Only 12% of consumers planning to watch Super Bowl XLIX between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks are interested in what brands are saying on social media. The seemingly unimpressive statistic is the result of a survey surrounding 1,000 online interviews conducted by communications firm Burson-Marsteller, which concurrently revealed that 43% of social media users will look for commentary from close friends during the Super Bowl. Thus, NFL Super Bowl fans are focused on social media; however, brands may not be sufficiently pleased with how much of that attention is spent on the messages they are spending money and time to disseminate.
Jason Teitler, Chair of Burson-Marsteller’s Fan Experience sports specialty, tries to shed a positive light on the statistic. "At first glance, seeing that only 12% of consumers planning to watch the Super Bowl are interested in what brands are saying on social media during the game seems unimpressive," admits Teitler. "However, keeping in mind the large viewership numbers for the game each year, 12% of consumers represents a massive amount of individuals that are not only seeing what brands are saying on social media, but are interested. From this the key question is: How can brands drive the percentage of fans interested in their content higher through a more well-rounded approach to marketing and communications, including through social media?"
Many brands still have a long way to go to fully understand the best practices to engage with consumers on social media and how they can provide value to fans by enhancing their experiences with the sports they crave. Fans are interested in a brand’s content only if the brand demonstrates that it understands them as passionate followers of the sport, and if it can successfully bring fans content that feeds their passion.
"An example of this lack of understanding would be the many brands across consumer categories that engage fans in the weeks and months leading up to the Super Bowl with the a chance to 'win a trip to the Big Game,'" says Teitler. "These campaigns often span across advertising, public relations, and social media. According to the most recent installment of the Burson-Marsteller Fan Experience survey, 69% of fans would prefer to view the Super Bowl at home, and only 23% want to go to the game to watch it. Based off this data, a brand would be better served developing campaigns that focus on a way to enhance fans’ experiences at home while enjoying the game with family and friends, as opposed to focusing on a much smaller percentage of the fan base."
Social media continues to be a prime place for brands to engage millennials during the Super Bowl, which means that brands cannot afford to ignore the data. According to Teitler, 82% of fans are expected to check social media or news outlets during Super Bowl XLIX and 37% plan to make five or more social media posts during the event.
"I think most of us would say that we don’t want to hear marketers' commentary during the game," says Noah Clark, Executive Creative Director at advertising agency Victors & Spoils. "That’s a default, expected answer in my mind. But when marketers provide these same people with something smart, provocative or wildly entertaining, trust me, they’ll be interested."
Even if brands do not innovate and stick to their old methods of pushing out content that does not necessarily resonate with a large audience, it may still provide enough of a return on investment simply because the investment attached to social media efforts is typically not tremendous. If a brand is not spending money on a national broadcast advertisement and instead appropriates a fraction of what that spot would cost to deploy a social media Super Bowl campaign, then the return can be very beneficial based on the meager budget attached. If a brand also deploys a very targeted and focused campaign, then the return on investment will be even better.
"On the flipside, if a brand is spending seven figures on a national spot and simply re-posts the spot and/or related content to it on its social media channels, then the return on investment in terms of social media engagement may not be nearly as great," adds Teitler. "Significant awareness is generated by broadcast spots, but this does not automatically translate to solid investment across all marketing channels, namely social media."
Darren Heitner is a lawyer and the Founder of South Florida-based HEITNER LEGAL, P.L.L.C., which has a focus on Sports Law and Entertainment Law.
