Fan Engagement 101: The Best Platform for Diehard Sports Fans

Sports marketing and fan engagement have changed a lot over the past years. It wasn’t so long ago when broadcast TV held a monopoly over sports content and fan engagement, but things are now starting to change. Today’s sports fans are increasingly turning to social media and other forms of digital innovation for their daily dose of sports entertainment.

Sports marketing and fan engagement have changed a lot over the past years. It wasn’t so long ago when broadcast TV held a monopoly over sports content and fan engagement, but things are now starting to change. Today’s sports fans are increasingly turning to social media and other forms of digital innovation for their daily dose of sports entertainment.

The multichannel world, offers a great deal in terms of opportunity and diversity. Yet, for all they have to offer, social platforms can become convoluted and somewhat hard to manage. Each of them specialize in only a few types of content, be it short clips, highlights, behind-the-scenes moments, and other such bite-size content.

Knowing how and when to post, what the fans are interested in, or what content should a team be focusing on is hard and needs a great deal of trial and -error before coming close to a good ROI.

Pleasing a fan in this day and age isn’t hard. Because of the almost overwhelming amount of content on the internet, they are very likely to be satisfied with whatever they discover on various social platforms. Some sports teams have developed their own apps in an attempt at funneling in their fanbase. But even if fans keep themselves up-to-date on their team’s progress and upcoming events, they do it almost anywhere else than on the team’s own app.

With the goal of helping advertisers target and engage the right audience, Fanisko’s developers have designed a one-stop fan engagement platform designed to increase mobile fan retention and digital engagement, as well as drive revenue opportunities. Being a mobile-oriented platform, Fanisko Engage is aimed at targeting millennials by combining several marketing strategies into one.

Experience Management

In order for the platform to be an appealing option for fans, it has to deliver on three key components: convenience, diversity, and versatility. Fanisko Engage does this by allowing itself to be personalized by both the team and the user. Fans have the option to filter, save, and favorite content based on their own preference.

Interactive content such as predictive gaming, motion sensor gaming, and Augmented Reality (AR) Gaming are just a few examples that are sure to keep fans entertained. The platform can also be personalized from the team’s perspective, showcasing its colors, logo, and font.

Content Management

Content is also easy to manage, allowing you to customize visibility based on geography for a targeted reach. The platform is also able to choose and present all trending content found on the internet. Polls and surveys can also be used so as to drive engagement and get the answers you were looking for.

Analytics

Equally as important is to understand the fan’s wants and needs, when they’re most active, what their interests are and what trends may be presenting themselves in the near future. All of these can be seen and analyzed with Fanisko’s analytic capabilities. Metrics will be provided to measure subscriptions, clicks, page views, activities, and performance. The advanced features can offer an insight into what works and why; allowing the user to generate the right kind of content.

Conclusion

Fanisko Engage offers some of the best-personalized content on the market. Logged in users provide targeted reach which will enable you to offer personalized advertising based on age, gender, likes, geography, and interests, and much more. Many sports teams have a tough time interacting and engaging their fans over the many social platforms, but with Fansiko everything happens under the same ‘roof’ and under your watchful eye.

Millennial Fan Engagement, Smartphones, and Social Media: What They Mean for Sports Content

The way people are interacting with sports leagues and teams has changed drastically over the past 25 years. If we look back at the 1990’s, most sports content were centered on broadcast TV, with people gathering around the living room or going to the game itself. Radio and newspapers also played a marginal role in fan engagement.

The way people are interacting with sports leagues and teams has changed drastically over the past 25 years. If we look back at the 1990’s, most sports content were centered on broadcast TV, with people gathering around the living room or going to the game itself. Radio and newspapers also played a marginal role in fan engagement.

Fast forward to the present day, sports content is now spread over several digital outlets. Fans can now watch full games on demand or opt for smaller, bite-size content. Twitter, for instance is broadcasting college sports around the clock, Amazon is streaming Thursday Night Football, and as of last year, the NFL, the MLS, UEFA, the World Surf League (WSL), CrossFit, and MLB have all signed a contract with Facebook, featuring all sorts of highlights, game recaps, and other similar content.

A Major Shift in Sponsorship Trends

This change from TV to digital is not negligible either. As traditional media platforms are seeing a steady decrease in revenue growth, sports sponsorship is at an all-time high. As compared to 2017, this year has seen a 4.3% increase in global sponsorship revenue, adding up to a total of $65.8 billion; $24.2 billion of which being in the US. Sports sponsorship accounts for a whopping 70%.

One other interesting development here is the increased sponsor desire for an early exit from at least one of their sponsorships. Over 58% of sponsors find themselves in this category. One explanation may be the rightsholders’ unwillingness or inability to change with the times. When asked about their priorities, sponsors placed the presence on social and mobile media, as their second most important criterion after category exclusivity. By comparison to only last year, social and mobile jumped from the sixth to the second place in sponsor-desired priority order.

