Commentary

Is Fantasy Football The Best Marketing Program Ever? Yes!

by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, September 16, 2009

This past weekend marked the opening of the NFL season, which reminded me of the simple brilliance that is fantasy football. Without a doubt, fantasy football is the most perfect example of integrated marketing in existence today. It marries the best of online marketing and social media with real-world events and that most basic of human traits: pure, unbridled competitiveness.

If you really get down to the brass tacks, fantasy football is indicative of the future of online marketing as well. First and foremost, fantasy football is an integrated marketing platform. It takes an offline event, one that is still considered appointment viewing in television and is less likely to be DVR'd and time-shifted, and marries it with online tools that allow you to keep track of the games no matter where you are and what time it is. It generates enormous page views for the sites and services that people use to stay in contact with the game and it is also one of the fastest growing online video plays, with people logging in to watch their favorite games and highlights online.

Fantasy football is also a social networking opportunity, with more and more people engaging in competitive leagues each year for money and bragging rights alike. There are numerous platforms for creating and managing a league and there are loads of services you can use, either free or paid, to give you the edge against your fellow managers. Within each of these platforms are tools for talking smack, managing and executing trades and general communications with the rest of your league.

Active fantasy team managers don't just wait till Sunday to log in to their teams. They are interacting daily: checking injury reports and waiver wires, reading local news on their star players and researching other teams' players to see where they could make trades to improve the quality of their teams. In some cases you see fantasy team managers logging in and spending as much as 30 minutes or more per session just doing research (much of which is likely done at work).

Now comes the idea that fantasy football is also an open, distributed platform, much like Twitter and Facebook Connect. Fantasy football apps are all the rage this time of the year in the iTunes App Store and there are many examples of paid services that will give you that extra leg up and insight. If you manage your fantasy team on Yahoo or CBS Sportsline, you can most likely download either a licensed or a third party app that will allow you access to your league and your team because these sites have an open API that allows you to pull the data into other locations. It would appear there are just as many people accessing their teams through mobile devices as through the Web and the standard PC interface. This is purely qualitatively stated research, but walk into a sports bar on Sunday and take note of how many people are looking down at their phones as compared to looking up at the TV screens. I think you'll be pretty surprised!

And of course, fantasy football is the ultimate social lubricant. Just the other day I was in the elevator talking with my wife about our fantasy teams (and yes, she has a better team than I do) and the guy next to us jumped into the conversation. Fantasy sports, especially fantasy football, are a unifying factor in the U.S. for just about all casual sports fans because they force you to watch and root for multiple teams beyond just your hometown. You root for individual achievement, not just the San Francisco Forty-Niners or The New York Giants, and you share your insights with complete and utter strangers just because they care. What other sport creates that sense of camaraderie? European football creates mobs of fans and American baseball can do the same if you live in Boston and New York! But fantasy football is a unique beast, and the NFL has skyrocketed in popularity as a result.

If I were a sports marketer, I would examine the NFL and the ways they've embraced this pastime because it can provide valuable insight into how to engage with my consumer. Even CPG marketers can see that marrying together social and standard online media with an offline event can help tap into the innate passion for a product and drive consumer engagement.

I tip my hat to whoever started this whole crazy train (apparently his name was Bill Winkenbach and he worked for the Raiders), though I'd be willing to bet money the poor guy didn't make a dollar off the idea because he forgot to file a patent.

Cheers to Bill and good luck this season!

commentary, marketing, sports

7 comments about "Is Fantasy Football The Best Marketing Program Ever? Yes!".

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Damian Skinner from Riot Lounge, September 16, 2009 at 2:49 p.m.
Excellent article! It goes to show that we usually stand to gain more from embracing than fighting new trends and technology.
I played football in high school but barely followed it after I graduated. It was through fantasy football that I became and am now a recovering fantasy football addict:)
I believe the difference is in engagement. We all love to watch a good game but we would all rather be playing that game.
Fantasy football is similar to the craze that was created by American Idol. The sensation (whether true or not) that we are a part or even have a say in the outcome of a national event is way to enticing for most Americans.
There are many great ways that small and medium size business can utilize this method through viral marketing and/or social media.
Thanks again for a great article!
Damian Skinner
http://www.damianskinner.com
Reply

Richard Monihan, September 16, 2009 at 3:05 p.m.

