Sports are bigger and more popular than ever, and with the new attention focused on women’s sports thanks to players like Caitlin Clark and others, this industry is only expanding. In-game ad revenue from Super Bowl LVIII was estimated to be around $650 million, and a 30-second spot in next year’s game is expected to cost a cool $7 million. Sports are one of the few major industries that has something big going on somewhere almost all year and a variety of audiences to target at any given time. Case in point: Football season has started for NFL and college football fans, and at the same time, baseball fans are glued to their streaming devices, wondering if the Yankees or the Dodgers will win the World Series.
The takeaway: From pickleball to pro football, there’s something for just about everyone in the world of sports, and sports marketing is only expected to get bigger. Not only are women’s sports starting to be taken more seriously by networks like ESPN, but recent articles have noted that CMOs are working to turn teams into lifestyle brands. Sports are, in a word, huge.
To make a game-day ad spend or marketing campaign successful, you need to make sure you’re targeting the right audiences. After all, not all sports fans are the same. Below, we’ll go into some of the highly nuanced and detailed insights rAI, the Resonate AI-powered data engine, can provide about football fans alone.
Monday Night Football Fans Love Fantasy Football & Golfing
Fans of Monday Night Football have a couple of sports-related hobbies as well: According to rAI, when they’re not watching football, they’re playing fantasy football, trying to parlay a small amount into big winnings with a few well-placed bets, or out on the golf course. They’re also online a lot: 57% spend 20 or more hours a week on the internet. And while their top paid streaming subscription is, rather unsurprisingly, ESPN+, they also subscribe to Showtime, Apple TV+, and Starz.
So, if you’re targeting these fans outside of their usual sports networks, an ad on Showtime or a fantasy football site that shows people golfing will be highly likely to get their attention.
Thursday Night Football Fans Buy Fanatics Clothing & Drive Hondas
If you’d guessed that Thursday Night Football watchers’ love of the game infuses other areas of their life besides what they choose to watch on TV, you’d be right. The number one apparel retailer this audience shops at is Fanatics, which describes itself as the “ultimate” supplier of fan gear and sports clothing. And when these consumers travel—whether it’s to a game or for another reason—Southwest and Allegiant Air are their top airlines and Holiday Inn and Quality Inn Hotels are their preferred choices for lodging.
Want to reach this audience? Partnering with one of their top hotel or airline choices or even with Fanatics for a marketing campaign could be a great idea.
NFL Fans Use LinkedIn, Value Dependability, & Watch Peacock Premium
According to rAI, consumers who consider themselves fans of the NFL are pretty sports-oriented: For instance, their top TV networks are Fox Sports 1, ESPNews, Fox Sports 2, the Golf Channel, and the NFL Network. But there are a number of other insights rAI provides that just may surprise you. LinkedIn is tied with X (formerly known as Twitter) for the most-used social media site among NFL fans, and they enjoy reading their local paper, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. Their top psychological drivers are an optimistic outlook, trust from others, and devotion to their faith. Campaigns that incorporate elements with these psychological drivers in mind and that are placed in, say, USA Today or on LinkedIn will do well in getting the attention of this audience.
Want to learn expert tips to ensure your big-game ad spend is a success? Watch a brand-new webinar featuring Resonate and LERMA, the agency behind the most-watched video ad in the history of the Super Bowl.
