Super Bowl time in the United States is a good enough reason to take another look at technological improvements in the world of sports, especially at the business end. Like any other discipline, profession, or business, sports also generate big data, necessitating the deployment of sports analytics to tackle issues more effectively.
In fact, most sports organizations in the US and the United Kingdom have set up their own sports analytics departments and either employed teams of analysts and data scientists or outsourced the work. According to one report, for the four major sports in the US, over 97 percent of MLB teams and 80 percent of NBA teams already employ sports analytics professionals. Monetizing sports fans is the name of the game.
Thus, the business of sports is significant, much of it now centered on big data. While a large percentage of this data today is used to attract talent or to understand play moves, the business of sports marketing analysis is also growing with every season. After all, the business of sports aims to attract traffic, or in sports lingo, fans or spectators, and analytics is a tool that provides near-accurate reports on how fans would react to a specific inducement.
That explains, for example, the high advertising rates at the Super Bowl, as everyone vies for a piece of the action, which is the captive in-stadium audience for the duration of the final game, not to mention those watching it ‘live’ on TV and social media. This season, advertisers are reportedly spending US$5 million for each 30-second Super Bowl commercial.
Here are some statistics:
- The total number of Super Bowl viewers is going up; one report has pegged it at an increase of an average of 5 million per year
- Over 110 million people watch the game in the US, and many more in other countries
- The Super Bowl itself draws nearly 80 million more viewers than an NFL Sunday night game
- A massive chunk of the American viewers, somewhere between 30 and 45 percent, admit to watching the Super Bowl only for the commercials and not the actual game.
How the Super Bowl is consumed
A January 2017 research study conducted by Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) in partnership with Burson-Marsteller and Fan Experience showed that technological advancements and social media were slowly changing the way people watched “the game”, providing marketers with interesting insights.
Some of the report’s findings:
- 55 percent of viewers say they would be interested in streaming games online instead of watching on cable, including 77 percent of Millennials
- 60 percent of viewers and 87 percent of constant social media users say they are interested in the extra content brands provide on social media in addition to their commercials
- One in three viewers says that a commercial is what they are most likely to post about on social media during the game
- 33 percent of viewers say that a commercial is what they are most likely to post about on social media during the game
- Nearly two out of three Millennials say they prefer the game itself to the commercials or the halftime show
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For marketers of companies and sports leagues, using sports platforms to appeal to prospects means leveraging the latest marketing techniques. That includes marketing analytics. Like in any other business, they need to use analytics to gather and analyze data about existing customers, segmentize them, and then market their products across multiple channels.
Predictive analytics and game theory are methods for leveraging information about where, when, and how sports fans engage with sports, and for understanding which campaigns are hits and which are under-performing. Using this tool, sports companies can determine the most effective product offerings and then launch personalized marketing initiatives to extract lifetime value from fans.
So, in sports, where does the data flow in from? There are many, so let’s look at a few of them:
Promotions are a method of data collection. Team-held events, such as sweepstakes, in real life and online, can generate substantial information about participants. Another method is apps, quite familiar by now in the NFL, that provide team news, views, and video clips, with adverts for online shopping. Loyalty programs are another way to collect data, and even to offer discounts or freebies. Even the stadium Wi-Fi can provide valuable, granular data on user behavior to marketers.
Global Sports Data Analytics Market to Grow
Some predict the global sports analytics market will grow from the current US$123.7 million to as much as US$616.7 million by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 37.9 percent. North America is forecast to have the largest market share in sports analytics in this period, followed by Europe. Growth will be driven by the need of marketers and the management of sports organizations to gain historical and real-time insights into data generated on and off the field.
If you are among those interested in marketing through sport, you need first to define the goal(s) of your effort. It could be one or many of these – increasing attendance or viewership, attracting prospects, enticing customers, and increasing your marketing base. Analysts can then help you derive a statistical model that factors in all this, including sponsorship data and social media activity, to help you target the right audiences and achieve your objective(s).
