Digital and Social Media Sports
A business-minded look at digital and social media in sports
In March 2017, Leaders Performance Institute held their annual Leaders Summit in New York, bringing together leaders from the sports business world.
This is a collection of the best quotes, stats, insights, and observations shared via #Leaders17 on Day 2 of the event. Thanks to everyone whose tweets helped fuel this recap!
Check out the Day 1 recap, too.
Check it out below! And be sure to check out the Day 1 recap, too.
On March 11-12, 2016, the MIT Sloan School of Management held their tenth annual Sports Analytics Conference, bringing together leaders from throughout sports.
Here are the best sports business-related tweets, quotes, stats, and insights shared via Twitter from the event (#SSAC16).
Posted by Neil Horowitz Follow me on Twitter @njh287 Connect on LinkedIn
This past weekend, we witnessed one of the best AFC Championship games ever, which was followed by a still-attractive NFC Championship. This was the weekend Facebook eyed to debut its new real-time sports content social hub – Sports Stadium. Reviews were mixed and, while it is very early in the game, here are 6 observations and insights about Facebook Sports Stadium, and its features.
The Home Page of Facebook prompted you to post about the game, at times, but, besides that, there was little to no access to Sports Stadium from the News Feed. Several social media pros, let alone casual fans, had trouble finding it and the difficulty was stunning. Facebook could have surfaced it front and center, bought an ad on TV to promote it, and utilized its push alerts to get some of their 650M sports fans on the app to check out their exciting new product. Perhaps the relatively hidden nature was part of the plan, but, regardless, there no doubt a severe drop in even sampling it, as even those trying to find it were lost.
2. “At The Game” may be the most compelling feature
The first place one lands is the “Matchup” screen, which, once the game is live, has a running, visual play-by-play. The bottom of this page has content, presumably, from fans and media at the game — photos and videos. This may be its best feature as it could rival Snapchat for its more authentic, real-time, really there content. Particularly because many Facebook users may not ever have experienced a Snapchat story. Combine the location-based content, live video, expert curation, and a newer/bigger audience, and you may be on to something.
3. The Stats are Helpful and Sleek
Another nice feature is the easily accessible real-time stats. Twitter’s forthcoming “hub” may have this and several Snapchat snaps are overlaid with game info, but the stats in Sports Stadium are easier to access and have a good mobile look. These stats can likely become increasingly personalized — to fantasy and gambling, but this is a nice start and somewhat of a differentiator for Facebook’s sports central.
4. The Experts tab is a real-time improvement, but cannot equal Twitter
As I periodically flipped to Sports Stadium this tab was the most dynamic, fairly well-updated with at least some fresh content. But it pales in comparison to Twitter and will likely never equal it or the real-time reactions and content, regardless of influencers and live video. Even with Facebook likely exhorting media and teams to post more frequently (some did, some clearly did not), the paradigm on Facebook can’t change overnight. What this feed starts to look like is, well, Facebook. Not the minute-by-minute reactions, news, and content, but more broad updates and content not quite as time-sensitive down to the minute. It’s one thing to get more people posting on Facebook at all during a game, it’s another to have teams and reporters shift their mindset. Perhaps Facebook will allow teams + media to earmark posts just for Sports Stadium. Facebook is trying to be Twitter, here, but they cannot change the way we view and use Facebook overnight, if ever.
5. The Friends Tab Doesn’t Debut With a Flourish For Most
Thank goodness or my friend, Joe, or my Friends feed would’ve been a deserted island, party of one. Not exactly a “Sports Stadium.” If the feed is this empty during games watched by 50 million fans or more, it’ll be tough to convince fans to most more and more often during games on Facebook. The social giant has incredible metrics on engagement around sports events, but it seems much of this before/after and consists more of content consumption than creation. Facebook posts live a lot longer (see paradigm shift point above) and users are not yet, if ever, accustomed or conditioned to do more real-time reaction, in-the-moment posts that make a real-time social hub worthwhile.
6. It May Not Matter
At the end of the day, Facebook is indeed a giant compared to its social media brethren. It has an international reach and daily active user count that blows competition out of the water. Many of these users are NOT active on Twitter, have never seen Snapchat, and maybe check Instagram at times when they’re bored. Many Facebook users — older, international, and even all the Gen Z’ers and Millennials that are not among Twitter’s and Snapchat’s relatively sparse user population. For some, Facebook’s Sports Stadium is the first or the best (to their knowledge) live game hub and real-time center. Facebook has the daily reach, the marketing dollars, and the command of attention, especially on mobile, that gives them a huge advantage in trying to conquer this space. They may not change Twitterati like you and me, but if even a tiny fraction of those 650M fans sample some Sports Stadium content, Facebook may indeed be able to spout a modicum of success. The further integration of Facebook Live, perhaps Instagram (live), international events like the Olympics, and more active promotion will all be worth watching as Sports Stadium continues Facebook’s most recent foray into real-time.
