Digital Fandomonium Part II: Developing A Media Strategy for Sports Based Digital Natives
In Digital Fandemonium Part I, I emphasized the importance of psychology in developing any media or communication strategy. Sport fans are the most loyal, vocal, and obsessed consumer base around the globe. Think about it…sports fans love fact checking so much that if they find any discrepancy, they’ll reprioritize their entire day to find the time to tell you just how wrong you are (we all know that person…or, maybe you’re that person…🙋🏾)
Fan identification is equally about connection and consumption. Psychology can be a powerful instrument within a creative’s toolbox. So use it.
Anyone in a position that is concerned with creating a lasting impression among consumers, and/or how their messages are being exchanged, then you should be asking yourselves these types of questions: who am I engaging with, which platform(s) are they on, and how do I design content to achieve connection and retention? Using psychology as a lens to consider the wants, needs, and why behind your audience’s digital behavior can offer applicable insight, which then can translate into a business initiative.
Having dived deeply into the concepts of social identity, behavioral economics, and organizational commitment, I’ll share with you a solid starting place for developing a creative digital media strategy, and one that I’ve noted to work best for this fanatical sports demographic — this is something I call The 3Es.
The first is emotion. The sport experience is 24/7 as opposed to being seasonal. It’s an everyday thing. Emotion is everything. And companies today need to use the social platforms at their disposal to create emotionally binding content.
We’ve been telling stories since before the wheel. We’re storytellers by nature. So dig into your audience, find out what they want, figure out why they’re engaging with certain forms of content over others, then craft compelling narratives that will meet those needs. The answers are in the data and they should be used to inform the design of your creative decisions.
As an illustration, here is a video with huge emotional elements documenting how a few of today’s most recognizable NHL players partnered with Tim Hortons to have a friendly with Kenya’s only ice hockey team.
We’ve entered a new level of social connectivity. But we also must be aware of the marketing trap. The second people feel like they’re being sold to or feel manipulated — they become emotionally distant. An effective social media marketing strategy instead creates a visual narrative to create an emotional bond. This is a form of social capital. And when harnessed properly, social capital can increase the market share and profitability of a company through the economic resources earned in relationships and interactions. The above video wasn’t a direct call to tune in to a hockey game. Nor was it explicitly selling Tim Horton’s coffee. But by visualizing a shared human experience, sport + story created a heartwarming piece of content that leaves viewers with a new appreciation and awareness of both brands.
The 2nd E is engagement. Content creators and brands have to ignite the physical, digital, and virtual landscapes with activity. Invite opportunities to engage directly with you, and then you’ll see the User’s experience come to life. Social media has afforded sport an emotional outlet for fans to react in real time and even produce their own content as a direct response.
Participation creates loyalty as a byproduct of ownership.
As we learned in Part I of this Digital Fandemonium series, sport fans are more than just simple spectators — they’re Smart Fans. They’re your digital infantry of support. They’re external stakeholders with emotional ties to various components of the sport experience as a whole. Therefore by increasing the contact points in their consumer journey, you’re allowing these boosted brand ambassadors the chance to do 3 things:
- Improve their knowledge with new information
- Extend their social relationships with likeminded others
- Let them become a part of the inside joke
Social media, specifically Twitter, has become the go-to digital sports bar. It’s where the conversation happens. One professional league that has completely adopted, encouraged, and promoted this idea better than any other is the NBA. As an example — #NBATwitter. It’s basically the secret password for entering a sports-based speakeasy (minus the prohibition stuff…). Simply put: it’s fun, brings awareness to the games, and highlights the ongoing conversations that continue far beyond the game clock.
The official NBA twitter account posted this at the beginning of the regular season, prompting fans to use them as a universally verified digital language.
Each team has their own custom emoji that gets unlocked when a tweet is used with the team’s hashtag. They’re all of course individually-based with references to their own fan clubs and speaks to the personality of the franchise. Teams continue to look for ways to engage and reward fans for behaviors beyond attending the game. By rewarding fans with digital currencies (i.e. RTs, comments, likes), teams can drive greater social media use, enable participation in community events, and strengthen corporate partnerships. Because ultimately when engaged with, fans feel validated through a kind of official, certified recognition.
The last E is Experience. Products and services come and go, but great experiences have no expiration date. Companies now need to focus on making memories rather than just goods. One company who does this ridiculously well is the WWE, who recently adopted a nostalgia strategy to engage with old school wrestling fans (like myself 😎). Below is a piece of content the WWE made for their Instagram account. Basically, they took 6 classic moments where Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, delivered one of his signature moves — “The People’s Elbow,” asking fans to comment with which was their favorite.
Turn precious moments into valuable assets.
That’s what the WWE achieved in this strategy. Give consumers the opportunity to experience something they’ll remember, or the space to reminisce in an old favorite memory.
While stat lines and box scores make up every sporting event, the sport experience is greater than the game.
Since technology continues to evolve and alter social environments, it’s critical to track the consumer trends and conversations occurring in these spaces. The ability to pivot your practices and business initiatives will impact your end result (i.e brand partnerships, metrics, and ROI). Listen and look into the language, visuals, and devices of your audience. And with psychology as a means to explore your consumer’s interactions with digital media, you can translate theory into action.
Takeaways from this 3E Media Strategy:
- Consideration — creators should be concerned with how messages are being delivered.
- Be timely — offseasons no long exist, so you should be prepared to offer authentic, valuable content and information year round.
- Shoot your shot — don’t be afraid to expand your distribution channels and reach fans where they’re actually talking.
