Commentary

Online Video Has Transformed Sports Fandoms-Here's Why You Should Care

I grew up loving the Patriots, and like most sports fans, my fandom has always extended beyond the games themselves. As a teenager I was a devout SportsCenter viewer, hungry for anything I could consume on the Pats’ strategy and performance. I even watched the draft, years before it evolved into today’s media spectacle. 

But I always wanted more.

Now, I am one of the millions tuning in for this year’s draft, obsessing over every decision, but now I’m no longer limited to TV content. 

While watching the draft, I’ll scroll through Twitter to get running commentary. And I’ll turn to YouTube to lookup highlight reels of rookies’ college days — and maybe how to prepare another round of appetizers for my draft party guests. 

Digital media has transformed what it means to be a sports fan. It has also transformed how marketers should think about their consumers.

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TV sports viewership is declining. Ratings dropped by 12% in 2017, according to Pivotal Research. Even football, the most popular sport on TV, saw a 10% ratings decrease in 2017, following an 8% drop the year before. And by 2021, Variety estimates, 30% of American adults won’t subscribe to traditional TV at all.

But people aren’t turning away from sports altogether — they’re just turning to their favorite video environments, including YouTube, where sports content thrives. In fact, there were more than 50 billion sports videos on the platform in 2014, and this year, there’s projected to be around 600 billion — an astronomical six-fold increase. 

Marketers need to understand changing consumer behavior and rethink their media and content strategy. Many of the 300 billion sports videos on YouTube look nothing like what’s found on TV. While there are still highlights, recaps, and bloopers, sports content on digital largely turns around intersections with other genres. 

Food is a premier example of this overlap, with creators and fans sharing everything from Super Bowl recipe inspiration to game-day food challenges. These videos are wildly popular — food-related sports content is growing 80% year-over-year. 

There are also more than 40 billion videos on YouTube straddling the gaming and sports spaces, and they’re pushing creative boundaries, with videos of fans predicting the Super Bowl winner by playing Madden, and others trying to recreate FIFA ’18 moves in real life. These videos are reaching a younger (and for marketers, harder to reach) audiences while the TV viewership for sports is skewing older and older.

Online sports communities also offer athletes the chance to create content and connect with their fans. Many are tapping into YouTube to connect with fans on a more personal level, such as Kevin Durant’s Q&As, and Richard Sherman’s challenge videos. 

Sports brands no longer have to invest heavily on TV to join the sports conversation, and those who break away from the traditional model of budget-straining Super Bowl commercials and jersey logos can win big through digital video. And for smaller brands who can’t swing paying for TV time, there are more opportunities than ever to connect with their audiences through digital. 

To ensure you’re not missing out on opportunities to reach your audience and fans, think outside the traditional marketing playbook, and go where the audience is.  

And as always, go Pats.

1 comment about "Online Video Has Transformed Sports Fandoms-Here's Why You Should Care".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 30, 2018 at 7:46 a.m.

    If TV sports was all about targeting efficiency, rating levels, etc,. there would be no sports on TV. Instead advertisers who want to be linked to the imagry and environment that TV sports provides---to say nothing of the merchandisablilty and tie-ins with the teams and stars-----will continue to pony up the big bucks to have their ads seen on TV. This will continue even if the average minute ratings decline by 50% or more---as is inevitable with the glut of games now being offered as well as the effects of competition from alternative programmed channels. As for digital sports offerings, these reach tiny audiences and have few, if any, of the vital "intangible values" that TV sports advertisers crave.

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