CONTENT IS KEY TO SPORTS FAN ENGAGEMENT, AND IT IS EVOLVING AT A DIZZYING PACE
TRENDS RESHAPING SPORTS CONTENT
Live sport delivered via television screens remains the core sports media product. But much of the battle for audience attention, hearts and minds is today taking place elsewhere.
The micro-trends — listed above — that underpin the macro-trend of the growing importance of this other content are well known, and have been for years. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in 2015: “The games are the meals and the highlights are the snacks.” Arguably, the world has moved on. Games are now a special, infrequent meal, and the myriad content available on social and digital media makes up the rest of fans’ large diets.
To stay relevant and explore new ways of reaching fans, cutting-edge sports are experimenting with new technologies, including AI chatbots, augmented and virtual reality applications and voice-controlled devices. In the same vein, they are testing links with digital services such as Spotify, Apple, Uber and Amazon Prime. For example, in the run-up to Christmas 2017, the Seattle Seahawks partnered with Uber Eats to allow fans to purchase merchandise via the food delivery network.
Athletes and influencers have become hugely important for reaching audiences on social and digital media platforms. Athlete power and commercial value is increasing off the back of this trend. Even less popular athletes, with thousands rather than millions of followers, are being used by brands in marketing, as micro-influencers.
The low barrier to entry for publishing on social media has created a new generation of digitally native sports media, often driven by young people producing content in a tone of voice familiar to their peers – the likes of Dude Perfect in the U.S. and JOE Media in the U.K. Sports, brands and traditional media are increasingly partnering with these new players to create compelling new content formats.
Producing all this content is an expensive business. While a proportion of this investment is entry cost in today’s industry – you need a certain amount of free content to stay front-of-mind with fans – exploring monetization opportunities is a top priority. Brands’ interest in content-led sponsorships is one revenue avenue. And leading sports are packaging up their content in smart ways to deliver compelling D2C products, such as UFC’s Fight Pass.
Sports media content is a maelstrom of change today. As we are seeing with the disruption in media distribution, navigation and planning amidst the change is difficult. But at the same time it is presenting enormous new opportunities for reaching fans and driving business.
As the quality, volume and variety of content increase, it will be harder and harder to cut through.
To stay relevant, sports, brands and media must experiment with new technologies such as voice activation, VR, AR and chatbots.
Digital media will continually give birth to new influencers and publishers, appealing to different generations and segments of the audience.
Rights holders will explore ways of monetizing the new types of content, through sponsorship and subscription products.
