Why Advertisers Continue to Win with Sports

With 85 of sports fans preferring to watch live sports on TV rather than in person1 itamp8217s unsurprising that sports accounted for 96 of the most watched nonpolitical programs in 20242 Sports offer a wealth of opportunities for advertisers Tentpole sporting events national leagues and niche tournaments both menamp8217s and womenamp8217s all play a valuable and complementary role in boosting campaign reachFor advertisers and agencies recalibrating their video strategies that means thinking about sports not as a silo but as a system that can flex across screens audiences and objectivesSports delivers real attention in a distracted worldIn a sea of skippable scrollable content sports stand apart for their attentionholding power Ads during live sports are 10 more likely to be watched in full than the average ad and more than half of all live sports ads are viewed by groups of two or more people3Sports fans also can be highly social Research found that they39re 73 more likely to watch games in groups of three or more particularly during highstakes moments like playoffs and championship games1 The social group settings in which fans watch sports have the power to magnify the value of every ad shown delivering a large impact per impressionWhile streaming gains speed donamp8217t overlook traditional TVIn 2024 sports generated 350 million streaming ad impressions just across Comcast households4 Streaming helps advertisers connect with younger and hardertoreach audiences especially as more live sports content becomes available on FAST and adsupported platformsBut despite the growth of streaming traditional TV is still a goto for many fans Last year 11 more households were reached by cable sports versus streaming only5 reflecting a continued preference for the bigscreen cablelike experience That said sports events are increasingly moving to streaming channels providing more options for both viewers and advertisersLook beyond the marquee matchupsTentpole events present premier opportunities for advertisers looking to reach audiences at scale in realtime In fact 98 of Americans plan to watch at least one major sporting event like March Madness or the NBA finals in the next year5 But advertisers who only focus on marquee moments miss the long tail of opportunityNiche sports or sports outside the Big Four NBA NHL MLB and NFL offer advertisers more affordable alternatives to reach large audiences Over a quarter of total sports impressions come from outside the Big Four with leagues like the WNBA NCAA and professional golf driving incremental reach6 Women39s sports in particular are gaining momentum time spent with women39s sports rose 42 YoY7 and fans are 45 more likely to pay attention to full WNBA games than NBA games8For advertisers these are crucial performance signals In a campaign analysis of sports viewers WNBA fans who see an ad featured during a game are 18x more likely to visit that brandamp8217s website than other sports fans9 These viewers are engaged with the sport on screen but also the brands that show up alongside itSports is a winning strategyAs they continue to dominate across screens sports have evolved into a strategy in their own right They offer flexibility across platforms proven reach across demographics and unique moments of undivided attentionAs each media dollar is more and more scrutinized sports advertising provides something increasingly rare confidence that your message will be seen by a valuable audience that is paying attentionFor more on how sports dominated screens last year check out the 2024 Sports ReplaySources1 Comcast Advertising Survey N1000 April 2024 Qualifying Criteria Watched sports content game highlights talk show etcamp8230 in the past six months who were satisfied with the current experience of watching live sports through TV coverage2 ComscoreTV National Program Ranker Report January amp8211 December 2024 Live 7 All genres excluding political3 TVision Program Analysis Time Period Report Live SD on linear onlyamp160 January amp8211 December 20244 Comcast Aggregated Ad Exposure data from Comcast Advertising streaming campaigns across all DMAs January December 20245 Comcast Aggregated National Sports Viewership data based on households reached by NBA Household viewership of Individual sports compared to NBA January December 20236 Comcast Aggregated Sports Ad Exposure data January December 2024 The amp8216Big Fouramp8217 sports are MLB NBA NFL ampamp NHL7 Comcast Aggregated Viewership Data January December 2024 vs January December 20238 TVision Panel P18 January December 2024 Attention to duration Indicates how likely viewers are to pay attention to the total duration of the content 100 is the benchmark based on the combined Linear and CTV average9 Nielsen Insights Whatamp8217s Next for Womenamp8217s Sports Fueling Growth by Proving Value 2024This article was written by Laura BrandanoLauta Vice President Market Retail Large Agency ampamp SMB Sales at Comcast AdvertisingPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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