The pandemic has accelerated a tidal change in the insights industry: the automation and democratization of insights to allow complex organizations to learn, adapt, and act at the speed of consumers in a digital era. No industry has felt this more than sports entertainment, where attitudes and behaviors have shifted overnight, and fast, no-touch research is critical for adapting and staying relevant.
In this webinar, Philip Denis of Linkfluence and Renata Policicio of ESPN join Joe Londergan of Front Office Sports to examine what’s happening now and how brands are adapting to the need for real-time insights.
Edited highlights appear below:
On creating the experience of the NBA bubble (7:24)
Policicio: “The big mandate has always been, since the big beginning of the discussion, to really put the consumer in the center of everything. It was all about customer centricity, right? How can fans be center stage? How can we consider their desires, their expectations and make sure we provided the best experience, of course, in a safe way for our own staff or athletes, but showing the fan experience is really the most important part for us?”
On why “The Last Dance” was so successful (30:40)
Policicio: “It builds relate-ability, which we know is key in storytelling. It builds relate-ability with fans in a super authentic way and in every aspect of the story…the first [aspect] to build relate-ability is really showing Jordan, showing the superhuman, in a more human light. And that is so inspirational, right? So, Jordan during his whole career, specifically about the last season of that amazing group with the Bulls and their last championship, but throughout his career, we can see the struggles, the frustrations that he faced. He actually thought about quitting. And, spoiler alert, he does and he gets back and he goes to baseball and he gets back again. But we see that idol, that superhuman, in a more human light and that’s so inspiring and relatable.”
On social media “tribes” (34:40)
Denis: “A tribe is a group of social profiles representing a psychographic approach to segments. So it’s not just about demographics, age, sex, and so forth. These are a group of people that are united by interests. And in this case, we identified a number of tribes prior to the airing of “The Last Dance” and analyze how they watched, responded to, and responded to the show and what it meant to them.”
What changes do you look for in casual fans as they convert to die-hard fans? (54:39)
Denis: “From a social intelligence and data perspective, it’s watching them over time. We’re also going back and looking at historical data. 12 months before, those tribe members, what were they doing? What were they into? And that’s how we’re able to know if they were diehard fans or not. And then seeing them, the progression as we start watching the show as the show ends. Are they still speaking about these things? Do they even care about sports anymore? Or was it just something to pass the time? And we’re seeing a huge group of these fans who never talked about sports before, or like, ‘Oh man, I can’t wait until the NBA comes back’ and you’re like, ‘you’ve never watched an NBA game in your life’ so that’s really been interesting.”
