In the height of the pandemic, professional sports teams and brands associated with them had to get creative to connect with their fans – and keep revenue flowing.
Imagine the lost revenue that comes with a game played in an empty stadium. Not only is in-venue revenue nonexistent, but also the corporate brands that pay millions of dollars to be in front of those fans are suddenly no longer seeing value.
Rather than retreat entirely, both brands and sports teams turned to social media to engage fans until they were allowed back into stadiums.
For example, many brands created brand ambassador relationships, such as sports gambling company BetVictor does with retired Premier League and England international striker Michael Owen. Owens leverages the power of his name, likeness, image, and popularity to regularly offer betting tips for BetVictor’s platform and on social media. This sort of content became increasingly vital throughout the global shutdown as fans turned to the internet to stay connected with their favorite players and teams.
Another example of creativity in the sports industry during the pandemic is turning former players into influencers. Many began turning up as commentators and pundits for various media and brand outlets. Others began leveraging their own platforms to promote their new partnerships and encourage fans to consume new, unique content they wouldn’t find elsewhere.
The secret to this kind of influencer strategy is engagement.
It’s not enough to have a well-known person associated with your brand. They need to be engaging – which means authentic, relatable, and comfortable being front and center. If the influencer isn’t comfortable being the center of focus, it’s unlikely they’ll perform well for the brand. If they’re reticent about social media, the partnership is equally unlikely to perform well, as it’s become one of the top ways to connect players and fans online.
Like all effective social media influencer partnerships, finding the right people to collaborate with is key. Now that fans are flooding back into stadiums, brands aren’t turning their backs on social media. They’ve discovered how critical it is to engage fans off the pitch as well.
For social media influencer campaigns to truly be effective, content is paramount. These days, it’s not enough to create content, post it, and walk away. Creating conversations online and sparking virality is how brands can leverage their ambassadors for best results.
Creatable is the platform that allows brands to generate owned content. Not only is content available on the brand’s own website, this model of creating and publishing content creates first party attribution – which means no tracking down reports from multiple sources or cobbling analytics together. With the death of third party tracking upon us, it’s never been more critical to own your data outright, which is exactly what Creatable lets you do.
With Creatable as your partner, you can even tap into a highly qualified network of influencers in the sports industry. That’s in addition to reviewing content, publishing, and paying your influencers – right from the dashboard. To see how Creatable will work for your brand, schedule a demo with us here: https://www.creatable.io/demo.
