Experience Matters

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Do you remember the early days of fantasy football? It was mostly reserved for geeks who poured over research in specialty magazines with a ruler and a pencil. I think it is fair to say that times have changed. There is still a legion of geeks, but it has expanded to almost anyone who follows the sport, yours truly included. The season kicks off with a draft where these fans sit around someone’s basement table drinking beers and debating just how good Stephen Jackson is (very disappointing season) and if Peyton Manning is worth taking in the first round (he is not). The big difference, however, is that the fans of today have disposable income. And where there is disposable income brands are sure to follow.

I am an avid player of fantasy sports, participating in baseball, basketball and football. While I am engaged in baseball and basketball, my involvement in football has reached the point of an unhealthy obsession. And while I firmly believe this unhealthy obsession will eventually require professional therapy and may seem odd to my wife or you, the reader, it is very much welcomed by some well known and well admired brands. A quick tour around some of the most popular sites reveals the following brands spending big dollars: Toyota, GMC, Wendy’s, Coke and Bank of America to name a few.

These companies are ponying up hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for a presence in content that is quickly proving to be some of the most attractive for men 18-34. Frequency levels can reach 7x what other sports related content areas can produce. Players return to the site, on average, between 10-12 times per week and spend roughly 25 minutes on the site at each session. These are metrics un-matched by any other environment on the Internet, save the in box. And in addition to all of the time they spend on the sites that manage their league, they spend infinitely more time on what they call “research sites.” This is content like analyst blogs and independent third party sites like www.footballguys.com or www.rotowire.com.

As a marketer, I understand why these brands and others would gravitate towards the channel and these metrics. But as a player I can guarantee that if an eye tracking study were performed on these sites it would reveal very little recognition of those placements. Players are on those sites for one thing and one thing only – to manage their teams. It’s a game of commentary, stats and research. There’s money, and bragging rights on the line. You’re in the hunt for the right insight to help you pick the winners. You’re time pressed, but focused. And you are under pressure. A lot of pressure. You don’t want the rookie owner to beat you this week because you failed to learn that Willie Parker hasn’t had a good game against Jacksonville in three years. Will you dive into the research right away, or will you abandon your search for a chance to win a trip to Hawaii or watch the new Mac/PC video? The answer is obvious. Those fanatical fans will focus on their task, rather than the surrounding marketing messages.

Does this mean that marketers should avoid the content all together? Of course not. There is value in the association and even the brand impression. But as we are firmly entrenched in Web 2.0 and moving past that, it makes sense to explore adjacent environments to the league sites themselves.

Help the fan find the time and tools to manage their team. The process requires frequent line up monitoring, scanning injury reports and reviewing player rankings. The fan needs to make changes on the fly and get information regardless of where they are . And how might a marketer take advantage of this?

• How about providing free wi-fi in sports bars on Sunday?
• How about producing a digital preview show that I can access on my phone?
• How about partnering with one of the publishers to produce a floating widget that would follow me around the web, with my permission of course, and provide me with constant updates on just my team?
• How about SMS messages that alert me to hot news affecting my team? 

These are all great examples of functional context to help the fan stay in the game. And they are excellent digital brand engagement opportunities beyond brand impressions. So if you are looking for a contextually relevant environment in which to place your brand, you could do a lot worse than the fantasy sports arena. Go beyond the banner and tap into the addictive behavior of this audience. Addicts make good consumers , though marketers prefer to refer to them as “advocates”.

Now you will have to excuse me. I have an appointment with my therapist. I need to know if I should start Ryan Grant or Earnest Graham this weekend. I’m sure he will ask me about my childhood before he answers the question.