Opinion: The Always-on Fan

Damon Mangos, strategy director at Delete, discusses how digital media has changed fan engagement …

The world of sport is changing. Whether it’s games being broadcast live on Snapchat and Twitter, or Premier League clubs claiming creative control over their websites, and players engaging more and more on social media; recent years have seen the world of sport propelled into the digital age at breakneck speed.

Now, more than ever, fans are no longer simply enjoying watching the games. Instead, they have transformed into always-on consumers of digital content and have come to expect a far higher level of two-way engagement from the teams, players and clubs they support.

In the past, fans engaged with their teams and sports through televised matches and commentary, newspaper write-ups, and heading down to watch games at stadiums. But now, due to rise of technology, social media, and digital platforms, sport teams are becoming increasingly responsible for populating their own constant stream of content, in order to keep up with consumer demand for exclusive insight and access.

This is not a new phenomenon. Digital technology is now a part of everyday life, and like with any brand or sector, the majority of sports fans are now accessing vast amounts of content on a daily basis through a range of digital devices.

These fans are now streaming and viewing content on various platforms throughout the day, rather than at set times, and looking for an increasingly wide range of content. Recently, Snapchat revealed that 42 million people globally viewed its NFL content last season alone, a huge increase from 30 million the previous 2015-16 season, and this is in comparison with only 13.8 million UK viewers who watched NFL programming on traditional channels such as TV or live streaming.

From interested supporters checking regularly for the latest scores, to die-hard fans relentlessly checking for in-depth team and player updates, sport teams and clubs now have an opportunity to truly own the dialogue with their fans and gain insight into what they want to see on an individual level.

Through the number of views, clicks and engagements the brands receive online, teams can monitor what type of content is popular – providing key insight into their audience’s behaviour – and in turn allowing clubs to tailor their own digital content to the audience’s needs.

In a recent digital transformation project for Southampton FC, a consumer research survey was used to drive this audience-first approach by allowing the club to discover what content modern fans really wanted to see, when, and on what platforms. This insight into the media consumption habits of Saints’ fans revealed their content consumption and sharing habits around both the team, and the wider game, and allowed us to build up a picture of typical sports fan.

With this information, and by using wider insights into digital consumption trends, we were able to determine that the modern Saints’ fan was a ‘content grazer’ – returning to a source multiple times per day and scanning through latest updates and news snippets. This allowed us to then define a clear strategy, which put the needs of Saints’ fans at the heart of their content strategy and platform design. From there, a new fan-forward platform was launched which helped Saints drive traffic and engagement by giving the fans what they truly wanted.

Utilising Sitecore technology also enabled the ability to weave in a rich customer profiling and automated marketing capabilities, allowing fans to have a more personalised user experience. On match day for example, the Saints site transforms to capture the excitement of the game with a minute-by-minute feed with live audio commentary and performance stats.

Through this, Southampton FC’s vision for a seamless customer journey on its website has been realised, especially when it comes to content and merchandising suggestions, which has poised them for the next phase of digital innovation for the team. When it comes to clubs, team and sports governing bodies looking to engage with the increasingly digital fan, it is key to ensure that the audience’s experience is at the forefront of any digital project from the strategy through to content and delivery. This can only be achieved by truly understanding your audience, not just the sports.

It is evident now that fans are looking beyond the sport itself and instead seeking exclusive content and richer insight into their favourite players. The key is listening to what the audience wants and needs, as well as how they behave. Once this is achieved, clubs will have a great deal of access, reach and ability to genuinely engage with fans like never before.

As football clubs become increasingly able to manage their own digital platforms and presence, sports marketers need to ensure they take full advantage of the tools available to make clubs and sports brands the first point of call for the latest news and insight. Thus making sure that they are not only keeping fans happy on the pitch, but off the pitch as well.