to reach a diverse and engaged global audience more effectively. Looking back at Euro 2020, a remarkable 80% of people consumed content related to the tournament, underscoring the broad interest and engagement that major sports events generate. This level of engagement translates into significant advertising potential, as brands can target viewers across multiple platforms, from traditional TV broadcasts to streaming services and social media.
Additionally, the surge in mobile gaming adds another layer to the advertising landscape. With the increasing number of mobile gamers worldwide, advertisers can leverage in-game advertising and mobile ad networks to reach sports fans who are also active gamers. In the first quarter of 2024, Samsung regained its position as the leader (according to idc.com) in device shipments and market share, surpassing Apple. This shift gives marketers a valuable chance to capitalize on on-device advertising placements.
The confluence of high viewership, cross-platform engagement, and the growing mobile gaming market makes Euro 2024 a prime example of how major sporting events can drive innovation and growth in programmatic advertising. As we dive further into this subject, we’ll explore how advertisers capitalize on these trends to create more personalized and impactful campaigns.
These large audiences, combined with higher consumer spending during major tournaments, enable ITV to typically charge up to ￡500,000 for a 30-second ad spot during an England match. Therefore, a successful run for the Three Lions significantly boosts the company’s finances. Euro 2024 is poised to generate significant revenue through various streams. Media rights are expected to surpass €1.135 billion, supplemented by sponsorships, ticket sales, hospitality, and licensing. This financial surge underscores the vast commercial potential for advertisers during the tournament.
Importance of DSP During Sports Events
The era of isolated ad buying is over. Now, we can design and execute connected, programmatic campaigns across various formats using a single demand-side platform. For example, DecenterAds DSP offers direct advertisers and agencies several benefits:
These features help advertisers achieve better results while maintaining brand safety and compliance.
Programmatic buying also offers remarkable flexibility for brands that capture the cultural moment. Picture updating display or digital out-of-home (DOOH) ads in real time based on Euro scores or creating viral multi-screen messages in response to breaking news during sporting events such as Euro 2024 and the Olympics.
Several brands executed successful programmatic campaigns during Euro 2024:
They used programmatic ads to target young sports audiences on social media and streaming platforms. By leveraging data-driven insights, they tailored their messaging, achieving higher engagement rates.
They adopted a multi-channel strategy, blending programmatic video ads with traditional digital ads to create an immersive experience for football fans. Their campaign showcased new product lines and special editions related to the tournament.
They utilized location-based programmatic advertising to attract fans attending live matches. Using geofencing technology, they targeted users near stadiums and fan zones, driving foot traffic to their outlets.
How to Target Sports Audiences With Programmatic?
Your campaigns will be more successful if you use programmatic strategies to target the right users at the right times. Interest targeting engages users who are likely interested in your app. For sports apps, focus on users engaging with sports content and related apps. Demographic targeting customizes campaigns for specific groups, considering age, gender, and location. If your app appeals to younger audiences, create ads for users aged 18-35. Target users in Euro 2024 and Olympics 2024 host cities.
Sports audience engagement is unique. Devices vary for live games, highlight clips, stats analysis, or news browsing. 96% of sports fans use a second device while watching live sports (GWI), indicating a shift from traditional channels. Each device has unique data identifiers, complicating targeting.
Fan identity graph solutions replace cookie data in a post-cookie world . They track online behavior across platforms to create singular user profiles by matching unique identifiers. By combining online and offline data, identity graphs reach consumers across various platforms and devices. Detailed data helps marketers understand and engage sports audiences with team and league-specific insights, fostering interactive conversations with fans.
By identifying fan behavior across devices, refine audiences based on advertiser priorities. Utilize rich audience data to target sports fans on programmatic channels using unique identifiers such as favorite team or player, personality traits, lifestyle choices, and location. Custom bidding models can leverage identity data to find similar sports audiences at scale.
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Contacts Based on Time Zone
This year’s tournament is the first major international competition in a viewer-friendly timezone. Unlike the 2020 edition, held without spectators, and the last World Cup in Qatar, this event caters to casual viewers.
