Playing the Game: Why Sports Marketing Scores Points for Brands - Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers

January is a great month for sports fans and sports marketers the NFL playoffs are about to begin and the Super Bowl season is nigh upon us with CBS reporting that almost all of its ad slots have been sold college bowl games have been building toward the crowning of a national champion this week for tennis fans the first major of the season will get started soon quotdown underquot And as soon as January ends the Winter Olympics are upon usFor marketers all of this begs the question How much does it really pay to market to sports fans Are they truly a special and engaged audienceMy firm39s word of mouth tracking research documents clearly that sports fans are key consumers for brands to target They are considerably more likely to start conversations with other people about brands and influence their decisions regarding those brandsSports fans engage in an average of 74 brandrelated conversations each week amp8211 onethird more than the average American Their propensity to talk up brands cuts across a wide variety of product and service categories The leading category for word of mouth conversation by sports fans is media and entertainment followed by food and dining brands Other categories that inspire conversation include sportsrecreation beverages retailapparel automotive and telecomNot only do they engage in more talk but these brandrelated conversations by sports fans are apt to drive action Specifically a 52 majority of sports fans say their conversations lead to purchase intent Translation this is not just idle chatter it pays for brands to stimulate conversation during sporting eventsOur research also shows that sports fans are twothirds more likely than the average American to be word of mouth influencers or what we call Conversation Catalystsamp8482 Sports fans also greatly overindex against average consumers in their propensity to be categorylevel influencers in many areas most notably in the sportsrecreation index 219 travel index 218 financial index 213 and automotive index 212 categoriesSource Keller Fay Group39s TalkTrackamp174 What does this mean for individual advertisers Research we have conducted with ESPN during the last NFL season finds that collectively NFL advertisers on ESPN enjoyed 3 billion more word of mouth conversations among the network39s male viewers than among nonviewers As an example of what this means for an individual advertiser one apparel brand enjoyed more than 90 million more WOM conversations among ESPN39s male viewers than among nonviewers With estimates by some that a conversation is worth 50 cents that39s a lot of marketing value for the advertiser And the research shows clearly that the conversations link directly to the media plan amp8211 it39s not a random occurrenceWhat about special events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics both of which are right around the cornerAfter the 2008 Super Bowl advertisers enjoyed an appreciable increase amp8211 16 amp8211 in daily WOM levels That translated into a projected increase of 119 million weekly mentions for these Super Bowl advertisers That surge in advertiser WOM was also represented in most demographics The highest postSuper Bowl lifts were seen among teens with a 34 daily WOM increase young adults with a 25 increase and males increasing by 27Our research also shows that this WOM lift was largely a result of TV advertising Following the 2008 Super Bowl 23 of advertiser39s WOM was driven by television commercials alone amp8211 a rise of 92 since before the big game dayThe Vancouver Winter Olympics will follow soon after and advertisers should also expect big word of mouth results from those games Winter Olympics fans are also nearly 2 times more likely to be consumer influencers qualifying as catalysts in nearly every major advertising category at an index of around 200 versus average consumers Additionally Winter Olympics fans have more conversations about brands every week amp8211 74 vs 54 for total public amp8211 and oneinfour of these fans39 brand mentions are driven by advertising NBC recently announced that Keller Fay will be monitoring the word of mouth effectiveness of Olympics advertisers for sponsorsLooking at data from the Beijing Olympics only bolsters the idea that the Olympics provide a potentially huge payday for advertisers One major advertiser had a 26 increase in projected weekly branded conversations from before the Beijing Olympics to after which translated into an additional 53 million weekly conversations for that brandSource Keller Fay Group39s TalkTrackamp174 So what does this all mean Sports are a natural environment for generating word of mouth for brands Fans tend to be influencers and engaged in brand WOM The seasonlong commitment that fans make when they follow their favorite sports lends itself to an ongoing relationship between the fan and the brand sponsor this is key as word of mouth is all about relationships And sports is a social topic that lends itself to coviewing and conversation during and after games amp8211 conversations not only about the games themselves but about the brands that advertiseEd Keller CEO of the Keller Fay Group has been called quotone of the most recognized names in word of mouthquot The publication of Keller39s book The Influentials has been called the quotseminal moment in the development of word of mouthquot Ed can be contacted at ekellerkellerfaycomRead all Edamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Ed Keller MediaBizBloggersFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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Playing the Game: Why Sports Marketing Scores Points for Brands - Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers

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