Advertising Week XII: The Power of Sports Content
Brian Mortensen
Conference Summary - Advertising Week XII, 2015
The first session I attended at New York’s Advertising Week XII was titled “The Power of Sports: The How and Why of Fan Passion”, hosted by Octagon. First up on stage was John Shaw, Octagon’s President of Marketing, Americas, and Ryan Eckel, Dick’s Sporting Goods VP of Brand Marketing. After showing a video extolling the impressions and publicity gained by Dick’s new non-profit campaign, Sports Matter, Shaw and Eckel opened a discussion on the power of sports at the community and individual level. Eckel explained how schools across the country continue to lose funding for sports programs, giving Sports Matter the opportunity to step in and offer ancillary financial support or donations of sports equipment for all different types of teams. The program raised approximately $4 million dollars for 184 youth teams in 2014. For 2015-16, Dick’s has partnered with donorschoose.org, which Eckel believes will aid in spreading the program’s benefits to more recipients.
Eckel then delved into some of the ideas and creativity behind the campaign. He described the big-picture thinking of Dick’s and its relationship in the community as, “part of our identity as a brand. We needed to step back and figure out how sports help people.” Spreading Sports Matter’s humanized stories was a primary consideration as well. Before finishing up the session, Eckel and Shaw revealed part of Dick’s upcoming campaign, a documentary on girls sports at an Indian reservation in upstate New York [which, for the record, looks incredible]. On evaluating such original content’s impact on the campaign, Eckel said, “we found telling these stories outperformed on ROI in comparison to other outlets.”
I found Eckel’s last quote particularly telling. Given my professional experience in journalism and video production, I’m encouraged to see major brands continue to embrace high-level visual storytelling. Earlier in the presentation, Eckel outlined the necessity for quality content AND quality distribution when formulating campaigns like Sports Matter. To me, this signifies big-time brands such as Dick’s understand the financial commitment needed to produce an excellent piece of content, as well as the right long-term mindset about sharing the company’s core values. The stories of human failures, triumphs and successes can unite, and are all the more valuable in advertising when the content feels authentic.
With time up for Eckel and Shaw, next on-stage were Simon Wardle, Octagon’s Chief Strategy Officer, and Matthew Berry, ESPN’s Senior Fantasy Sports Analyst. The duo began their discussion by sharing insights about Fantasy Sports players and the opportunities for brands. Berry shared some fascinating demographic numbers: of the 56 million fantasy sports players in North America, 54% are aged 18-34, and 47% make $75,000 or more per year. Berry cited just 10% ESPN’s digital audience as playing fantasy sports, yet those same users consume 50% of the site’s fantasy content - “the avids of the avids”, he termed them. These users remain engaged in some way with ESPN - through television, the magazine, or digital - on average, 18 hours a week.
Given the power of the “avids”, ESPN and Berry have partnered with several brands on advertising campaigns focused around fantasy sports. Berry explained for Choice Hotels, the goal was to target the budget-conscious ESPN fantasy sports player who only travels occasionally. The resulting campaign worked to portray Choice Hotels as the destination for budget travelers headed to an in-person fantasy draft, with a promotion for viewers to sign up for an all-inclusive “Fantasy Draft Day Sweepstakes” at ESPN’s headquarters where Berry himself would participate in the winner’s fantasy league draft. For a Dave and Busters campaign in 2013, Berry appeared as a “football expert” touting his knowledge not only of the pigskin but of good sports bars, encouraging fans to go to bestsportsbarever.com for more information on Dave and Busters’ new offerings geared towards football fans. Berry explained part of his involvement in the campaign was also to promote the restaurants as great spots for fantasy players to meet for drafts, game days, and other occasions.
The benefits of pursuing the “avids” of fantasy sports are clear. It’s fascinating to watch other digital outlets like CBSSports, NFL.com, and Yahoo! gear so much content towards those users. As one of the leaders in what is estimated at a $1.5 billion dollar fantasy sports industry, it makes total sense for ESPN to offer as many interactive solutions as possible geared towards a captive audience like the fantasy sports player. As a casual fantasy player for several different sports, I find the sheer volume of coverage on ESPN’s platforms to be overwhelming, but the market clearly dictates this is the prudent path. It will be interesting to watch whether “traditional” fantasy gaming will come under threat from “daily” fantasy sports, headlined by heavy advertising spending from FanDuel and DraftKings.
My next stop at Advertising Week was the sports-oriented “Who’s Winning the Content Game?” presented by Jason Kint of Digital Content Next. Attendees included representatives from the U.S. Olympic Committee, Gatorade, the Players’ Tribune, and Under Armour. Each organization has unveiled major campaigns in the past few years, with heavy emphasis on digital content in each.
Kint asked the panelists how they measure success for content when so many measurables exist, such as views, unique visitors, etc. Under Armour’s Adrienne Lofton revealed each element of a campaign is given a unique Key Performance Indicator, such as conversion, impression, purchase, or fashion perception. I found this fascinating as with the digital campaigns I’ve contributed to in my professional work, we often only hear of page/video views as the most valuable metric. While a seemingly simple tenet, it makes total sense to have one or more measurable elements to every single piece of content.
Several brands at the panel found it valuable to share their brand stories through digital content. Under Armour was able to capture its essence as the athlete’s “soul with science” to hit at the heart of its most targeted consumer, the high school athlete. “I Will What I Want” focused on female athletes of all skill levels, pushing the notion that Under Armour was part of the journey to a championship or running a 5k. The U.S. Olympic Committee developed a new strategy to share its story as an inclusive, wholesome brand. While many professional and college sports teams call themselves “the best” at their given sport, the USOC felt it could include the stories of paralympians to further showcase its welcoming, family atmosphere.
The next session I attended was “Sports Media - The Only Media That Matters: An Inside Look at How Gatorade, Scout and Big Brands will Feed Fans' Insatiable Appetite for Sports Content.” Scout.com CEO James Heckman spoke of several fascinating insights. First, he compared modern media to the energy industry, with fracking as the new/emerging outlets threatening the old Middle Eastern oil trade. He also noted high school sports gets the most engagement of any sports when compared to the NFL, college sports, and the NBA. Finally, he noted that advertisers and publishers using sports content must have authenticity, or else, as he put it bluntly, “you’ll get crushed.” Heckman noted sports fans are savvy enough that they know if a picture tags the wrong person on Instagram, or if a sponsored video hype spot doesn’t have the right music or announcers, and will leave with a negative impression of your organization.
Overall I enjoyed my Advertising Week experience, especially given that I was able to focus on the sports sessions. I found the material engaging and applicable to where I see my career headed, and will certainly look to apply the lessons I learned over the last week to my BIC course work.
Additional background to help verify my notes:
3) http://adage.com/article/news/marketer-year-armour/296088/
