The global sports audience is "more powerful than ever," having doubled in size to 113 million people since '13, according to Alex Goode of EVENT MAGAZINE. A report by Repucom "shone a light on the two groups of fans sorely overlooked by the experiential events market." Termed "busy" and "cynical," these fans are distinguishable by their "lack of engagement with sports activations." Yet their interest in the sporting world is "still prevalent." The question as to whether these fans are worth a percentage of the marketing budget "is one worth exploring." Making up a total of 29% of the 8,000-plus fans that Repucom surveyed last year, "busy and cynical fans are connected by a moderate interest in sport." Repucom Global Head of Research Mike Wragg said that these fan groups "only have one or two obstacles to overcome in order to further their engagement with sport." Though the report noted that busy fans "are not active media users for the sport that they follow," Wragg pointed out that their social media habits outside of sport are "likely to be more normal." Unlike busy fans, cynical fans have the time to engage with sport but believe it has become over-commercialized, "making them less likely to engage with brand activations." More than half of this fan group is also over the age of 50, so it does not "respond well to social media or celebrity campaigns." Cynical fans may not trust sponsorship "but they do accept the need for it," suggesting they may be targeted with activations by sponsors who are "putting fans, not their brands, first." Despite the fact that more than half of fans that were identified as busy (58%) or cynical (52%) were also female, the "misconception that women do not engage with sport is still preventing brands from creating appropriate sports activations." Women have an equal, if not greater, presence among all the seven behavior groups, showing them to be "some of the most interested and most promising sports fans" (EVENT MAGAZINE, 9/15).
