Introduction
Sport marketing refers to all marketing activities that promote any kind of sport or sports products. In a broader sense, it refers to practically any marketing activity that would have sports in its content. In turn, sports social media marketing refers to sports marketing that utilize social media as one tool of communication in the marketing mix. It would seem that there is not really anything special or unique about sports social marketing. It is essentially marketing in practice focused on a particular product with a very clear understanding of its target audiences’ needs and of how to use social media to respond to those needs.
Social media has unique characteristics that make its use somewhat different from traditional media. It is a truly global media available 24 hours a day. It is not a substitute for traditional media but rather a complement to it. It involves more work than media planning like search engine optimization—a way to get internet search engines find a company’s social media pages by way of using keywords or search words and links to relevant web addresses.
The most popular social media used in marketing are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. These sites are used by marketers to upload any information about themselves.
The Olympics and Nike are two successful users of social media for marketing. The Olympics even use blocking material as a strategy to gain more mileage in the areas it wants to profit from. Nike has shifted a huge percentage of its resources to social media and increased its profits as a result.
Literature Review: Practices in and Uses of Social Media Sports Market
Marketers have been using social media because of its many benefits. Foremost reason for its use is its very wide reach. Social media reaches far more people worldwide than any traditional media, which tends to be very local, could. Another reason is its speed. Any communication could reach audiences at almost the same instant as its publishing.
Sports marketing in social media is not a completely new concept. Basic marketing principles still apply. It is the medium that needs to be understood. It is not in any way the same as print, in much the same way that print is not the same as broadcast. Yet established marketing principles apply to both media. An understanding of social media is crucial for any company to succeed in its use.
Basic Marketing
Among the concepts of marketing that need to be remembered are those of the stakeholders and the product mix. Stakeholders would include not only a company’s customers but also its investors, suppliers, government, communities, among others. Each stakeholder would have different needs and use media differently. Also important to keep in mind are the dynamics in the product mix—product, price, place and promotion. There is an optimum combination in the mix to succeed in marketing.
Social media could actually be used to reach a company’s stakeholders at the same time. This is a matter a company should be watchful about. Communication messages need to be consistent and integrated.
Complementing Traditional Media
The vast reach of social media allow a company to fill in gaps in its marketing and communication campaign. It benefits the company by reducing costs in terms of staff time and by increasing the possibility of higher profits.
However, social media should not be substituted for traditional media. On the contrary, optimum savings and target audience reach can be accomplished only with a good combination of social and traditional media marketing efforts. It needs to be integrated to the media mix for success . This seems to particularly apply to sports marketing.
Awareness and Identity Building
As with any other media, social media’s most important and common use is to communicate with and deliver information to target audience. It could practically reach any stakeholder. Even in sites like Facebook and Twitter, it is the stakeholder that decides which information he will receive. It is a matter for the marketer to find which sites or information that the customer seeks so the marketer could reach him.
Interactivity, Portability and Real-time coverage
In a conference hosted by MIT Sloan , a panel of professional sports marketers that among the important reasons they use social media is because of its interactivity, portability and ability to provide real time coverage. Messages are brief. Unlike radio, it can be unintrusive to other people. The possibility of instant feedback also enable the marketer to make immediate adjustments to any communication or campaign as fast as possible.
Cost
Social media costs much less than traditional media to use especially with regard to its reach at cost per thousand. It is not necessarily less effective. On the contrary, because of its ability for interactivity and its portability, it can engage and involve customers for far longer than traditional media. This in turn could result in stronger brand awareness.
Research
One of the unique benefits of using social media is that it could allow users to conduct research at the same time and at a very fast pace, almost real time. Social media’s interactive capability and speed of reaching audience allow this to happen.
SEO
Presence in social media or in the internet would not matter if one does not apply principles of search engine optimization (SEO). One can be present in the net but no one would go to the site or even be aware of the site’s existence. SEO is process by which a site is provided with the means for search engine like Bing, Google and Yahoo! would be able to locate the site and show it in searches. It is accomplished in two ways: the use of keywords and the use of links.
Keywords are texts or phrases that searchers type to find specific information. The social media and other internet sites should contain the relevant words so search engines could locate them and thus show in search results. The texts on a site should contain as many relevant keywords as possible and use them repeatedly.