International soccer draws large broadcast audiences in key markets like the U.K., France, and Germany, keeping TV the top medium of severe brands. Even pre-tournament games attract significant crowds, such as the Greece vs. Germany friendly, which drew 45% of German viewers aged 14-49.
Despite forecasts of a 0.2% decline in global ad spending on traditional TV over the next five years, major events like the Euros defy this trend. Ad inventory around match coverage commands some of the highest prices in British and European advertising.
According to IPG’s Magna, TV ad spending increased by 20% in June compared to last year, with much of this going to ITV, which shares Euros coverage rights with the BBC. ITV’s accessible sales policy benefits brands like Scottish soft drink Irn-Bru, which plans to run its tournament campaign during ITV’s coverage of the opening Scotland game.
Irn-Bru’s campaign has already been featured on Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, Amazon Prime Video, Sky, ITV, and Channel 4’s on-demand services, as well as in cinemas. While it targets Scottish audiences, it has also gained significant organic viewership in Germany and other parts of Europe, according to Leith, the brand’s creative agency.
Increased Role of Fanzones and Audio Advertising
Most advertisers with smaller budgets will leave TV to tournament sponsors. Instead, they focus on out-of-home, programmatic OOH, and retail media. For example, EssenceMediacom’s client Chase Bank targets fans of Scotland and England with goodwill messages featuring stars Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka.?
Not all fans will watch from home. Fanzones (outdoor viewing parties) will be hosted across Germany and other participating countries by sponsors like Coca-Cola, Lidl, and Bitberger. As the first European tournament since the pandemic, more viewers will head to pubs or sponsored fan zones. These fan zones offer more than just big screens. Hotel Mundial, hosted by Mundial publisher Footballco and sponsored by Budweiser, Marriott Bonvoy, Xbox Play, and Reebok, will feature live podcast recordings, video games, and art alongside matches. A Footballco survey found that “almost 90% of Euros fans want to watch with friends, families, or colleagues.”
Radio remains a reliable way to reach soccer fans, but audio advertising on Spotify and podcasts has evolved since the last Euros in 2020. Brands like Skybet have been running audio spots on Spotify and sponsoring podcasts, offering shoulder content activation opportunities. Combining traditional radio and podcast ads gives brands dual exposure, benefiting from sizeable live broadcast audiences and focused podcast communities. Increased demand for football opinion, analysis, and storytelling among engaged fans has boosted podcast advertising spend, a trend likely to continue due to its hyper-targeted and personalized approach.
New Programmatic Trends for Sports Events 2024
DecenterAds programmatic experts have selected several trends and offer you to use them in the following sports season to improve your advertising activities:
AI-Driven Contextual Targeting. With evolving user identification, AI-powered contextual targeting is increasingly vital. Strategic partnerships enable advertisers to use AI to place ads in relevant environments, enhancing brand messaging and audience perception.
Emphasize Transparency. Ensure you know where your advertising dollars are going by prioritizing reputable publishers from the start.
Sustainable Advertising. We suggest leveraging this strategy to enhance your campaign performance during sports events. Focus on sustainable solutions that connect brands with publishers meeting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics. This helps brands reduce their environmental impact while reaching valuable demographic segments.
Reevaluate Blocklists. Critically review existing blocklists to ensure outdated terms are not causing exclusions. Foster open communication between agencies and brands to set appropriate risk tolerance levels across various content categories.
Curated Marketplaces. The industry is creating solutions to connect brands with premium publishers carefully chosen to match target audiences. This involves developing programmatic marketplaces that aggregate publishers aligned with an advertiser’s target demographics or industry verticals.
Optimizing the Open Web. While curated marketplaces provide control, reaching a broader audience often requires targeting the open web. Continuously refine targeting strategies using audience insights, creative variations, and environmental data signals to maximize campaign results.
DSPs simplify programmatic ad buying, helping you reach a wider audience. Leveraging DSP features, you can target valuable users worldwide and enhance app marketing, especially during sports events, ensuring your ads connect with engaged sports fans. You can improve conversion rates and ROI through precise optimizations and advanced A/B testing. Explore the benefits of using DecenterAds DSP for your next campaign.
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