2020 was a year unlike any other and changed sports content in a pandemic world. Our expectations, beliefs and dreams of a new year, new start were shattered when everything came to all but an immediate holt. No longer allowed to attend live sporting events and with the postponement of major tournaments. The engagement of sports fans across the world was in disarray. As the world set about working out how to react to the danger of the virus, the sports industry had to quickly figure out how they could respond, continue to compete and engage with their fans. The industry heavily leaned into this challenge and amplified their digital content with the aim to compensated for their losses from traditional broadcast platforms.
We have seen technology shift the fan experience. Where no longer we can expect the motivating chants from the stands to motivate athletes and drive a competitive atmosphere. Instead fans are expressing themselves and connecting with their athletes through new and existing platforms.
New platforms are being created to fill the gaps that social distancing requirements have enforced. Platforms like ChampTrax, a platform that allows fans to record their audible reactions during a game and stream them into the stadiums. Combined with thousands of other fans from across the world, all in real time. Pivoting into the challenge to provide a solution for the emotional disconnect that fans have experienced from not being able to attend an event in person.
What this challenge has led to is the enhancement of the fan experience. Something that would not have evolved at such a pace if the industry had not been forced into this need for immediate innovation. Within this innovation, content plays as the backbone. Personalised, immediate, consistent and high quality. Fans are experiencing a level of connection to their teams and athletes unlike anything that has been provided before. Through video, through stories, through experiences.
Sports brands pivoted harder than ever before into Gen-Z platforms such as ‘Ticktock’. Athletes reaching new heights of online followers and transcending previous uses of digital, to communicate with their audience and grow their influence. Athlete content creation and influence has developed further than posts and likes. The development of longer form documentary and emotive storytelling, broadcast via platforms like Netflix and Amazon has deepened fan affiliation. Giving fans more in-depth looks behind the scenes and into the lives and stories of the athletes, teams and brands they love. Consider the series “All or nothing”. A broadcast sports franchise giving viewers a look behind the scenes of teams like Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. Going behind closed doors and inside the training facilities and dressing rooms. Sharing the pressures and stresses of an elite competition such as the Premiere League. These honest and transparent insights into the teams and athletes journeys not only builds affiliation and loyalty with existing fans but attracts interest and sparks following from new fans. Broadening the brands reach and softening the barriers of entry for new fans into the sport.
We can reflect on the impact football player Marcus Rashford has been able to make this year due to the attention he can grasp through his digital following. With the perspective of overpaid footballers frivolous spending of their wealth and fame. Athletes have embraced their potential for positive influence. Using their platforms to share their positive messages and be a vessel for change. The ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign and Marcus’s letter to government over the issue of child hunger have been some of the stand out positive stories in 2020, with athletes leading the charge to acknowledge and demand change in the world.
Sports fans have adopted a new way of absorbing sports content in a pandemic-world. The sports they love, how they follow the athletes they idolise and engage with fellow fans, to keep the social element of sport alive. It is hard to see how this will return to how it was before. It’s almost impossible to believe it will and we shouldn’t wait for it too. We must continue to lean in and innovate. Continue to be creative and create content that means something. Providing sports fans with a consistent experience that provides entertainment, informs, and injects positivity and hope into the world.