Victor Stekly
CEO & Founder
Can you tell us in less than 100 words what your company does?
We are a tech company that has developed software for sports and esports properties, brands and agencies to create their own ambassador network. Through players, VIPs and other ambassadors our clients can manage marketing campaigns and partnership activations, reaching huge audiences across social and streaming media.
Who are your customers?
From soccer clubs to cycling teams to esports teams to sports brands to gaming brands and to the world of environmental campaigning.
What makes you stand out from your competitors?
We are in a fortunate position that we do not have many direct competitors, but we have two categories of key differentiators.
Firstly, we look at the breadth of the functions that our product includes, and secondly the depth of any feature implementation (or sometimes thought of as ‘how cool is it?’).
The breadth of our product features is far greater than our competitors. To create social or streaming media campaigns using your ambassadors as influencers, before you even begin, you need to know i) the audience insights across all the social channels of your ambassadors; ii) the monetary value of their audiences; iii) whether they are amenable to take part in specific campaigns.
Next, you have to create a campaign brief, distribute it to the selected ambassadors and manage the campaign. Meaning… is it a simple content posting or a UGC campaign? Across which social channels? What is the timing? What are the approvals and contractual agreements? And are there any payments involved?
Lastly, you’ll want to know how the campaign performed, so campaign analytics are a must. Well, our product covers all the above steps and hugely simplifies this complex process.
Oh, and does it do ‘cool’ stuff too… yes, the interface is beautiful with a great dashboard, the product is white labelled, and we have developed a 2-click™ sharing method for content posting. And if you want to know real time how the campaign is performing, all the live data is available instantly. The overwhelming feedback we receive is that the product is so simple and intuitive – we have turned a process with many moving parts into a simple and logical workflow for users, experienced or not.
What are the current trends in your business area, and how are they affecting how you work and how do you deliver on strategy?
The industry is changing and that makes this area of work fascinating and fast-moving. When we started five years ago the concept of our product and our value proposition was alien to the customers we were talking to. Nowadays, within the traditional sports world the concept of a fan base on social media and community engagement is fully appreciated, even if it does not appear to drive direct revenue, or directly measurable revenue.
We also see the fusion of traditional sports with the esports world, where we are fully immersed. Working in both sectors helps us to provide value to our customers, with trends and ideas that cross over.
Ever since we started Sportskred we knew that brands fully understood influencer marketing and the immense power that this channel has for reaching audiences on social and streaming media. It is only now that sports properties (rights holders) are picking up on the additional sponsorship revenue that they can generate by creating their own ‘ambassador club’ to create what becomes an owned digital asset and part of their IP. Social media is no longer a nice ‘add on’ as part of a sponsorship package.
We also see that content remains key, because audiences want to be entertained daily and not only during live sports events. Having imaginative and talented content creators on your marketing team is an imperative. Fans want to connect to sportspeople and athletes more than ever, with content that is authentic, organic and entertaining.
Lastly, let’s look at the differences and similarities between a traditional ‘brand ambassador’ who may have a long-term contract and a ‘social media ambassador/influencer’ within a brand’s marketing strategy. First and foremost, they are complementary.
One underpins the brand association with the qualities of an individual ambassador, where the person is carefully chosen for their values, sports ‘style’ and personality. The other type is selected primarily for their specific digital audiences and will typically work short-term on campaigns with defined activations.
By combining these approaches brands can achieve their dual objectives – the appropriate ‘star association’ together with a reach into large, targeted audiences. We have helped brands achieve this dual approach very successfully and it definitely works!
What challenges have you encountered, and how have they been overcome? Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Love the idea, love the concept, but how do we start? This is typically the response we get after making contact with a potential customer. Yes, the prospect of creating a piece of content, either on behalf of the sports property or one of their partners, and it reaching huge audiences across the social of their ambassador club is an amazing proposition, but how? It can certainly look like an impossible task…
Recognising this challenge for new customers, we provide hands-on support beyond just tech support to make the onboarding process smooth. This starts with extensive product training for the internal team, videos and templates for communication and support with campaign ideation and asset creation. It goes without saying that we are also happy to share and pass on our years of experience.
When discussing with brands and agencies we frequently encounter the issue of ambassador/influencer identification. Who should we use? How can we identify who’d be right for our brand? How do we know if their audience is real(!)? And how much are they worth???
This is where our technology really helps. We can search across multiple social platforms by interests, key words, geographies, demographics and many more criteria to pinpoint suitable candidates. At the same time, once filtered, our in-depth audience insights complement the initial shortlist.
Last but not least, when building your ambassador club our mantra is ‘start small and grow’. Plant some seeds, water your garden sometimes, ensure there is some sunshine, and within one season you will reap the abundant fruits of your labour.
- Visit Sportskred for more information