The commercial
side of sports continues to change the way we play and participate with them.
One of the most notable ways sports have changed as communication technology
has developed is the off-season. One author claims that sports coverage has
gone from 90% on-field and 10% off-field to probably 60% off-field. This
transformation has made marketing and advertising a 12-months-of-the-year
undertaking. There is no offseason. While it is pretty easy to get even
moderate fans engaged during playoffs and championships, leagues, teams and
players don’t want their brands leaving the public light during the long months
of off-season.
The problem these
organizations have to overcome is a lack of newsworthy stories. How do we keep
fans invested in our team when we are not playing any games? There are lots of
sites and blogs that recommend ways to spice up off-season presence for sports
teams. While not the only way to keep fans connected, social media is turning
out to be one of the cheapest yet effective ways to achieve off-season brand
building.
Social media
teams have come up with some creative and interactive ways to provide programs
to keep fans engaged. The media team for Mizzou went with a strategy of making
a theme for each day of the week. “Mizzou Monday,” “Trivia Tuesday,” “Where in
the World Wednesday,” and so forth. On Wednesdays, fans were encouraged to post
pictures of themselves wearing Mizzou gear from different places around the
world.
Since the NHL
season ended, the League has been releasing “SEASON IN :60(ish)” videos for
each of their teams providing a quick highlight video of their season. A new
video comes out about every day and gives fans some hockey highlights to watch during
the offseason. Yesterday they started the “30-in-30” campaign, during which
each day for 30 days content on NHL.com and social media is focused on a
different team. An organized media campaigns like this keep fans interested,
knowing that each day holds something new to consume.
A few years ago,
the Carolina Panthers did a big scavenger hunt campaign. During “The PantherPurrsuit” fans completed different tasks to win awards and prizes. This year
BYU is doing a similar kind of campaign that connects Cougar fans nationwide. In
their Twitter campaign #BYU50 they are posting pictures of prize boxes they are
dropping across the country and the first BYU fans to arrive win the prize.
Programs like the Panther Purrsuit and #BYU50 are great ways to get fans
excited about their teams even when no games are being played.
There are lots of ideas out there to make the off-season brand building time rather than brand
downtime. But the idea is basically the same. Get the fans involved and help
them feel like they are connected to teams and player. Creativity will be the
key to continued success in sports social media!
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