Whenever the football season hits, people often expect the Super Bowl to be filled to the brim with NFL fans anticipating their favorite NFL players. But in reality, it’s not just avid fans on the lookout for the season, it’s also marketers in an array of industries looking to make a winning touchdown.
In comparison to other sports leagues, nobody does marketing better than the National Football League Season does. With a complete 365 days worth of events, it has become the most profitable and relevant sporting event in the history of the world, always maintaining a sense of relevancy no matter the season.
That being said, brands spend much of their time planning their respective NFL marketing strategies. This is because the sports marketing NFL media and the brand itself have created platform companies that have a hard time resisting. Let’s run through a couple “plays” all marketers can learn from.
MAKINGS OF A MAJOR MARKETING PLATFORM
The NFL kept its fans on their toes for brand new viewing experiences each year. For instance, the sports league collaborated with Yahoo in live streaming back in 2015. Additionally, live streams were also made available on NFL Mobile, Network Watch App, NFL Now, and NFL Game Pass.
The following year, they partnered with social media platform Twitter in streaming ten Thursday Night Football matches. These two campaigns showcase the ability of the sports league to have a presence on every platform or channel available to them.
Having several avenues allows a brand to consistently share content with its targeted audiences. The more you put things in front of people, in more places, the more conversions your brand will have.
ENGAGING WITH THE FOOTBALL COMMUNITY
As all good marketers know, consistency is key to branding success. And though the NFL’s teams have their own look and feel to them, the products they use support the overarching brand of the sports league. Brands must keep their brand identity in mind in creating and promoting products or services. They should work on building a strong brand that their consumers can identify with. It is important to use social listening tools or analytics to understand where their viewers are coming from, what they care about, and when.
CONSISTENCY IN PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
With these important factors in mind, sports brands should keep their focus on building sturdy relationships with their consumers before expanding further.
Taking a look at what the NFL did, changes occurred after they met their initial goal. While it may be true that it took them a while to get to where they are now, the time they spent on their foundation was met with great success.
MAKING A SUCCESSFUL PLAY
So, let’s discuss how to make a winning play in the marketing superbowl. There are a few key steps.
Step 1: Plan in Advance
Time is on your side when you start early enough. Planning for a 3-4 month window and developing a “launch plan” to ensure you meet milestones in a timely manner and course correct strategy if needed.
Step 2: Do your Research
Social listening, analytics, and competitor research is your best friend when you are planning a marketing campaign. Keeping an ear to the ground and asking questions to customers, colleagues, and beyonds will help you tailor your content and make sure what you bring to the table is relevant and engaging.
Step 3: Know when to Quit (Pivot)
Lastly, identify threshold metrics that tell you and your fellow marketers when to “pull the plug”. While it seems like this is an intrinsically negative mindset, it’s a good idea to conserve financial resources when ROI is below what is anticipated. Rather than viewing it as a loss, it is helpful to view it as a way to pivot to more successful marketing activities.
If you are looking to revamp your marketing playbook, or are starting from square one, My Social Biz is here to assist you throughout your entire process. We specialize in establishing social media accounts that engage and delight, blogs that inspire and inform, and paid media that brings in new conversions daily. As the holidays approach there is no better time to start then now – reach out to Neil Okun at neil@mysocialbiz.net for a free consultation today!