The Impact of Live Social Content on Sports Marketing

As seen this week in Forbes, Huffington Post, and Advertising Week 360. This is my unedited, fully illustrated "LinkedIn" version. Thanks for reading!

This week the NBA season tipped off, and the roar of the crowd hit a fever pitch at Oracle Arena as the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors shared Instagram Stories live on the giant screens with fans - the first NBA team to do so. Ok, ok, so maybe that's not the reason the fans were going wild. They were, however, witness to a trend we are only going to continue to see expand: live social content is changing the game of sports marketing.

Live sports has forever connected fans around a passionate shared experience. How we engage with our favorite players, share our love of the game, and interact with brands around sports has changed dramatically over the past 25 years.

When I was growing up in the early 90s, most of the live sports experience was centered around watching the game at home on broadcast TV surrounded by friends and family, or listening to it on the radio (but only old men did that, thought my pre-teen self), or actually going to the game (the few times a year we could afford a ticket) and watching the Seahawks or Mariners battle it out in the mighty Kingdome. As for your favorite players, well, you could see them on TV, read articles about them, or collect trading cards. But the closest you'd come to truly connecting with them was by standing in line at the stadium on game day and praying to the sports gods that you'd be selected for a coveted autograph.

I remember being a young boy who battled with a mob in an attempt to get Seattle Supersonics star Desmond Mason’s autograph at Key Arena. (Remember that NBA team who reigned in Seattle for 41 years?) The sports gods smiled on me that day, and I walked away with number 24's signature on a newspaper clipping of him leaping over Rashard Lewis to win the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Competition that year. I was #stoked to say the least.

Fast forward 20 years later to 2013 when hashtags actually existed. I was working in marketing at T-Mobile, and we were gearing up for the first ever Tweetup as part of MLB's All-Star game in NYC with the Rookie of the Year Bryce Harper. Fans were beyond excited to tweet to Bryce, ask their questions and engage with him in real time. Most of the fans that tweeted that day probably never had a chance to meet Bryce in person, but they felt an incredible connection to him that would not have been possible before the rise of social media.

(Above: T-Mobile Tweetup with Bryce Harper, 2013 MLB All-Star Fan Fest, NYC)

Four short years later, we’re living in a time where the conversation and connection between fans, players, and the teams are richer and more immediate than ever before. With real-time content creation platforms like Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, and Snapchat, fans are instantly connected to the teams and athletes they love. With one push of a button, players and teams can go live with their own content from the locker room, the gym, or even from home - giving fans a closer look into their lives, on and off the field.

Live social content has become integrated into fans every day mobile experience, as well as their physical in-game experience. Sports leagues and teams are capitalizing on this trend, and in doing so, they are seeing the conversational volume go up as a result. In the late summer of this year, the Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Sounders, Bayern Munich and the San Francisco Giants became the first professional sports teams ever to display Instagram Stories content live in-stadium.

When live social content goes up on the the video displays in stadiums, it acts as a “trendmaker” with the crowd. So instead of simply looking at their phones to check social chatter during timeouts, fans are pointing their phone at the big screen and interacting with content in real time. Professional sports teams are seeing social engagement with fans increase by more than 20%, within the hour, when live content is displayed on game days.

(Above is a mock example of how Snapchat screens look and function in-arena)

I recently had the chance to chat with Eric Long, Director of Production with the Philadelphia Eagles, about how they’re using live content during games. “Our content team puts a lot of resources into providing fans with unique experiences on game day through live social content,” said Long. “Showcasing that work to more than 65k people in the stadium is a great opportunity to continue to grow our audience and provide value.”

While many traditional media platforms are continuing to see a negative dip in revenue growth, sponsorship of live sports content is booming. According to a recent survey, 98% of sports marketers chose "Social Media" as the number one way they feel they can fully leverage sponsorships. Sports sponsorships also increased 4.3% in 2017 - representing $16.37B of the total North American sponsorship spend. Teams are stepping up in a major way to connect brands with real-time social content through the syndication and engaging display of stories across their owned properties (in-stadium signage, web, and mobile). One such example comes from College Football. This season the Oklahoma Sooners pumped up the crowd with a user-generated “Selfie” board sponsored by McDonald's.

From watching games on-demand to consuming shorter, snackable content on platforms like Snapchat, the way fans enjoy the sports world is rapidly changing. This season, Facebook will live stream college sports while also featuring NFL game recaps and highlights through a deal with the NFL. Amazon is streaming Thursday Night Football games for Prime members. Twitter currently broadcasts college sports 24/7, along with MLB games on Friday nights.

Trends such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are also reshaping the way fans interact - from VR experiences at the stadium to new apps that allow for VR group viewing similar to multiplayer video games. Wendy’s just teamed up with FOX Sports to create a virtual environment where fans can watch games together. While you can’t quite pass the ketchup to your friend, this should make for an exciting new trash-talking venue.

The smartest sports marketers (<---Twitter List) are pivoting as fast as they can to sponsor innovative content. Networks like Snapchat are heading the demand by driving innovations such as their new sponsored 3D AR. I actually had a guy serving Bud-Light on my living room table as I watched the opening kickoff for last Sunday's NFL games. Amazing! Now imagine when you have that exclusively branded filter available, and you promote it in-stadium to 70,000 screaming fans who are able to simply point their phone at the giant screens and engage with the content. Yes, this new level of virality is upon us.

As we look to the future, the way fans connect with their favorite players will continue to evolve. We're already seeing players take more ownership of their content. Case in point: Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has the biggest following on social media among NFL players, and he recently launched a new app called TraceMe, which provides fans with an inside look at his life as a QB, father, and husband. In addition to giving his fans more access, Wilson wants to create a platform where any athlete or celebrity could “offer a more intimate picture of themselves — on platforms that they control”. If the content is high quality enough to drive fans in that direction, the player will then have control over the media rights. Hello brands, goodbye middlemen!

Your takeaway should be this: we're living in an age of the live stream. With platforms and content strategies rapidly evolving, traditional media no longer holds the same relevance as it once did for sports fans. From individual athletes and teams to brands, everyone is going live with content to bring fans closer to the game, closer to the action, closer to the person, all while creating new experiences in partnership with tech players.

My son’s generation isn’t going to know what it's like to stand around for an autograph. His favorite teams and players will interact with him in a totally different way. Something we haven’t even imagined yet.

?Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, & ideas for the future of sports marketing.

Cheers,

Nathan