So what about you? Have you checked out Sports Stadium? If you work in or around sports, will you actively post more often in Facebook during games?
As is well accepted by now, Facebook isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Whether it commands the sports second screen, however, remains to be seen.
On episode 58 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Mark J. Burns, Talent Marketing Representative with CSE and Forbes Sports Money Blog contributor. Neil and Mark talked about Burns’s article in which 130+ leaders in the sports business gave their thoughts on what to watch in 2016.
What follows are some snippets from the episode. Click Here to listen to the full episode or check it out and subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher.
Posted by Neil Horowitz
Every year, in the ever-accelerating ecosystem of social media and sports, is the year of ‘something.’ It was all about engagement, then visuals, then GIFs and videos, which gave way to live streaming. What we think comes next is probably only partially accurate, as every day brings something new, something exciting, and something to be considered thoughtfully and strategically.
With all that said, here are 13 thought-provoking (hopefully) ideas to consider for the next calendar year of social media and omni-channel marketing and engagement. (PS: Let’s try not to overuse the word ‘engagement’ in 2016)
1) Micro engagements – Five years ago, we wanted to hold our (virtual) megaphones and shout our messages and push our content to the masses. But there is a reason presidential candidates supplement their speeches to thousands with door-to-door visits. Micro, 1-to-1 engagement matter. And with the growth of direct messaging apps and the evolving dedication to forming relationships with one’s most valued fans, especially influencers, has magnified the understanding of the importance of micro engagements. Even better, marketers are getting better at, and more intentional with, tracking and valuing these micro engagements. Turn one fan a day into a super-fan and it’s a good day.
2) Perfectly timed and targeted ads in digital and physical space – This point is two-fold (and will be more than just a 2016 process). First, as more TV’s are replaced by connected, OTT solutions, content providers will not rely on guessing and Scarborough and Nielsen data as much when understanding who their content (and their partners’ ads) are reaching. See the digital ads behind home plate during an MLB game on TV, on the side of the pitch of an EPL match, and on the glass behind the net of an NHL broadcast? Sooner rather than later, the ad you see, much like the Internet and social networks, will be tailored to YOU and different from the ad someone sees on the other side of the country, let alone the other side of the street.
Second, ads will get even better with targeting and timing from a 360-degree perspective. Moments after you click the image from that Subway, an ad will appear in your feed and/or on the screen of your OTT, based on that recent engagement. Segmentation is more granular than ever; the next level evolution is ever more context.
3) Social Media and CRM – The figurative ‘white whale’ for most social and digital media pros is the ability to tie the ‘traditional’ CRM with all of the data from social media profiles and engagements. The social networks want to keep this data close and secure to force brands to pay to play (and to, uhh, protect us), when they know how much brands and publishers would jump at the ability to truly tie all touch points into a single customer view and CRM. Privacy certainly plays a pivotal role, but 2016 could be the year that social media CRM, even if it remains in a silo, becomes more usable and more available, especially to paying customers.
4) Contactless engagements – We are all walking data producing machines. And 2016 will be when the acceleration of contactless engagement, as well as passive vs. proactive, starts to take off. Whether it is knowing the route you take from car to seat in a venue, the ability to pay or enter a contest simply with a wave of the wrist, and ‘liking’ or sharing things without having to open an app on a device, engagements will become more streamlined and more frictionless. That means more data, more potential activity, and more user education, first and foremost.
5) Funnels will become more developed – We’re well-educated on customer journeys and funnels. But our ability to track, visualize, optimize, and influence these funnels is greater than ever (and more numerous than ever). With so many touch points, so much data known (and not known, but normalized or extrapolated), and different pathways produced for different prospects, we’ll get smarter and more sophisticated this year with not forcing funnels, but personalizing and contextualizing them to the nth degree. All of which ties into the next point…
6) Content will become more focused – Even the biggest sports teams and businesses are creating a few campaigns, collateral, and copy at a time. The more aspirational do some A/B split testing and use targeted and custom audiences and search ads. But most don’t and most still are more focused on reaching the fan/customer than reaching the fan/customer with the right message, content, and copy. This requires more legwork with copy, design, marketing, and social, but it will become increasingly more necessary and more effective/valuable with the rise of more granular segmented marketing, augmented by programmatic advertising options.
