Marketing In Sports: COVID 19 Style

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected businesses across the globe. Sadly, industries such as live events and sports marketing have been hit hard, due to the nation being confined to their homes for the last four months. Therefore, Digital Marketers in the sporting world have been forced to pivot their approaches to engage fans that are viewing the events from home.

Until a vaccine is available, we can expect to see empty stadiums for the foreseeable. This is hard news for digital marketers in the sporting world. In fact, 40 percent say that live events are the most important marketing channel for them.

Even before the pandemic, the sports market and broadcasting landscape was shifting. With so many people cutting the cord on cable and slowly moving to other online environments, such as Twitter and YouTube.

The ability to adopt Virtual and Immersive Technologies is key. Virtual technologies and e-sports present opportunities for leagues and media partners to reach fans in new ways. Immersive technologies can help fans replicate the experience of attending live games without actually doing so.

A brilliant example of utilising virtual technologies is premier League clubs giving their supporters the chance to appear on a live video fan wall that was streamed into stadiums to minimise the impact of games having to be played behind closed doors.

Virtual Reality (VR) technology could be used to help impose or mimic the experience of being in the stadium for fans. An example of this can be seen with Nascar’s iRacing, which is a simulation platform.

Until restrictions are lifted entirely, it’s important that digital marketers in the sports industry allocate their budgets accordingly, with a particular emphasis on exploring new types of content and channels, diversifying investment and partnership opportunities, and adopting immersive and virtual technologies.

Do you have any questions or opinions about the future of digital marketing for sporting games and events? Let us know!