Meanwhile, links are those texts in websites that redirect a user to another site when clicked. The more links point to a site, the higher the chances of that site to appear higher in search engines.
Information that one can provide in social media could be very limited. One may not be allowed to sell products as these are not e-commerce or retail sites. Thus, one must use SEO to lead users to specific sites that would allow them to take particular actions—like buying one’s products.
Blogs and Websites
Before there was Facebook or Twitter, there were blogs and websites that marketers use to engage customers. These sites have not necessarily been put out of use. On the contrary, they have become useful as some kind of base that all other social media pages point to. A company can only have limited space or amount of words to use in social media sites. A company may not be allowed to design social media pages to meet its brand identity requirements. The solution to this is to have blogs and websites. These are actually the starting points of any internet or social media marketing.
Facebook is the largest social networking site today. It reaches more than 500 people above 13 years old as the site has set a minimum age limit.
It is also one truly global social media available 24 hours every day. Mashable sums up how some expert sports marketers have used Facebook to great success. Some of the steps these practitioners followed included: (1) inviting everyone the page could reach to the events; (2) using the medium 24 a day in full operation; (3) providing with exclusive content or being the first to upload information related to the sport; (4) using the athletes in the events for endorsements or news; and, (5) following a definite communication strategy for the medium. Facebook is not a localized medium and runs every hour every day. Any missed time can be a missed opportunity to reach people in certain parts of the world.
Sports social media marketers use Twitter because of its speed and portability. The network has space for only 140 characters. This is ideal for certain sports coverages. Consumers can be updated with information like scores in an on-going sports event. Its portability and ease of use in mobile phones and other devices allow consumers to obtain sports information wherever they may be.
YouTube
YouTube is another popular social media network. It is different from the others because it used to deliver video materials. It is all video with little space for text which is mainly used for feedback and interaction. It is designed to be used like television. Instead of pages, accounts are called channels where one can upload TV commercials, corporate audio-visual presentations, news reports, instructional and training videos, and anything as long as they are in video format. Advertisers are using it a support platform for television.
Participation and Ticket Sales
Social media has been evolving that it has not only become a tool to promote sports but also a way to deliver these events to the consumer. Consumers can watch sports or get updates through social media. It has revolutionized the way they purchase tickets to sports and other events. Costs are lower for both the customers and seller. There are also various channels through which tickets could be sold on the internet that marketers could easily avail themselves of instead of setting these outlets themselves.
E-Commerce and Store Traffic
Consumers move back and forth from one media to another and purchase goods from one kind of outlet to another. They do same thing within the internet. They move from one site to another to find what they are looking for. To succeed in social media, a company should have presence where the customer would likely be going. To increase sales or profits, a company must be able to catch the customer where he is and when he is ready to buy. A combination of the use of social media and traditional media in the marketing mix should thus be applied. The communication should be integrated so the brand would be top of mind when the consumer decides to buy. As important as communication, the brand should be present at e-commerce retail sites and at brick-and-mortar stores. Otherwise, all the marketing efforts would be worthless if the product is not available at a particular store when the customer decides to buy. (Google, ZMOT Handbook)
Real World Sports Marketing in Social
Sports have a strong presence in social media. As everyone else, many are present to promote their identity, events and products. Two of the most prominent brands are the Olympics and Nike.
London Olympics 2012
Of all the sports marketers on social media, the International Olympic Committee maximizes its utilization of the social media. It has its own website aside from the website of the ongoing London Olympics 2012. In addition, the IOC and the current event are present in various social media networks including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It uses social media to promote itself, its partners and its activities and at the same time to earn profits in the process. The Olympics is one of the biggest events form marketers—especial sports social media marketers—to watch for.
The IOC came out with a comprehensive guide to marketing targeted mainly to its sponsors and investors. The guide provides information about the sources of income for the event and how the IOC and the sponsors should apply the rules. The Olympics earn income from seven important sources: brand licensing and merchandising, broadcasting and digital media, sponsorship, licensing, ticketing and advertising. Each of these activities have different target audience at the spectator or audience and from the sponsor and invertor side. Thus, the IOC uses social media to communicate specific messages to different audiences for advertising itself, annual reports, announcements, bidding and planning reports for future Olympics, broadcast news coverage, post-events reports, pre-events promotion, schedules, sponsorship guides, ticket sales, travel guides, among many other things. The IOC uses the sites not only to promote itself but also its partners. Through research, the IOC was able to understand its customers and thus use social media properly .
