Social media has become much more than a buzzword. It is now becoming a part of team’s DNA, according to Bryan Sabrian, Director of Digital Media for the San Francisco Giants. The new question is not whether social media is here to stay but rather how do teams and brands monetize the new social assets? Moreover, how does one value the assets?
The new social media habits of fans, and particularly sports fans, should be viewed as being far more valuable than they currently are in many of the sponsorship deals that are agreed to every day. Social media is often treated as a “Value add” that is thrown into a larger package. However, social media can be far more valuable than that.
Earlier this year, Navigate Research and Wasserman Media Group undertook the largest survey of the habits of social media amongst sports fans and how those habits impact things like purchase lift, brand awareness and more. In addition to these insights, it also helps to value and determine a relative CPM for social media within a sponsorship deal.
One of the many key insights within the study is that social media can be an extremely valuable asset because it is not only the cheapest on a CPM basis but also has a very high purchase lift effect. Social media is one of the most effective spends a brand or organization can make within a sponsorship deal. It is often still best executed when packaged with other assets, but its value is much more than a throw in to sweeten a deal.
Some other key stats from the study:
- 91% of sports fans use social media on a daily basis
- 64% of sports fans leverage a smartphone/tablet for social media.
- 30% of fans leverage social media while WATCHING events. But, social media usage is higher when attending a live event/game
Social media is a two-way street. Brands no longer get to project a message with no response intended or possible. Instead, brands, teams, and organizations alike should embrace social media as a direct line to its most valuable consumers.
Creating fantastic content on social media and then co-branding it between a sponsor and a property is an ideal scenario in which social media can be properly leveraged as an asset.
Here are some great activation of sponsorship through social media:
- AOL partnered with Phil Jackson by creating a funny first, jarbled Twitter post and later posting a video explanation.
- Capital One is using the hashtag #rallycry to generate identify fans’ favorite March Madness teams, and the most tweets overall will result in a completely team branded C1 home page.
- AT&T utilized Twitter effectively to capitalize on its partnership with the NCAA.