• by Jon Last , Columnist, 4 hours ago

We all remember learning about marketing’s “four Ps.”  Looking at recent research with sports fans, I found four significant themes for sports marketers looking to hit the ground running in the year ahead.  I call them “the four Es”:

Emotional connection: Is it just me, or does it seem like every article, sales pitch or seminar presentation has the letters AI in it?  I never cease to be simultaneously entertained and disgusted by the incessant pursuit of the next "big thing/easy button.” If we believed everything we heard, we’d just let automation take care of everything. 

At the end of the day, effective marketing is about personal relationships, contextual empathy, and channeling Wayne Gretzky's great line about anticipating where the puck is going next. All that is beyond the capacity of any large language model. 

Sports fans seek connection, and our data shows that nearly half feel “very lonely.” Automation can create back-office efficiencies, but we’re seeing a huge dichotomy between those consumers seeking frictionless high tech and interpersonal high touch.  I see an inevitable bursting of the bubble and those properties and brands that can reconnect with their targets on a more personal level, can win the year ahead.

Experiences: The percentage of sports fans who strongly agree that “It’s important for my life to include a number of unique experiences” is at its highest since August 2023.  Concurrently, we are seeing a 10-point year-over-year uptick in the percentage of fans who believe attending a live sports event is a good value.  Nearly two-thirds plan to allocate more time to leisure activities in 2026 than they did this year. This is particularly important as economic trepidation is growing.

Eagerness:  Two thirds of sports fans strongly agree that their life philosophy is more about living for today than tomorrow.  That’s up +9 points from November 2024. As consumer confidence is muted about the medium to long term, research is showing a certain impetuousness, satisfied by permission to spend on what consumers most covet while they still can.

Entitlement:  It’s not just the younger generations. Data shows that across the board, sports fans and participants see getting what they want as a just reward for enduring difficult times. Couple this with some six in ten who strongly believe that people today are more “in it for themselves” than they were 20 years ago, and a similar percentage who see people today as more selfish than in their parents’ generation. So the ability to provide those rewards is a super power that sports marketers can bestow upon their target market.