The Summer of Fandom
This Summer has been a winner for sports fans. Our streets have been packed with symptoms of ‘fandom’ — from cheers ringing out at local pubs to flags draped across windows and cars. Whether it’s the Euros, Wimbledon or the upcoming Olympics, fans watch in awe as teams and countries battle for glory. Throughout any game or match, the audience focus is tangible and seemingly indestructible — a level of engagement that many marketing professionals can often only dream of. How do sports manage to maintain this unwavering devotion to their game? And might there be potential for brands to harness the power of passion similarly?
Winning fans
Sports appear to benefit from a recipe perfectly designed to achieve consumer engagement, and much of this is down to how being a fan makes us feel. This ‘feel-good’ effect, combined with the ability to share an experience with other like-minded fans in the natural and digital worlds, is powerfully rewarding. Whether it’s an online or a real-life event, sports bring people together and unite them in a common cause. This sense of community is appealing, addictive and rooted in the inherent human desire to belong to a ‘pack’. If you think back to the 2012 Olympics, the atmosphere in London was electric as people united to support athletes and cheer their teams on.
In branding, a feeling of community is a powerful tool. It can be employed effectively through social media — the success of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook is proof of this. However, for true impact, marketers could borrow from the sports world and explore even more experiential ideas and live events to enable consumers to unite for a shared cause. Tropicana’s ‘Arctic Sun’ advert was a brilliant example of experiential marketing that impacted the real world, which could be shared across multiple platforms. Read more about Tropicana’s approach to feel-good marketing.
Defining identity
Alongside a sense of community, ‘fandom’ can also form part of identity. Sharing thoughts and opinions online is now one of the critical ways to define personality and connect with like-minded people. Each football team, for instance, has active networks of people who connect because they have one thing in common: they want their team to win.
This feeling of ‘identity’ can be applied to branding, where marketers can offer consumers a critical value or personality trait to connect with others. Perhaps it’s a mission statement like Airbnb’s ‘belong anywhere’ or way of living, like Mindful Chef’s focus on easy, healthy food — either way, this personality should lead and define the brand appearance and behaviour. In so doing, they are building individual online identities while inadvertently endorsing the brand and expanding its digital footprint. Sports fans are driving the digital revolution.
An emotional rollercoaster
Sports can move thousands of spectators at a time. Whether you’re a fan or not, it’s easy to be drawn into the passionate emotional volatility displayed. Watch any sports broadcast on TV, like the build-up to Andy Murray’s recent win at Wimbledon, and you’ll see the highs and lows of the crowd hanging on to every move. The despair and delight of fans are relished by television broadcasters and content makers who capture the emotional journey as it unfolds: the heads in hands, the tears and the celebrations of the live crowd are all part of the story and a powerful way to engage audiences who are watching right across the world. A good story and genuine emotion will broaden audience reach, and this is where sport can often trump other industries with its power to engage.
There’s no time like right now.
Sports also have the advantage of immediacy. They are rooted in the live action of a game or competition, allowing people to share the experience in real-time, thereby heightening the emotional gratification. Technology now gives fans the opportunity to be active, rather than passive, spectators of games giving them a feeling of purpose, followed by an immense sense of satisfaction if their team wins.
Take the example of the ‘Madden Giferator’—an online app developed by EA to promote the Madden NFL series. Fans were able to create their own animated GIFS featuring CGI animations of various football players and share these online.
Keeping the pace
As we all crave stories, sports benefit from having a clear end goal: winning. This gives each game or competition a direction and drives the emotional journey for everyone involved; every fan can unite in their shared desire to achieve their goal.
Similarly, brands can benefit when they can champion a good cause or initiate a campaign that makes a difference, one that has a story behind it. Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign is a great example. As a result of this campaign, women began sharing their own stories online, which were then shared by Sport England across social platforms. The story element enabled audiences to feel part of something real and meaningful, and the end goal — in this case, encouraging women to feel confident while exercising — gives the campaign a structure and a way to assess progress.
Organised chaos
Perhaps sports can connect with fans in a powerful way because they benefit from organised engagement in a way that many brands find difficult. Fans know that if they go online when a game takes place, they will find people to interact with. They know posting content at the right time and place will form part of the sport’s digital story. This brings fans ever closer to their sport, and the development of technology will only enhance this experience in years to come.
A new generation of intelligent apps has come into its own and offers remarkable new opportunities for brand engagement.
Be your fans’ no.1 fan
Of course, the sports world may appear to have the upper hand because of the ability to better understand target markets and design appropriate solutions to match. Sports fans are guaranteed to be passionate about their sport and interested in the team they support. Therefore, fans want an opportunity to enhance their experience of attending a sporting event or using an online platform. The user journey can consequently be carefully mapped out with this in mind. Brands across wider industries, on the other hand, may need to do a little more legwork when it comes to getting to know their audience’s exact needs and desires, but it will be well worth the additional thought.
What can we learn from the world of sports and the cfandom culturestly, real life is meaningful — people love the drama of competition and the personal journeys behind success and failure.
- Storytelling and a clear campaign structure and purpose are key to creating a feeling of momentum and achievement.
- Emotion drives engagement: if something provokes a reaction from others, people will want to be part of the action (and likely have their say, too).
The bottom line remains the same: to compete with other brands and win the battle of consumer engagement, marketers must always consider their audience first. With these things in mind, companies can create relevant and engaging brand experiences and work in harmony with consumers.
