Are sports teams still living in an ‘ivory tower’?
Great interview on the changing dynamics that are being forced onto sports teams.
Dan Harbison’s ‘real’ sports social media learnings….
Interesting and insightful video on Dan Harbison’s experience with IamaTrailblazersfan.com and how he measures social media results and success.
Met with SportsGeek while in Melbourne
I spent a few days in Melbourne last week mainly business and met up with Sean Callanan from SportsGeek. Great to share thoughts and experiences on the sports social media space in the local Australian market. Still a lot of educating to do with most sports and across the whole ecosystem. But that’s all good news 
As part of education the local market about the applications of social media in sports, he has produced the Sports Social Media Index (SSMI) and has published several over the last 12 months. He’s been getting good attention on this topic. Here is his latest SSMI on the NRL:
Another great move by the NRL – old footage to go online!
I have been impressed to see a few good announcement from rugby league and this time the NRL on going digital with old rugby league footage. See The Australian article.
I feel there is so much pent up demand for this type of content especially from me. Here is what I’d like to experience:
‘imagine a bunch of my friends organising a Friday night BBQ at my place and bring back memories with an old 1980s NSL (soccer) grand final?’
How cool would that be? I think all Australian sports with professional sports leagues should begin to focus on executing a similar initiative as has rugby league. The opportunities for sports fan and consumer engagement are great with several revenue streams for the sport, club and even past athletes.
ESPN takes old footage to the next level
After reading this announcement, I consequently read this announcement by ESPN. They have launched ‘ESPN 30 for 30‘. Simple yet powerful initiative – 30 films based on 30 great sports moments during the 20th century have been produced and being televised on ESPN during this month. It’s also a good reflection on implementing across cross media platforms.
NRL planning new foundations – Sydney HQ has been announced
I must say that the rugby league seems to be taking the right steps going forward with the announcement of the sport’s new HQ to be predominantly funded by the Federal Govt. I gather these are pre emptive decisions which are yet to be announced by the Aust Sports Commission on the new sports reforms coming.
Congrats to the rugby leage execs for this positive step towards the rebuilding of the sport.
NBA makes a decision on social media!
The NBA has made a decision on their players’ use of social media. It’s simple. No twitter, facebook or even mobile phone use during games. To be exact, 45 mins before and after the post match interview is when players are allowed to use any of these communications tools. I believe this makes practical sense to me. Congrats to the NBA on this policy from me!
Check out the article below.
Question now is whether we will see similar policies from local sports leagues in Australia. Your thoughts?
Business model of sport v2.0 – a refocus on controlled, bought and earned media for sports participants, consumers and fans
The sports industry (I’d like to call it an ecosystem) has reached the point in time where a fundamental shift has begun. A few people which I know can see it but at a very macro level, sports as one part of people’s lifestyle is either being demoted or overtaken by other forms of activities and consumption.
Another perspective is that participation in sport is also evolving to being more recreational and individually oriented as society changes it is community dynamics with less time and more work demands for families and busy work executives. In addition, for a lot of people sport is a form of entertainment and the notion of watching live professional sports leagues on TV is enough sport for them during the week. For them, sport is all about consumption and not participation!
Media habits have changed as younger generations are consuming less forms of traditional media and engaging with online, mobile, social, gaming and virtual media channels. Because of this, organisations like the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have been forced to strategically review their longer term position with the outcome being the 1st Youth Olympics being launched and to be executed in Singapore in 2010. This is a clear recognition of the media changes occuring and has also forced large sports bodies to adapt and incorporate digital, mobile, social and virtual experiences for their sports fans and consumers.
Many sports clubs and athletes are now slowing realising the fragmented nature of this new media landscape and have begun to establish stronger and more direct conversations and relationships with their fans and consumers. Please find below my high level views on the new business model for sport v2.0 as an extension to the current model with a stronger emphasis on controlled, bought and earned media across sports fans, consumers and participants.
Keen to get your feedback on this!
‘She Knows The Rules’ – new site on women’s participation in sport!
For a very long time now the only argument for women in sport has been the argument around not enough media coverage of women’s sport across broadcast media channels. I think the world has changed since then and with it comes the change in attitude and meaning to what the term ‘participation’ actually means.
On this note, I was invited to attend the launch of a great new web site this morning called ‘She Knows The Rules’. Check it out at www.sheknowstherules.com . Here’s a snapshot of the home page on launch day!
