Fan Engagement: A Game of Emotions?

A Game of Emotions?

The world of sports entertainment is constantly evolving, and fans are at the heart of it all. Gone are the days of simply watching a game from the stands or on television. Today, fans crave a more immersive and interactive experience that goes beyond the game itself. So, what is it that fans want? And what is it that sports events and brands associated can do to engage fans? Is rewards and immediate gratification the only way for brands to make a mark? The ever-evolving fan experience can be designed in various ways – be it AR/VR experience, a simple app with reward systems, or a fantasy game. But the important question to ask is does it give relevant data to sports properties, sponsors, and advertisers.

What data does Sports Properties, Sponsors, and Advertisers have?

A typical proposal of sports events would carry few data points viz. number of people watching the sport, language preferences, demographics (with some assumptions), gender ratio, income group etc. While these are fundamental points of any sports property, do these data points do justice to what the actual event potential is? Can we restrict an India Pakistan match to only the number of viewers that were watching? Is it not an injustice to so many emotions that went through amongst fans?

Understanding the power of emotions in fan engagement

Sports fans are emotionally vulnerable and take it to heart any result that comes to them, be it an emphatic win or a terrible defeat of their team. These are personas who have invested a lot of their life to know about a team, argue for them, and fight social media battles to prove their team is superior. They would give their undying support to their favorite team and would not change their support for anything that may happen.

Any LIVE sporting action means uncertainty and eagerness to know what is going to be next, this kind of content consumption is available only for sporting events. As much as the result is unpredictable, the emotions of fans are also unpredictable. More like a roller coaster ride. When emotions are a key factor to how engaged a fan could be, sports properties capturing them will have an edge over those who don’t. Going forward, the flow of sponsorships will not only be about basic demographics.

Fan engagement today means keeping fans hooked on an app or social media interactions added with some basic reward systems. But for sponsors and brands to make true sense of fan engagement sports properties should be focussing on who the fans truly are and what their emotional scores are.

It is the need of the hour to have systems that capture the emotional elements of fans during LIVE sporting action, especially given the scale at which sports properties like NBA, IPL, EPL, and other leagues work.

But how do we capture fan emotions?

Traditionally, fans' sentiments and emotions can be captured through basic keywords and analysis of social media content around the event. However, fans are not truly expressive on social media, not all of them are. Even if they are, they are limited by hashtags and character counts. The natural fan language does not get captured in the traditional method.

Fanplay IoT has devised a platform that captures natural fan language like heart-beats, claps waves, whistles, and noise levels. The algorithms convert these natural fan languages into Fan Emote™ scores. The platform has the ability to push these scores in real time to broadcasters or sponsors. This score is an indication of the emotional state of fans.

Having access to real-time emotional data of fans equips sports properties and rights holders to open gates for neuro-marketing-based techniques and enhance consumption experience. A fan does not necessarily need to see the same type of adverts that everyone else sees, he/she can see adverts based on their emotional state.

Insights on what fan wants?

In a survey conducted by FanPlayIoT IoT, up to 70% of fans prefer to watch LIVE sports action with friends and family. Nearly 50% of the fans use social media or chat with friends during breaks. As much as 71% of the fans prefer to eat or have beverages during the LIVE games. But an astonishing fact in today’s social media world is that 86% of them feel that there are no good online platforms to discuss sports events or show support to their favorite teams.

Echoing similar results another survey by Heikki Rotko gives insights into what Gen Z wants against what other categories of the market segment want during LIVE games.

Source: www.choicely.com

The data shows that nearly 50% of the Gen Z population want to use a 2nd screen while consuming LIVE sports action.

Conclusion

A natural behavior of a fan is to use the 2nd screen while consuming LIVE sports action. Most commonly used for social media discussions or chatting with friends in groups. However, fans feel the need for a platform that could facilitate these for them in a holistic manner.

On the other side of the table are broadcasters, sponsors, and advertisers who are bringing in the bucks to the game, yet are unable to know the real personas of fans they are engaging with.

Going forward, being able to capture fans' emotions in real-time using the 2nd screen as a tool will be key to delivering efficient returns for stakeholders involved in any sports property.