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While sports fans are one of the most engaged audiences out there, brands are often not sealing the deal when it comes to making a meaningful connection with them.
A new report from MikeWorldWide looks at how well brands in five major industries (automotive, casual dining, CPG, financial services and footwear) are doing at leveraging the emotional commitment that sports fans feel for their teams, as well as using it to help develop a similar commitment to their products.
The report, a collaboration with BERA.ai, looked at brands across six areas, including cultural relevance, emotional connection and societal commitment. It then suggests strategies that brands can use to sharpen their strategies.
Footwear emerged as the winner, ranking either at or near the top in all six categories. Calling the category “the benchmark for how to connect,” the study says that footwear brands “participate in culture, collaborate with athletes and influencers, and create moments that fans want to share.”
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To keep their edge, footwear brands should form “even deeper collaboration—with fans, communities and creators—and from products and stories that continue to reflect what it means to belong.”
The CPG and automotive sectors were also relatively strong performers, but the study did find room for improvement.
While noting that automotive brands “lead the way in standing out and innovating with purpose,” they can come up short in emotional connection and societal commitment. Because of that they are seen as not reflecting the kind of loyalty and shared identity that are so important to sports fans.
To fix that problem, the study authors suggest that automotive brands draw a clear line between their technical innovations and the “real-life journeys” of sports fans. “The goal isn’t to stop impressing, but to start relating.”
For CPG brands, emotional connections are a big plus, far outranking brands in the other sectors. However, they are not thought of as game changers, and because of that the study sees a danger that they will be seen as having “no spark, no surprise, no reason for fans to choose them over competitors beyond habit and availability.”
Overall, the study says that there is much more than just media spend and visibility that brands in all sectors need to think about when making the play for sports fans. According to MWW president Bret Werner, success with sports fans takes “understanding fan culture, participating authentically in it, and building relationships that extend beyond transactions.”
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