3 Strategies to Leverage Social Media During Major Sporting Events

For viewers of major sporting events like the NFL Super Bowl and the College Football Playoffs, watching the commercials is just as much a part of the spectacle as the game itself. Big-name brands spend millions of dollars on a thirty-second spot for exactly this reason, but television isn’t the only medium for brands to make an impression on viewers. Given these staggering statistics on the ubiquity of social media usage, brands can— and should— connect with consumers on social media platforms.

Here are just three strategies to effectively leverage social media marketing during sporting events:

User-Generated Content

Leaving it to consumers to create marketing content is one of the easiest ways to generate buzz. Prior to the 2014 Super Bowl, Doritos held a month-long contest asking fans to submit self-produced commercial videos to air as Doritos’ official commercial submission. It created major buzz on Facebook, accumulating over 46,000 Facebook Likes on its finalist announcement alone. The creator of the winning “Time Machine” spot received one million dollars and the commercial was shown at the Super Bowl, earning the winner as well as the Doritos brand a greater following. Heineken used a similar strategy with its “Crack the US Open” Instagram campaign, offering a pair of tickets to the US Open final to the Instagram user who finished a series of puzzles in the shortest amount of time.

Real-Time Engagement

Of all the brands featured during the 2014 Super Bowl, it was Oreo that arguably stole the show with its now viral Tweet. As the stadium’s 30-minute blackout halted the event and the viewers’ ’second screen’ became the primary focus of attention, Oreo seized the opportunity to engage Twitter users live. The Tweet wasn’t terribly innovative or eye-catching, but it was completely relevant to the moment for thousands of Twitter users. Real-time social media updates like Oreo’s Tweet are especially important for sporting events in which every move and every second matters. Reacting quickly to real-time events in sports gives brands a chance to utilize the essence of what social media sites like Twitter are all about— giving users a space to engage in virtual conversation about what’s relevant at the present moment.

Focusing on the Message

Brands have successfully promoted new product lines during sporting events in the past, but focusing on a message rather than a product may be especially effective in this context. Sports fans are often passionate about their teams and global events like the Olympics may even invoke feelings of patriotism. Tying these intense feelings to the brand through a universal message rather than selling a product may resonate more with fervent sports fans.

Procter & Gamble’s ongoing “Thank You, Mom” campaign introduced during the 2010 Olympics includes a mini-documentary series called “Raising an Olympian,” which gives credit to the mothers who raised their Olympian children. The commercials and series are promoted on Facebook and YouTube as part of P&G’s first digital campaign, and includes a mobile app which allows users to upload photos of or send messages to their mothers.

Nothing in the ads say, ‘buy our product’—Instead, P&G focuses universally on a mother’s sacrifice while showcasing the hard work and resilience of the athlete. The universal message speaks to the company’s values and connects to the viewer on a personal level, all while being directly relevant to the Olympics.

The rise of social media should come as good news for companies with lower marketing budgets as social media levels the playing field against mega brand competitors like Coca-Cola or Nike; it allows smaller brands to actively participate without draining their resources. For larger companies, the challenge is to reach consumers in an integrated marketing campaign across all platforms not just during the sporting event, but also before and after. Analytics tools are key to tracking data, gauging performance, and gaining an overall view of what people are saying across platforms.

[image error]