Jason Steele, Head of CSM Engage, explores some possible avenues through which brands, rights holders and venues can offer hope to fans in isolation.
Last Sunday afternoon, I ritualistically flicked across to BT Sport to find, in place of Manchester United vs. Tottenham Hotspur, a replay of a Hyundai A-League mid-table clash. I mean no disrespect to the Australian league, but on a weekend which was set to host a full house of Premier League fixtures, lights out on the Formula One season and a three-way finale in the Guinness Six Nations, it was a fitting embodiment of an industry turned upside down.
In the context of a global pandemic, the BT Sport schedule is trivial. Yet, in this new landscape, where the industry is rightly on pause, sits a void which brands, rights holders and venues have an opportunity, perhaps even a duty, to fill. For many around the world, sport is a life raft and in these most stormy of seas, it is more important than ever that fans have hope to hold onto.
How can these important protagonists play this role, and in doing so set themselves up for success when the industry as we knew before returns to view?
Vast captive digital audiences
For the sake of ourselves and the collective whole, we are separating and isolating. In this reality, modern technology becomes the essential thread that binds us. In day-to-day life, video conferencing has replaced in-person meetings, and instant messaging is filling in for the seemingly mundane but in fact all-important interactions in the kitchen, or corridor.
Accordingly, Spanish network providers reported a 40% spike in mobile traffic last week, as the population adapts to widespread social distancing measures. Across Europe, meanwhile, ComScore has observed a sharp increase in visits to social networking sites throughout March, ranging from 11% in Germany to 30% in Italy.
From an entertainment standpoint, consumption has unsurprisingly rocketed with both Netflix and NowTV reporting +12% growth in recent weeks. Netflix has understood that what is lost in this box-set binging is human connection. A series is made to be shared, which is why the Netflix Party, groups of friends watching together virtually, is an innovation that consumers will remember fondly.
Engaging through considered content
What has become immediately clear is that any content or campaigns will be a sideshow to the focal point of current discussion and emotional attention. According to Kantar, who analysed more than 8,000 images last week, public health announcements and memes were the most shared types of post, making up 37.5%. These memes, notably the #quarantine trail, tell a story of consumers open to playful, humorous distraction. However, the line between engaging and upsetting is a fine one to tread.
In walking this line brands must think innovatively about how they strike the right tone with new, low-cost content or repurposing nostalgic numbers. It is a light touch way of getting their message across, while keeping an open, personable dialogue that can reassure and react to rapidly-changing consumer need.
“48% of Employees increase their working hours when working from home. That’s more time online, more screen time and more chances of capturing their attention – and in this climate more people than ever need to be connected with the things they are passionate about.”
Tom Huggins, Co-Founder, Greenroom Digital
The big ambassadorial shoots might be on hold. But content creation is not. It is a chance to invite fans in, with ambassadors filming themselves at home; content shot in a setting where they are most relatable and authentic. These shoots should be on mobile and for mobile. Post production services are undisrupted ensuring the content can be given a little TLC to meet brand standards. Also, call on the creatives who are sat in their kitchens; editors, illustrators, artists and photographers can conjure up something you may otherwise have never thought to produce.
“Brands can still be creative in how they create small bits of low cost, engaging content or repurpose existing content for digital and social channels. Doing this will help get their message across in the short term and also keep dialogue open with their customers or supporters.”
Lynsey Houston, Senior Account Director, CSM
Deeds as well as words
Although we may not physically be together, this gravest of challenges is one that is shared globally and has brought communities together in emotional and moral solidarity. These communities are asking #HowCanIHelp; an online movement for offline action. The industry is joining this wave of humanity, with both Roman Abramovich and Gary Neville offering their hotels to NHS staff, McDonalds and Pret giving freebies to those same brilliant people, Brighton & Hove Albion taking its hospitality to the homeless, FIFA joining forces with WHO, the AFL giving away a ‘free footy’ for backyard kickabouts and Chris Martin leading a digital concert #TogetherAtHome, to name just a few of many examples.
Explore esports
Given the paucity of live sport available for consumption, there is no better time to experiment with and enhance your online offering. Gaming has emerged as a strong platform for brands and rights holders to maintain an engaging communication channel with fans and consumers during this barren spell.
Several rights holders have already turned to esports to fill the chasm. English League Two side Leyton Orient established its own online FIFA 20 tournament – #UltimateQuaranteam, featuring over 128 clubs worldwide. La Liga soon followed suit, creating the LaLiga Santander Challenge, with one player from each club representing their team in a virtual version of Spain’s top league.
In motorsport, too, the action moved into the cyberspace. Together with Veloce Esports, current Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne helped set up the #NotTheAusGP using the official F1 video game. The action, which involved participants such as his Formula E counterpart Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren’s F1 driver Lando Norris and Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois, was viewed by more than 130,000 viewers. As a result, Formula 1 launched its own F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix Series, which will run in place of each postponed Grand Prix. The inaugural virtual GP in Bahrain took place yesterday evening.
Again, we saw a unique mix of players, featuring the usual crop of current F1 stars competing alongside cycling royalty Sir Chris Hoy and legendary British golfer Ian Poulter. Leveraging its partnership with Poulter and Renault F1, DP World invited “The Postman” to test his driving skills on behalf of Renault’s virtual team in a neat cross-promotion of two properties.
This broad blend of participants – bridging different disciplines, sports and properties, together with the incorporation of the fan into the virtual experience, is an exciting development that presents a wealth of digital activation opportunities for both rights holders and brands.
“In the past week we’ve seen a surge in esports activity, as fans look to alternative platforms to get their sporting fix. The response from LaLiga, Leyton Orient and Formula 1 demonstrates how proactive rights holders can still find engagement opportunities online in this period of unprecedented uncertainty.”
James Flude, Account Manager, CSM
Setting yourself up for success in brighter times
“This is a need for all rights holders, brands and agencies to think creatively and find solutions to a new set of problems, as inaction will be damaging for the industry long-term.”
Tom Huggins, Co-Founder, Greenroom Digital
Although this should be surreptitious – fans are rightly only concerned about the present– setting oneself up to prosper after what has proved to be a financial storm for many brands is crucial work. Here are three steps for doing so.
- Grow your 1st party audiences: cookies are soon to be history, meaning a race for informative first-party data segments is already underway. To get ahead brands should develop incentive-based campaigns using their valuable IP and rights. Mobile-friendly games could serve this purpose while engaging time-rich, entertainment-poor fans
- Moving audiences to your owned environment: social platforms are valuable for targeting and engaging large audience volumes, but the greater value comes in owning first-party consumer data. This enables brands to connect through personalised communications across multiple channels to build meaningful relationships. Might a behind-the-player series, hosted on an owned environment, be a compelling watch with fans and players united by the same home-bound reality?
- Understand your audiences better: instead of any sales offensive, which is highly ill advised in the climate, develop rich audience insights on the data you collect such as demographics, interests, attitudes and behaviours. This business intelligence will enable improved, customised experiences when the doors are opened once again
It is impossible to forecast when anything resembling normality will return not just to our TV screens but to our societal patterns. Until such a time, it is our role as an industry to move from the experiential to the digital in a bid to provide that most vital commodity in these most trying of times; human connection.