Sports Fans are created equal

Finding profitable fan segments in social media channels

not

2

Why all the fuss about social?Paid Media

Earned Media, Shared Media

“Word-of-mouth”

Time

ATTNSales

Social Graph

3

390 Million 71 million

Following Sports teams

4

Are all fans created equal?

(they sure look similar)

5

Maybe not(beanie babies, sports fans, movie fans, consumers)

Retail Sold$10 $3,000

1. People swarm to collect2. Gain bragging rights 3. But who is getting rich?

Peanut

6Tribal Dynamics in sports and entertainment

7

Who is following the teams?Coyle Sports Poll

Team social survey, 2011

8

Social fans have channel preferences

What is your preferred source of news about team?

Team Website

9

Social fans adopt early

40% of Americans own SmartphonesComscore, December 2011

10

Checking in during 2011…

-16.7 million Americans- 7% of mobile population

- 12.7 via smartphones- 17.6% of smartphone users

Source: Comscore

Social sports fans 2x to 3x more likely to check-in than average Americans

11

Women are as passionate, (more) social sports fans

Fan segment: women

Source: Coyle Sports Poll 2011, NFL, Facebook Fans

12

E-mailers are bigger fans, buyers

Source: Coyle Sports Poll 2011, NFL, Facebook Fans

Fan segment: E mail subscribers

13

Passion Index: E mailersFan segment: E mail subscribers

14

E mailers are a social force

Source: Coyle Sports Poll 2011, NFL, Facebook Fans

Fan segment: E mail subscribers

My observations in sports

1. Most teams treat all fans as if they’re equal

2. E mail outperforms social in direct marketing ROI (tickets), yet teams invest more in social

3. We recommend teams should work harder at:

A. Understanding fan dataB. Segmenting fan audiencesC. Cross promoting with all social channels

15

16

Identify – Target - Personalize - Refine

Engage the most valuable segments

17

Final thought on social media:You can’t please everyone anyway

Own it in social media

18

Questions?

pat@coyle.me