In a digital age, where media consumption has fragmented beyond belief, sport stands alone as the last bastion of the masses. In this op-ed, Jack Watts, founder and executive director at Bastion, unpacks the moments we plan our lives around, the edges of stadium seats, couches and bar stools we’re stuck to, advertising we actually watch and brands we truly experience.
That is never more evident than this time of year. Footy Finals dial up the intensity of the fandom, the rivalries, the reach.
The lure of the live experience, in a stadium or on a screen has driven a 30-100% increase in sports broadcast rights in the cycle, as the free to air networks have clung to sports as the saviour of the small screen. That revenue has delivered increased investment in grassroots participation, pathways, player salaries and fan experience – digital, physical and in-broadcast. In turn brands investment across all sports, codes and clubs has dramatically increased, with the AFL and NRL more than doubling commercial revenues in the past decade. It’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy of fame and fortune.
For brands, sport is the last true mass reach product. The last remaining roadblock through which to reach a wide audience.
However, for such a critical medium, so many brands miss the mark on effectively engaging the sports audience. To succeed in Sports Marketing takes so much more than ads on a screen, signs on a fence, logos on a jersey and chicken or beef in the corporate box.
Each Sport is a medium in its own right, with its own language, history, mythology and heroes. Fans are incredibly protective of those rituals and traditions, they embrace those that get it and exile those who don’t. And therein lies the challenge for brands, to access the masses, you must speak the language, connect the cultural codes and understand your role in the tribe.
To achieve this, brands must find the intersection between their company, the sport’s culture and then communicate that effectively.
Understanding the role the products or services of your company have to play is a critical first step. Where can you add value to the sports customer and how can you do that authentically in a way that doesn’t just interrupt the experience? In the best case – this extends beyond what you do to why you do it – how your values and culture connect seamlessly with the sports customer.
That will then guide where you should invest. Where does your company fit into cultureand how can you access that through the right code, club, participant or player partnership? And how do you get that for the right price?
And then finally, how do you communicatethat? So many brands invest in one channel and think that’s the job done. Like all media, sport proliferates across the breadth of channels – broadcast, stadium, social, sponsorship, influencer, experiential, participation and community. Watch the footy this weekend and you will see a moment – a Jospeh Sua’ali’i step, Reece Walsh toilet try or a Charlie Cameron banana from the boundary instantly reverberate across channel and screen while the crowd is still singing Take Me Home, Country Roads.
If you’re a brand that is serious about sport, those are the moments you need to be a part of and the channels you need to be active in, all while doing it in an authentic way that makes the fan experience even better.
Yes it’s complex. Yes it takes plenty of work. But when it’s done right the returns are unmatched. Brand recall through sports advertising/partnerships alone can be up to 60% higher than recall from non-sport broadcast advertising.
If you want to see how it’s done right, have a look at a few recent examples:
Bunnings have stepped it up this year launching Legend of the Tongs – connecting their company (the iconic Sausage Sizzle), with AFL culture(the legends at local footy clubs that flip the snags)
and communicated that through every channel from regional media to social content and in-broadcast integrations.
Budget Direct have always been known for their distinctive marketing approach, and have done the same with their Dolphins partnership – connecting the club’s culture(the personality of their foundation coach Wayne Bennett), with their company’s role of being the ultimate supporter, to find Wayne’s long, long, long lost cousin – Dwayne Bennett. And Dwayne communicates with Dolphins fans, players and their new coach like no one else!
V Energy has always been an iconic brand in NZ, and over the past 12 months have launched a new partnership with the equally iconic NZ Warriors – the Wahs. V Energy has been keeping Wahs fans energised and refreshed since the 90’s with both brands woven into the fabric of New Zealand culture. V Energy communicates this iconic partnership with Wahs fans through the integration of an exclusive stadium pourage deal, limited edition co-branded cans sold nationally, integrated at-match activations (check out the Legend-Dairy), and authentic social media content that ensures V Energy is the can in the hand of the fan.
In a fragmented world, sport remains the biggest stage. The one thing this country plans its weeks around. The race, mark, pass, kick, shot, drive, try and under 9’s team hug that stops the nation.
The last bastion of the masses. And the brands that get it right, don’t just connect with fans, they become players on the stage themselves, where everyone is watching.
