Social media has rapidly changed the many ways in which fans can engage with sport and make it an even more important aspect of their lives. Information through apps, viewing of events through tablets and mobile phones and sharing of comment and opinion via facebook and twitter have radically stepped up the influence of fans on the commercial direction of teams and, to a large degree, in the opposite direction as well.
Previously brands that sponsored in sport were forced to rely on sentiment surveys and brand building as the primary metrics of how successful they were being.  Everything on that front has changed.
The strength of sport is the depth to which fans see their team or sport as being important to them.  In other forms of entertainment the attraction is more fleeting whether that be through the launch of a blockbuster movie, a concert or a one off event.  Sport sits across the milestones of fans lifetimes, starting afresh each season or each sporting cycle, giving renewed impetus and hope to fans of those teams who do not hit the heights and repetition of those highs for fans of winning teams.  Sports fans rarely if ever simply lose interest.
This season in the NFL, Procter and Gamble have put their social media activation investment into a programme called fan-cestry.  A dedicated website with multiple touch points into social media enables fans to intertwine important moments in their own life history with those of their favourite teams.
Ask any fan when they attended their first game and they will know.  Many more will know what happened to their team the year they got married, the year they were born, the year they sat their leaving certificate or any other key moments.
Fan-cestry enables you to build a profile through your facebook activity but also by answering questions on the rituals that surround your participation as a fan.
On registration you are asked a series of simple and relevant questions that reveal rich data about you as a fan and most importantly as a sponsor on who you are and how you are best marketed to.
The key to successful marketing is increasingly in very specifically targeted communication.  If a business knows what you do in the build up to a live or televised game, where you watch it, whether you are in a group or on your own and what your preferred half time beverage is, they know enough to market to you.
Procter and Gamble provide the ‘official locker room products’ to the NFL.  The brands they attach to Fan-cestry include Gillette, Head and Shoulders, Duracell, Old Spice, and Tide.  It will be interesting to watch how the programme develops.  At present they have attracted 25,000 likes on facebook which is a reasonable start only part way through the first season but could be a lot bigger.
The first two of the five brands have been very deliberately targeted to a sports audience in recent years.  Young males are the hardest target to reach in marketing and sport is the preferred vehicle with which to do so.
“We are engaging fans of America’s favourite sport in a way that is relevant and meaningful to them,” said Anne Westbrook, Communications leader, US ports marketing at P&G. “Fan-cestry is a platform to unite all types of NFL fans, from those who have never attended a game to those who live and breathe their team colours. These fans share a common bond of loyalty and fandom for the sport, and that is what Fan-cestry is all about.”
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