Reversal of Approach
One of the most curious things that the organizers of the London Olympics 2012 did was to block social media sharing instead of spreading them. The IOC, London organizers and licensed sponsor and news carriers worked with some social media to stop unauthorized or unauthorized coverage of Olympic events to be uploaded in any social media or website. Sometimes, it is a sponsor that takes action or stops others from preventing others from uploading any material about the event. The IOC licensing agreement allowed sponsors to take actions themselves. The usual target are major news agencies. For instance, NBC—being one of the licensed broadcast networks to cover the events—took action to prevent BBC from uploading any news or video coverage of any kind on any social media or even on its own website. BBC coverage as a result were pulled down from the internet with a message that the material has been blocked. The blocking of materials seems to apply mainly on videos and not on still photos. Still, many uploaded videos on YouTube ‘been taken down with alacrity’ .
The London Olympics also came out with policies covering participating athletes. The athletes were not allowed to use Twitter for the duration of the Olympics and while they were staying at the hosted sites. It also has restrictions on the use of its brand identity. It simply does not allow anyone to use or the display them publicly.
One can observe how the Olympics observe its own policies to protect its investors and sponsors interests in the way it utilizes social media. During the two-week Olympiad, it uploaded coverages of events only after they have taken place and presumably after their licensed users have already broadcast or uploaded them. Still, while it shared materials on its own sites, it did not allow others to do so. Instead, it provided links to sharers that would lead viewers back to its social media sites or direct them to licensed producers of materials. Historical or old materials were allowed to be shared however as a way of promoting the ongoing Olympiad.
Understandably, the moves were intended to protect IOC’s profits and the interests of paying sponsors. As the discussion at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference mentioned, it is very important that news media or reporters be the first to report events. That would allow them to capture a bigger audience in social media. At the same time, such restrictions and actions would protect the Olympics profitability. They would lead to audiences going to the authorized sites or even attending the events themselves at the venues. As a result, both the interests and profitability of the sponsors and the Olympics are protected.
The London 2012 Olympics has been touted as a success. Apparently, its efforts—especially with regard to social media—have been effective.
Nike
Like the Olympics, Nike is a global brand. Social media is particularly important to the company because it has a global audience and can reach many of the company’s stakeholders—customers, investors, governments, among others. It maximizes linkages through SEO among the sites so an interested customer can be led to appropriate action. Unlike the Olympics however, Nike is selling sportswear and not events. It uses social media mainly for marketing and promotions and not to earn profits directly from their use. It also allows its viewers to freely share of its uploaded materials as a visit to its YouTube site would demonstrate.
Early on, before there was Facebook or YouTube, Nike has been using social media to promote its advocacies, brand, image, corporate performance and products. It produces material specifically for use on social media. It has a deep appreciation and understanding how social media works. The company tries to connect not only with its customers but also with athletes who in turn could further promote Nike. It has succeeded in developing social network at both the local and international level so it could connect with its target audiences at specific geographic locations.
Aside from having its own blog and websites, Nike is present in the most popular social networks including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace aside from its websites.It uses the social media site in much the same way as the Olympics does: advertising; investor relations; promotion of advocacies, brand and products; research and interacting with customers; sponsorship programs; training and development of athletes; among others.
Nike recognizes that its target customers—the youth—are heavy social media users. So, it has shifted its budget from traditional media—particularly television—to social media. It has significantly reduced its presence on television. It has increased the share of social media to 40% (from zero more than a decade ago when social media did not really exist) thereby increasing its revenues by about 30%.
Conclusion
While marketing in social media follows the same principles as marketing in traditional media, it demands a deep understanding of a company’s stakeholders especially in their use of new media. It also requires an understanding of the dynamics involved in audience’s use of the media. Social media opens many possibilities, even real time interaction with audiences. It also reaches a far wider audience than any traditional media could. Success in the use of social media come only with the proper investment and strategy as the Olympics and Nike have demonstrated. Its application to sports marketing works in much the same way to its application for any product. It is the understanding of target audiences and the media itself that matters. The chief distinction of sports social marketing is chiefly that the product being marketed pertains to sport and associations with it.
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