In the last part of a three-part series on how to know and grow your audience in the sports industry, we discuss one of the trending topics: hyper-personalization, how technology enables it and why sports right holders must prioritize it to continue delivering value to their partners and fans.
The goal of this article series is to offer sports rights holders and media distributors a practical roadmap for knowing and growing audiences. This theme is central to the work our team does with clients on digital transformation, data strategies and commercialization.
In the previous article, part II, we explained the trends of future sports viewership and their impact on your audience development strategy.
In the first article, we covered the importance of digital & data to develop audiences, by having a central know-your-fan database that acts as a single source of truth for the business. We are sharing these insights and analysis based on ongoing client work as well as a recent panel we moderated at the Global Sports Week Paris 2021, with leaders from Bundesliga, Amazon, UEFA and IMG.
HYPER-PERSONALIZATION IS A MUST
Hyper-personalization, personalized content, tailor-made experiences are possible now thanks to the technological solutions available on the market. These are no longer “nice-to-have” but a necessity to adopt and work with for rights holders in the sports industry. According to BCG, one has to differentiate between personalizing the individual’s experience at the point of interaction and the ability to consistently personalize across multiple channels. The brands that personalize where and how they engage their main stakeholders, whether they are consumers, fans or businesses, are ahead of the game.
Younger generations consume content in a very different way than older generations. According to a 2020 study by the Washington Post, the NBA has grown 43 percent in social media views in the past three years. This is just one of the many indications that Gen Z consumes content at a much higher rate than any other generation, looks for higher engagement, interactivity, stats, analytics and short video content.
Klaus Bürg, Managing Director EMEA at AWS, stated ¨Consumer demands and expectations are increasing, and broadcasters, leagues, and federations need to cover that demand. The use of technology, more specifically, cloud technology enables us to cope with that demand and tackle future challenges moving forward.¨
Not just because of the new consumption habits but also because of the global reach that many right holders have, one must adopt hyper-personalization, not to compete, but just to fight for relevance. In order to offer the best product and experience to everyone, one must adapt the product and the content based on consumption habits, preferences, and geography. Thanks to strategic partnerships, technology, data collection and analysis, this is now possible and something that every league, club, and federation must consider.
¨Hyper-personalization is a journey that all leagues should be on. As a media company, we can do the production but there is still massive data to analyze to enhance and personalize our product, highlighted Robert Klein, CEO of Bundesliga International. That’s when partners such as AWS come in, thanks to its machine learning, and AI technology are able to look at a product, enhance it and create more products around it.¨
Not only must rights holders deliver personalized products and content, now brands are also asking and looking for that. Years ago, sponsors were looking to put their brand everywhere on TV, on the jerseys, or all over the field of play. With the ever changing landscape, the sponsorship approach has also changed. Now sponsors are looking to have a direct relationship with the fan, get to know them, understand their consuming habits, what they like to do and what type of content they like to consume in order to deliver hyper-personalized content, product and services.
¨Brands now are looking for data, they want to be able to interact directly with their targeted audience and to associate their brand with a partner such as UEFA.¨ – Guy-Laurent Epstein, Marketing Director at UEFA
This new way to deliver and consume sports is thanks to data collection and analysis and also technology.
Get in touch with us if your organization is exploring new ways to grow its audience.
TECH ENABLES TO DELIVER A NEW WAY TO CONSUME SPORTS
Enhancing the sport itself, the viewer experience, and on-site phygital experience is possible thanks to the use of technology. Having digital assets has to be a priority for every club, league and federation, even during matchday, as there are thousands of fans that are not present in the stadium but right holders still have to interact and engage with their fans. The phygital experience in the stadium and the digital experience at home has to be at the level of the fans’ expectations and right holders always need to be working on enhancing that experience.
In January 2020, the Bundesliga partnered with AWS to keep positioning itself at the forefront of innovation by enhancing the viewer broadcasting experience. Together, they launched Bundesliga Match Facts, a new product that thanks to technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and computing power, they are able to analyze 3.6 millions data points in milliseconds, and at the same time analyze 10,000 historical matches for similar situations. Based on this data, they are able to calculate the probability of the goal scoring in a specific situation. This product is available in all the Bundesliga games where the viewer can enjoy that experience and provides a new way of consuming sports content.
Klaus Bürg from AWS stated ¨Sports companies need to react and act upon the demand of the stakeholders, need to be agile, flexible and be able to change quickly. You can’t do that if you are living in an old legacy world of technology, so you must have the proper data and technology infrastructure in place in order to adapt to the always-changing landscape.¨
If you haven’t read yet Part I and Part II of our 3-part series, we highly recommend you to read them. Get in touch with us if your organization is exploring new ways to grow its audience.