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Marketing to female fans in a post-passion-shift world

It used to be easy for sports marketers to reach fans — regardless of whether they were male or female — because they were all in the same places.

If you were a fan you had a very limited number of ways to engage with a sport and sports content; you could go to the game, you could watch it on TV, you could listen to it on the radio, you could play the sport, or you could read about it in print media. The number of content sources was finite, which made life easy for brands to reach fans through mass media.

The Passion Shift

Today, advances in mobile technology coupled with the rapid adoption of digital and social media has provided fans with an almost infinite number of ways to engage with their content of choice. The good news for our industry is that when you give consumers choices, they tend to choose what they care passionately about, and sports is one of those passions.

The complexity of fan consumption behavior in this relatively new world of choice is both a challenge and an

opportunity for marketers. This shift from a world of mass media to a world of consumer choice is The Passion Shift.

Octagon recently conducted a large-scale consumer research project to explore The Passion Shift. We surveyed more than 6,000 sports fans — including 3,000 female fans — across 12 different sports in the United States.

We set out to map how fans are using technology to feed their passion for sports. The research tracked what platforms fans are using, what types of information they want, who they’re following on social media, what types of promotional offers they’ve responded to, and how sponsorship affects their purchase behavior.

So what does the Passion Shift research tell us about female fans?

“Interactive” is the new “avid”

Similar to our findings among male fans, the first finding from our Passion Shift research was that “avid” fans are not necessarily who brands want to be targeting.

While self-reported avidity is a good predictor of how predisposed a fan is to “brand love” (defined as a fans’ likelihood to support, try, switch,or feel more loyal to a brand as a result of that brand’s sponsorship investment), our research has identified a better target that is more predisposed to sponsor brands and easier to target than self-reported “avid fans.”

We developed a behavioral segmentation that identified eight different types of fans: from “Couch Potato” to “Super Fan” based on the level of interactivity of sports fans.

When we did a side-by-side comparison of level of interactivity versus self-reported avidity for female fans, our research revealed that a fan’s level of interactivity (from our behavioral segmentation) is a better predictor of how likely a fan is to change her purchase behavior as a result of a brand’s sponsorship.

So, not only is level of interactivity more predictive than self-reported avidity, it is also easier for brands to specifically target those interactive female fans.

Real-time marketing to female viewers

The second important finding was that female fans are more likely than male fans to use a second screen while they are watching sports, but much of that activity is non-game-related.

Percentage male NFL fans that use second screen while watching NFL on TV = 63%
Percentage female NFL fans that use second screen while watching NFL on TV = 68%

However, 50 percent of female NFL fans report using a second screen to enhance their in-home NFL viewing experience with game-related activity. This percentage is the same as among male NFL fans.

Percentage male NFL fans that use second screen for game-related activity while watching NFL on TV = 50%
Percentage female NFL fans that use second screen for game-related activity while watching NFL on TV = 50%

From a marketing perspective, this finding is interesting because real-time digital and social media marketing offers a valuable opportunity for brands to connect with interactive female fans during sports broadcasts.

Real-time marketing to female attendees

While female fans are significantly less likely to use their mobile device at the game to check stats, female MLB fans are more likely than male fans to be using their mobile device for social media activities at the stadium.

Percentage male MLB fans that use mobile device at the ballpark to check information/stats/etc. = 29%
Percentage female MLB fans that use mobile device at the ballpark to check information/stats/etc. = 14%
Percentage male MLB fans that use mobile device at the ballpark to post to social media sites = 35%
Percentage female MLB fans that use mobile device at the ballpark to post to social media sites = 38%

So, from a property and sponsor perspective, there is an opportunity to engage female fans with your brand and create social media advocates while at the ballpark.

The power of the interactive female fan

Interactive fans provide opportunities for real-time marketing.
Photo by: Getty Images

As mentioned earlier, digital, social and mobile platforms represent environments that have a disproportionate number of fans that are predisposed to support sponsoring brands. For example, 80 percent of interactive female NASCAR fans report they are more likely to try a brand as a result of their NASCAR sponsorship (compared to 49 percent of female NASCAR fans).

Percentage female NASCAR fans overall that report they are more likely to try a brand as a result of a brand’s NASCAR sponsorship = 49%
Percentage interactive female NASCAR fans that report they are more likely to try a brand as a result of a brand’s NASCAR sponsorship = 80%

So not only do digital, social and mobile platforms offer more flexibility in messaging, they also provide a target-rich audience of fans that are more predisposed to reward brands that add value to the fan experience.

In today’s Passion Shift world, brands have a new, actionable target demographic. Reaching interactive female fans provides an environment for brands to reach and leverage consumers through their passion for sports.

Simon Wardle is the chief strategy officer for Octagon. He can be reached at simon.wardle@octagon.com.

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