7) Relevance over Reach – We’ll still continue to love charts with big numbers, but another element will be added — the return on all that reach. While a solution will never be full-proof, there is an increasing ability, and demand, to track the bang for the buck. If exposure are not reaching the right people or accruing the desired outcomes, it’ll all be for naught. The shotgun method may still maintain some [albeit diminishing] value with concern rising more to relevance and return.
8) Responsive design will be superlative – The term “responsive design,” for me, conjures images of a bland, blatantly basic version of a desktop or ‘first screen’ experience. But, already and even more so every day, mobile is the first screen. Design needs to be less about delivering the bare minimum, a functional experience on mobile. It should be an optimized visual and experience, designed to delight just as much as, no – more, than its desktop and more ‘traditional’ counterparts. For many, mobile may be (pretty much) the only channel with which they engage with your brand. And more and more businesses and brands are realizing they must deliver a look and feel they can present with pride.
9) Excitement over apps – Have you seen lately, a slight but noticeable uptick in teams and media properties promoting their mobile apps? It’s no secret more fan time is being spent on mobile, much of which is spent on social media, often with their team’s or brand’s content. The move toward apps may stem from a desire to get away from social media’s pay-to-play, to truly own your audience and engagement [and data], and to provide a more frictionless way to reach fans and customers. Interaction and content will persist in the public parks of social networks, but teams will also prioritize their own properties, real estate and engagement they can command.
10) Media is changing…slowly – It’s an understatement to say that technology is outpacing the media and content marketplace. Viewership, content value, and so-called “ratings” are farcical in their fragmented attempts to truly track all the ways in which content is consumed now. It is evolving, but longstanding agreements and habits makes this a necessarily gradual process. Multi-channel property rights and activations are increasingly the new norm and brands are understanding, more than ever, the eyeballs and engagement they’re getting everywhere. Content produced for consumption anywhere – TV, online, on-site – will get valued more holistically, even as we appreciate more the different segments and channels fans are consuming it.
11) Polls and decisions will deliver more data [and it’s useable] – Surveys and focus groups remain viable or marketing information. But with so much digital engagement, now, there are so many micro-level decisions that are teaching us more about the individual consumer and consumer cohorts than ever before. Twitter polls have potential for insights, of course, but so do all the data that come from other countless engagement decisions every day. From stories one shares, links one clicks, keywords one posts, profiles one views, outside transactions one makes, and, yes, how one responds to polls about everything from which snack is their go-to stadium treat to who their vote is for team rookie of the year…all of this comes out to incredibly unique, detailed fan profiles. Combine these profiles with programmatic analysis and the possibilities are potentially powerful.
12) The internationalization of social media – Did you catch the *35* different languages or which Twitter had “Happy New Year” hash tag emoji? (This on the heels of Moments launching with Twitter UK). Or how much the NBA has begun to embrace Tencent products and grown their Spanish language media? Snapchat and Instagram were all over curating New Year’s Eve celebrations from all over the world. For years, social media has made us connected as ever. And now, with the preponderance of visual media, including emoji, have allowed cultures and people to connect and engage around common themes and ideas and passions, regardless of language. Teams are noticing. Brands are noticing. Social networks are evolving. 2016 will not be the end, but perhaps a hastened beginning when social media truly connects us all globally, fans to fans, consumers to brands, and everything in between. [Particularly with the Olympics providing a HUGE opportunity!]
13) Partnerships will be more like…partnerships – Ever since content became a thing, advertisers have wanted to pay to get a piece of the consumer attention content commands. From print ads to TV commercials to those ubiquitous pop-up ads that somehow persist, there have been discrete deliverables for which sponsors pay to help “present” the content consumers really want. But with micro engagements and innumerable touch points being so prevalent now and the standard for “ads” being higher than ever to actually engage consumers (who can increasingly block or ignore ads), the time is ripe for a dramatic paradigm shift in the sponsor-publisher relationship. It has already started, but has, and will continue to, really pick up in the coming weeks, months, and years. “Partnership” won’t just be some jargon, teams and brands that partner up will truly be looking to help accomplish objectives, rather than reach some promised numbers (this won’t happen overnight). When a team sees a good opportunity to integrate a brand partner, they’ll do it, regardless of whether a contract calls for it specifically and explicitly. Brands will be focused more so on the return from their partnership rather than the predetermined stipulations laid out for a “x” number of tweets and Facebook posts (again, this will not change overnight). Sponsors will truly start to feel like partners, in the minds of teams, fans, and customers. And we’ll all be better for it.