The Pros and Cons

For the most tech-savvy fans, namely millennials, this steady transition from TV to digital is more than welcome. Instead of queuing behind hundreds of other fans in the hopes of getting an autograph, they now prefer to go on Twitter and engage with their favorite players digitally. With a single push of a button, teams and players can now go live from the locker room, gym, or from home and interact with their fans.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Other trends such as VR and AR technologies can ‘place’ any fan right in the middle of the stadium, or allow them to watch the game from multiple angles while having access to on-demand instant replays. Convenience, versatility, and diversity are what millennials, smartphones, and social media bring to sports content.

For the sports teams themselves, this trend can be seen as a double-edged sword. On one hand, this diversity and room for experimentation will allow teams to be more on par with their competition and reach out to their fans in more meaningful and engaging ways. But on the other hand, however, the tangled web of social platforms, apps, and other technologies may be too much to handle.

Platforms such as Fanisko Engage can help sports teams by bringing all this bite-size content into a more easily manageable form. Instead of posting on all the different social apps in the hopes of engaging with as many fans as possible, teams can now use this one-size-fits-all platform and deliver to their fans the convenience and content diversity they so much desire.

Like all meaningful changes, sports content and fan engagement are now going through a transition period where those who catch on quickly will have the most to gain.

About Fanisko:

Fanisko (www.fanisko.com) offers a one-stop fan engagement platform, Fanisko|Engage, that helps sports and entertainment brands increase mobile fan retention, digital engagement and revenue opportunities. Today’s fans want more from their leagues and teams. We help leagues and teams embrace today’s “SmartFan” demand while maximizing fan potential for sponsors. Our mobile first, one-stop platform targeting millennials with a combination of unique content strategy, product offering including gaming, predictive and behavioral analytics and AR/VR technologies will target and engage the right audience.

So, if you are any sports association, league or a club planning to deliver an amazing mobile based fan engagement platform to build your fanbase, we would like to hear from you.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Fan Engagement

Even the most successful sports clubs make some errors in how they engage, depriving them of the possibility of forming deeper and longer-lasting relationships. With that said, here are several common mistakes to avoid when trying to engage with your fans. 

Fan engagement is the lifeblood of the sports industry. Nevertheless, this doesn’t exempt many sports teams or leagues from making mistakes in how they engage with their fans. Even the most successful sports clubs make some errors in how they engage, depriving them of the possibility of forming deeper and longer-lasting relationships. With that said, here are several common mistakes to avoid when trying to engage with your fans.

Generalization

The first mistake many sports clubs make is to generalize their content regardless of the often fragmented fanbase. Depending on the notoriety of the club, its fanbase can be spread out over numerous areas or even countries. Some of these sports teams present their content as if these fans were all centered in the same location and with the same interests. But while the team itself is what ties all of them together, other content may not be as relevant to everybody involved.

Arsenal FC, for instance, has a Hindi Facebook page that talks to its entire Indian fanbase in their native language and presents some other relevant content that only Indians may find engaging. Fanisko Engage is a highly-customizable fan engagement platform that can address this issue, ‘talking’ to each fan, based on their preferences.

Diluting the Fan Experience

Somewhat similar to the point above, some teams and leagues focus too much time and energy with separate products and promotions that ‘dilute’ the overall fan experience. While in and of itself, this activity isn’t a bad thing, doing it too much, however, will take away from the overall fan engagement. Known as the Pareto principle, or more commonly known as the 80-20 rule, it implies that just 20% of causes drives 80% of results. This principle is found everywhere in nature, finance, and even in personal relationships.

When applied in fan engagement, the Pareto principle implies that only about 20% of a team’s followers are diehard fans, but they are the ones that drive 80% of the revenue. And while these fans spend up to six times more money than their casual counterparts, bombarding them with too many promotions may have the adverse effect. Fanisko Engage can separate raving fans from the rest and target each of them with the relevant content for higher engagement and revenue generation.

Connecting but Not Interacting with Fans

Plenty of clubs spend much of their resources and energy connecting with their fanbase. Video content, for instance, is gaining a lot of ground in the marketing world and it’s shown to generate a high ROI. Nevertheless, when it comes to engagement, fan interaction is a definite must. In fact, 81% of marketing specialists agree that interactive content such as polls, quizzes, or all sorts of interactive games can better grab and retain attention than video content. Likewise, interactive content is better able at converting visitors.

Conclusion

All in all, proper fan engagement revolves around one’s ability to understand the fans, their wants, and needs, as well as the place they reside. It is to provide them with the most relevant and engaging content possible. Luckily, however, Fanisko Engage is a platform that can quickly achieve this.

By making use of its back-end analytics, every team can connect and interact with their fan base like never before, providing them with all sorts of interactive content like Mixed and Augmented Reality for gamification, and Artificial Intelligence for personalization. All of these are sure to allow your fans to stay connected 24/7, and helps you avoid the many mistakes other clubs are making when trying to engage with their fans.