Founder of this exciting new web site is Amanda Stevens who runs the award winning Australian leading women marketing services firm (Splash Group) who after doing research on women’s attitude in sport saw the opportunity to work with sports codes and launch this exciting initiative.
The days of the girlfriend, wive or daughter attending a sporting match to just ‘tag along’ with their other half is over! Women will be able to gain access to cool sports information on sports, how to play them and also receive regular mobile alerts on cool stats to share with friends as part of sports conversations.
So the notion of women’s participation in sport has change with the launch of this web site. Coincidently, I have a Women Sport NSW Board meeting on tonight and plan to raise the opportunity of working with She Knows The Rules.
Watch this space and all the best Amanda
Sports Business World Conference wrap up
I had the privilege of attending the Sports Business World Conference last week in Sydney. There must have been over 300 attendees over a two day period with a range of topics and top C level sports executives across the sports industry.
My Highlights
Peter Holmes a Court speaking about the evolution of sport in society and how they have applied theory around community engagement into reality with the South Rabbitohs NRL club. He stated that they are the only NRL club to be profitable without a leagues club! What a great position to be in and also reckon their approach to engaging directly with their community of fans as loyal members as a sense of fresh air in a stale environment where clubs depend for an existence.
Kate Ellis – Federal Minister for Sport covered a lot of areas and topics where change and positive outcomes are required with regards to greater participation in sport, healthy lifestyles, women in sport and commercialisation of sports. I seem to believe the much awaited Federal Report on the future of Sport in this country from the federal government is being heavily debated internally at the moment. A lot of people awaiting to see this.
Newly appointed Australia Sports Commission (ASC) CEO Matt Miller presented the ASC’s new strategic intent to the sports industry audience. I was impressed with his fresh and open approach to the industry and look forward to the direction being set for the industry as an ‘inclusive’ partner in this exciting ecosystem!
Key takeaways
- Too many sessions in my view and not enough time for debate and conversations with the speakers;
- Not enough opportunities for a more interactive experience I have been involved with at other conferences;
- Lack of coverage in the new/social media arena across sports;
Having being involved in the sports industry now for a few years, I believe the time has come for a stronger focus on the sustainability of both sports codes and sports ecosystem from a participation, entertainment and vehicle for social change.
Another take on women’s sports participation – Lingerie Football League!
I was doing my usual research on the sports market and came across this article on the Lingerie Football League on CraveOnline (LFL). Let me qualify by saying that when I mean ‘research’ I mean staying current on the sports business market and nothing else
In addition, for those of you who do not know me, I’ve been appointed to the Women Sport NSW Board a few months ago with the aim of reshaping the organisation’s purpose, direction and execution pillars. So, you can imagine what I thought when I first saw this article and web site about this sports concept.
An objective review of this sports league as a viable business proposition and it would be fair to say that it (in theory) should be successful for a few reasons as follows:
- Short season – only 10 teams in this league playing across the US.
- Large male sports enthusiasts base – its fair to say that there is a large TV audience of male sports enthusiasts who are passionate about gridiron in North America that could (would) enjoy this form of sports entertainment
- Several revenue streams – the LFL producers have done their homework and are promoting several revenue streams such as season passes, corporate suites, mobile PPVs, shop online, merchandise in various forms.
- Content – access to a variety of different forms of content for the fan such as wallpapers, video, mobile downloads, etc.
- Fantasy – a great ‘emotive’ use of sports fantasy league online service for the large North American fantasy league community
The human emotion
Another perspective on this (with a marketers hat on) is the play on the male/female relationship from a behavioural point of view. The language and visuals used in the LFL Shop (see below) is straight to the point and both targeted at the male and female market.
Q. Is this increasing women’s participation of sport?
It’s an interesting question to answer. One perspective is that they (the sports women in this league) are active sports participants who would need to keep fit and train and be mentally prepared for the season ahead. Another perspective would be this sports league format is exploitation of women for the male sports enthusiast.
With my Women Sport NSW Board member ‘hat’on it would be fair to say that there is a tendancy to say that it’s exploitaiton of women for a male dominated world of sports tv enthusiasts. You could conversely say that with my objective sports media ‘hat on’ it may serve as a successful entertainment venture with the use of sport + female athletes as the vehicle for media success.
The major issue that would be raised would be the notion of how is this form of a sport actually driving a greater participation of women playing gridiron? Would it? Should we expect it to?
I will review this LFL’s progress on a regular basis to see how it’s tracking.
Have a raised any questions in your mind? I’d love to hear them!
sportssymposia