What are you looking for in 2016? What has started in 2015 that will progress and mature in 2016? Every year brings new challenges, new possibilities, and gets us ever so closer to a tantalizing “future” when everything will be better. Or, at least, different. But don’t embrace change just for the sake of it or to keep up with your kids. Be thoughtful, be strategic, and don’t stray from greater principles and ideals that form the foundation of your success. The message doesn’t change much, but the mode for delivery, information behind the message, and ability to measure the reach and effectiveness of that message (and hone it) is evolving as a rapidly as ever. I’m ready for you, 2016, and I can’t wait to see what this new year brings.
Posted by Neil Horowitz
Follow me on Twitter @njh287 Connect on LinkedIn
I don’t have data, but I imagine if you add up the distance traversed by scrolling thumbs on mobile devices daily can probably circle the globe 2-3 times. Whether it’s scrolling down a Facebook or Instagram feed, going through a Snapchat story or Twitter Moment, or even making your way down a website, where there is no end to the content, we’re increasingly a society of scrollers. Waiting for the content that’s thumb-stoppingly good enough to capture attention among the crowd and make us stop the scroll for a second or two.
But the endless scroll of social media also means there’s a bottomless bucket of messages to absorb and content to consume. It makes it harder to get noticed, be memorable, and affect a fan in a meaningful way. thoughtful, cohesive Snapchat stories can keep a fan engaged with your team for dozens of seconds and maybe a stunning or provocative Facebook post or Instagram can keep a fan thinking of your team for a minute. But when you can get them to enter your gates and kick back with your content, that is the ultimate win. That is what builds ties for life, emotional connections, and the fan advocates that always have your team top-of-mind.
What is the solution? First, embrace the endless scroll and propensity to consume in seconds, not minutes. Second, consider where the majority of time is being spent — mobile. My job is to work with teams and their mobile apps. The real estate they command on a fan’s home screen and the opportunity for quality time with a fan on a frequent basis is where a team can make hay by giving their fans a sweet, scintillating scroll.
Don’t post a long video or a novel that’ll intimidate with the initial time investment and commitment before diving in. Shorten it for the scroll. Slice it into snacks. Don’t force the fans to engage with content the way you’ve always done it or the way that is easiest for you. Give your fans a fresh supply of content, so they get that special feeling every time they open the app to check in. Keep the sparks in the relationship flying. Cater to them. And roll with the scroll.
On October 20-22, 2015, Hashtag Sports held its inaugural SportsFest, a conference bringing together leading minds and organizations in sports, media, business, marketing and tech.
What follows is a collection of the best quotes, facts, and observations shared via Twitter from the event. Thanks to all whose tweets helped fuel this recap!
Posted by Neil Horowitz Follow me on Twitter @njh287 Connect on LinkedIn
This past Saturday featured the third no-hitter in Major League Baseball during the 2015 season, as Cole Hamels o the Philadelphia Phillies held the Chicago Cubs hitless on a steamy afternoon at Wrigley Field. It also saw another activation from Domino’s Pizza and MLB with their digital #DomiNoNo campaign that gets brought up any time a pitcher nears a no-hitter and activated when one is completed.
Here is how it works: When a no-hitter is thrown, the first 20,000 users to register their account on MLB.com (either through email or Facebook) receive a promotional code that can be redeemed for a free medium pizza, when redeemed within five days from the no-hitter. Between their lucrative MLB.TV and At-Bat mobile app and their ubiquitous #whiff Twitter campaign all season with Head & Shoulders, their online video activation, and even their oh-so-perfect partnership with Penske moving truck rentals of their @MLBRosterMoves Twitter feed , Major League Baseball Advanced Media consistently does well to activate their corporate partners on Twitter and, to a lesser degree, Facebook and Instagram.
The #DomiNoNo season-long campaign is another effective activation that lasts all season long, offers ample opportunities for mention, and spans Twitter and Facebook and, sort of, Instagram. While there is a surprising lack of integration between MLB’s social media feeds and MLB Network (there is some, but not very salient, promotion on MLB.com), there is much to love with MLB’s social media activations. Given the recent #DomiNoNo from Hamels, here are 5 reasons the #DomiNoNo campaign is a home run:
Posted by Neil Horowitz