17. Fan Engagement changes from sport to sport

The way you shop for clothes is different to the way you shop for groceries. The criteria and selection process you have for buying a jacket or a pair of shoes is no where close to the process you have for buying bread, milk or even meat. Similarly, no individual consumes two different sport in the same manner. A person may follow more than 1 sport but he will never consume 2 sports in the same way. Different sports trigger different sets of emotions in an individual and hence the different ways they engage with different sport.

For example, someone who watches a football game every weekend with friends in a sports bar or arena while having a few beers, can also be someone who sits alone in front of a screen on a Sunday morning and watch a game of chess or golf. Engagement strategies planned for a football fan will have to be different to those of a tennis fan or golf fan or even boxing fan.

Another important factor that changes within a single sports is the geography and culture. For example, baseball as we all know is one of the biggest sport in the USA. But it is also the most followed sport in Japan and second most followed sport in South Korea. But, as a baseball team you cannot expect to engage fans from the USA in the same way you engage fans from Japan or South Korea and vice versa.

Similarly, games like baseball and cricket are very heavily reliant on data and analytics and hence offering more visible data for the fans to engage with during live gameplay is a good way of engagement. Same cannot be applied for a game like golf or boxing. Although secondary screens are indeed becoming a part of how sports are consumed in the 21st century, how the second screen is used changes from sport to sport. It is here that the key to a successful engagement strategy lies. To identify what your fans need and give it to them. It may be betting in one sport, fantasy gaming for the other. It maybe data based analysis for one, it maybe just community networking via social media for the other.

This is only for matchday though, you need to also understand what are the best ways to engage your fans on non match days as well. It is extremely important that no matter what you listen to your fans, and understand their needs, you fulfill them in a way that's enjoyable to them and also shareable. So that it creates enough social media impact for you. You need to also acknowledge, thank and reward your fans. You need to collaborate with your partners to create incredible experiences for your fans. And lastly, you need to collect as much data as possible, tailor it and offer it to your fans in the best way that suits them.