Another great piece.
There's no doubt that Fantasy Football's interactivity helps drive marketing awareness for well-placed and well-designed products and ads. I've noticed who is sponsoring the pools, particularly since I run one league and have played in several over the years. I've even clicked on ads from time to time.

I think from a marketing perspective, it helps advertisers and the NFL. In several unique ways.
1. it forces users to interact with the product regularly
2. it forces users to pay close attention to details regarding players and their performance, meaning return visits
3. it enhances the knowledge of the game - both fantasy and real football
4. it increases excitement about the game. I find that even when an opponent's players are doing well, the games I watch are more exciting
5. it is a unique topic of regular conversation for 20 weeks a year (leading up to the start of football and the playoffs)

On the other hand, I agree with my wife that fantasy football hurts football in one respect:
it alters the loyalty of fans.
As an Eagles fan, I try to pick the absolute best Eagles players to be on my team, but I'm not blind to the fact that I'd rather have Larry Fitzgerald as a receiver than DeSean Jackson. Which means when the Eagles play the Cardinals, it's hard to NOT cheer for Larry to do well....even when I'd prefer he not do well.

In that respect, I view fantasy football as a "hedge". Whenever conflicting loyalties come into play, I try to limit them by switching players out (if possible) or say "at least I got something out of the loss/victory".

There was a time, in the 1980's, when I believed fantasy football could kill fan support and alter it away from teams and toward players. That clearly hasn't happened and after all these years it's hard to ever see it happen. It's clearly been win/win for all involved (unless your team is really bad).

Trevor Stafford from Red Canary, September 16, 2009 at 3:15 p.m.

I think that Fantasy football is example of the irrelevance of marketing. This whole 'crazy train' was not driven by a PR entity or sponsor, nobody was paid to 'spread the word' it crept up on advertisers...and networks...and pretty much everyone except fans. Only now are we seeing marketing getting organized to capitalize on was is essentially a WoM phenomenon.

Perhaps fantasy football represents an 'opportunity' for marketers to reach across media, but in and of itself it demonstrates only the power of the Internet to connect, facilitate and propagate socially driven interests.

No marketing campaign could recreate this kind of frenzy;
marketers and brands who think they can emulate this are falling into a smug trap. This isn't TV. Social media and the Internet are connectors, not channels. People use them to share, not receive signals.

Finally, FF is an example of how people with a passion for a product will find their own expression. Outside of their own teams people had little reason to watch otherwise dull, plodding games between weak teams. If you're a marketer, the lesson here is the power of crowdsourcing and basic listening skills.

Terry Powers from , September 16, 2009 at 6:08 p.m.

Excellent article and perspective, which I totally agree with.

So many touchpoints to the consumer, and also a major fight for the big players in the space (Yahoo, CBS, NFLY, ESPN, etc.). I wonder who is leading in users?

As an adjunct, I firmly believe that the ESPN on-air promos for their Fantasy Football section for Geico is a great example of wonderfully integrating a company's sponsorship. Online is left to a simple Presented by line and a leaderboard, feels like the missed out on going further and really integrating visually for the site.

Thanks.

Jim Burnette from FreeAllMusic.com, September 16, 2009 at 6:59 p.m.

Strong article Cory. FOX Sports & MSN obviously fumbled the ball this season. They are the only NFL TV broadcaster not to have a Fantasy sponsor. Did they price themselves out of the market? Not enough Fantasy dollars to go around? Very surprising that FOX who sells the NFC conference couldn't build an integrated TV/Web/Mobile Fantasy sponsorship that at least one of the large NFL sponsors would buy. Coors purchased a variety of Fantasy sponsorships on YardBarker, WaterCooler and Fantasy Sports Ventures. Rupert Murdoch continues to talk about a paid content model yet they missed a huge opportunity to leverage their NFL TV Broadcast rights. #1 NFL Pre-Game show and they couldn't sell a Sponsored Fantasy segment.

Enough Said.

Guido Laures from Sandkasteniga, September 19, 2009 at 12:10 p.m.

This fits nicely with a new concept from Germany to combine fantasy soccer with a bet game. Very successful already in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: http://www.sandkastenliga.de

Keith Fetz from City of Jeffersonville, September 28, 2009 at 9:59 a.m.

Great Article!!!!

It's amazing to see how the Marketing/Media world as we know it is changing right before our eyes. Fantasy Football is certainly one of the best examples of how unlikely NFL fans are glued to their TV's & computers in search of that Win. All the while they are engaging in several layers of the viral marketing / social media revolution.