With the overall North American sports market projected to surpass $83 billion in value this year, the sports industry is showing little sign of slowing down.
If anything, digitization is shaking up every aspect of the sports marketing industry, transforming fan engagement with the advent of second-screen experiences, sports betting, NFTs, mixed reality, and metaverse activations. Fans now have a plethora of options for consuming and interacting with sports content, including streaming, broadcast, owned mobile apps, virtual worlds, online gaming, contests and promotions and, of course, social media.
In this evolving space, sports organizations are reinventing themselves as multi-channel media companies, delivering always-on, platform-based experiences to their audiences. This prompts sports marketers to become ever more sophisticated in how they approach fandom and the business of sports.
How do brands navigate through this digitally supercharged sports marketing industry? We’ve put together a primer on current sports marketing trends and key plays to watch out for as the sports marketing industry evolves in 2024 and beyond.
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Mixed Reality ‘Wow’ Moments
The rise of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality opens up fresh opportunities for enriching the fan experience. With Apple launching its AR-VR blended headset alongside a slew of software and services, fans will soon be able to tap into immersive mixed-reality entertainment synced with live games on their devices.
Digital Stadiums
Venues and leagues are increasingly integrating technologies that provide compelling features and enhance the in-stadium experience to keep fans coming back. In 2023, expect advanced 5G applications that allow frictionless mobile ticketing and stadium entry, smart signage and live stats, drones that capture athlete POVs and different game angles, and even checkout-less ordering and retail.
Phygital (Physical-Digital) Merchandising
Phygital retail, which combines virtual and physical reality elements, is seeing growth in the sports industry. Fans will increasingly be able to purchase clothing items and other merchandise that unlock digital experiences and content, or vice versa. Nike has already begun to embrace this particular sports marketing trend, and other global brands could soon follow suit.
Digital Collectibles
The success of Baseball cards and similar tradeables have shown that sports fans are collectors at heart. With blockchain-based authentication of originality and ownership, NFTs have revolutionized the world of collecting, allowing issuers-- typically leagues, teams or individual athletes — to receive royalties based on resales. The most expensive NFT in the world is a digital statue of LeBron James, which sold for a record-setting US$21.6m, and the global NFT sports collectibles market is forecast to reach US$92 billion by 2032.
NFT tickets are also on the horizon, offering the possibility of unlocking unique benefits for fans, like exclusive access to events, merchandise, and other real and virtual offerings. We've seen NFTs receive a mixed reception in other industries (notably gaming). It'll be fascinating to see how these sports marketing trend evolves.
Fan Ownership
The expanding capabilities of NFTs and blockchain technology give the sports marketing industry and individual brands a whole new toolset. It gives fans some ‘skin in the game’, sparking more investment – literally – in their favorite athletes and teams. The development of dynamic NFTs is one of the more enticing tools, as it allows for continually updated performance metrics that increase (or decrease) the value of the NFT in line with the player’s (or team’s) performance.
Enhance Matchday Engagement:
The matchday experience has evolved in recent years thanks to social media. From tweets to short-form video and highlight reels before, during, and after a match, the matchday experience has become a vital content-creation opportunity in the sports marketing industry to keep fans engaged. These digital exchanges also appear to be shaping expectations around the live broadcasts, as 55% of Gen Zers expect to see and interact with live statistics during play.
Curate Consistent Non-Matchday Content:
Sports fans have increased appetites for non-live content related to sports events, teams, and leagues. Social feeds and brand interactions that regularly update fans with non-matchday content including “On This Day” throwbacks, interviews with athletes, training highlights, draft updates, behind the scenes clips etc. are now the expectation – not the exception.
Contests, Sweeps and Promotions:
Enter-to-win consumer promotions, digital giveaways, sweepstakes and contests that unlock exclusive content are great ways to capitalize on this sports marketing trend. They enable you to collect customer data in exchange for meaningful rewards.
Loyalty Membership:
With the pandemic having inhibited live event attendance, sports organizations began to rely more on customer loyalty programs to maintain contact with fans. This gave birth to its own sports marketing trend, as many teams have already started to consider how collectible NFTs and tokens could be evolutions and enhancements of traditional loyalty programs. For example, virtual ‘loyalty’ tokens could allow special access during games, collective input on non-strategic team decisions, and one-of-a-kind opportunities to engage with teams, athletes, and other fans – even within the metaverse.
There’s no doubt that the sports world is changing drastically to meet enhanced fan expectations.
More than anything else, these sports marketing trends tell us that fans want more choice in how they engage with their favorite sports, and in what manner. ‘Anywhere, Anytime, Anyplace’ – those are becoming the dictums of sports content, and with it, sports marketing.
In addition, increasingly personalized fan interactions, new models of investment, immersive virtual environments, and purpose-driven marketing are leading some of the key sports marketing trends for 2023-2024.
For brands and marketers seeking sure footing in the face of these digitally-driven headwinds, first-party data collection will become a major priority as advances in AI and web3 will offer new ways to enrich the fan experience.
As these technologies continue to enter the mainstream, we can expect their further integration into the sports marketing environment, enabling viewers to become enthusiastic fans – and, potentially, collective investors in the teams and athletes they support.
Looking for more sports marketing tactics? See our Examples of Sports Marketing.