READ - Finding Fun, With No Games
View the original article in the Philadelphia Business Journal.
Whether it’s broadcasting a video of Gritty doing yoga or inviting season ticket holders to a private Zoom meeting with Dr. J, Philadelphia’s pro teams are doing whatever it takes to stay engaged with fans at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has sidelined all professional sports.
For the past three months, sports fans have had to cope with no action taking place on the field, on the court, on the ice, or on the pitch.
The five major professional sports leagues are in various stages of implementing plans to resume play or start their seasons, but a common thread appears to be that when games resume, no fans will be in the stands.
“It’s a really fascinating time,” said Chris Heck, president of the Philadelphia 76ers. “In sports, you look to cater to your season ticket holders and sponsors and your fans in general. Now it’s almost like we are selling on a different planet.”
On the sales front, industry experts say March and April were difficult times in the sponsorship space as brands and teams did not want to appear tone deaf to the public health crisis.
“It was not a time for contests and sweepstakes,” said Molly Arbogast, CEO of Wayne-based POV Sports Marketing.
The sports world — historically an outlet for people during wars, recessions and other crises — has scrambled to stay engaged with fans and sponsors over the last few months as the pandemic swiftly turned the industry on its face. Philadelphia’s professional sports teams have tried everything from broadcasting past glory games and skill training videos to creating coloring books and fan polls. It’s part of a strategy to remain connected to their fan bases and build momentum ahead of what will eventually be the return of live sports.
“Just because live games aren’t happening, that doesn’t mean people don’t want and need that outlet,” said Mike Shane, chief business officer of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Content is king
Social media platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, and video communication services like Zoom have emerged as the primary vehicles used by sports franchises to maintain connections during the shutdown.
The Flyers, for their part, rolled out online coloring books and mazes for kids. For adults, the franchise has hosted virtual happy hours where team broadcasters Steve Coates and Tim Saunders talk hockey with fans.
“We have a team of very creative individuals, and we really just turned them loose and said, ‘Do what you do best,’” Shane said.
“We understand our fan base isn’t one type of person, and people have different interests, so we are doing different things,” he said.
That’s true of all the local pro teams.
The Sixers had 17 games remaining when the NBA put its season on hold, including 10 home games.
The team has been ramping up the creation of original content over the last few years, Heck said, “and now we’ve doubled down.” Sixers television play-by-play announcer Marc Zumoff has hosted calls on Zoom between season ticket holders and special guests such as Hall of Famer Julius Erving and head coach Brett Brown.
He noted city residents under the age of 35 are a strong demographic of the Sixers’ fan base, which explains why a video of rookie Matisse Thybulle dancing on the social media platform Tik Tok was extremely popular.
Major League Baseball’s 2020 season got put on hold during spring training.
When the season was frozen, the Phillies’ digital and social media efforts became more critical to the team — not only for fans, but also its corporate partners.
“It’s how we are able to reach out and touch our communities in a meaningful way during this time,” said Jackie Cuddeback, the ball club’s vice president for partnership sales and corporate marketing.
Michael Harris, the Phillies’ vice president of marketing and new media, said his department’s activities have had one primary objective.
“We want to keep the game of baseball, and the Phillies, top of mind,” he said. “That can mean creating something as simple as teleconferencing backgrounds people can use that feature Phillies players or Citizens Bank Park locations.”
The Phillies also engaged with fans through an online poll where people could vote on the top 20 “non-clinching” moments of the past 20 years. Nearly 200,000 votes later, Roy Halliday’s postseason no-hitter emerged as the winner.
For younger fans, the team created “Storytime with the Phanatic,” a weekly Instagram program with episodes featuring new manager Joe Girardi and his wife Kimberly, players Bryce Harper and Andrew McCutchen and -— eventually — Phillies Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt. “There have been some technical difficulties,” Harris said. “Mike is a great guy, but technology is definitely not his forte.”
Across the parking lot at Lincoln Financial Field, the Philadelphia Eagles have the advantage of a regular season that doesn’t begin until September. It remains unclear to what extent — if any — fans will be allowed into stadiums for games.
As the pandemic set in, the Eagles felt an obligation to provide more original content, more access and more experience to fans.
Jen Kavanagh, the Eagles’ senior vice president of media and marketing, said while the football team is always publishing new features for fans, during the pandemic it felt an obligation to provide even more content and access. The team created a programming schedule that increases podcasts, tells stories people have never heard before on a variety of platforms, and finds experiences for partners and sponsors to stay connected with fans, she said.
In May, for example, the franchise rolled out a host of video premieres, including a documentary about former Eagles long snapper and professional magician Jon Dorenbos. The program was sponsored by NovaCare Rehabilitation.
What works, what doesn’t
Major League Soccer suspended its season after the Philadelphia Union had played just two matches, leaving the team scrambling to fill the soccer void for its fans.
“The first thing we did is provide an onslaught of content” on social media, said Doug Vosik, the Union’s chief marketing officer. “We had everything from player-focused stories to old game highlights and some weird and fun stuff, including collaborations we did with other teams — anything we could think of to give that escape value.”
Over time, the club learned fans weren’t all that interested in highlights of old games as much as they enjoyed the “weird and fun” stuff, Vosik said.
The team started a “whatever you want Wednesday” where fan suggestions on Twitter have led to content such as what the Union’s appearance would be if they adopted other Philadelphia sports teams colors. “You get to see what’s working and what’s not working,” Vosik said. “It has been pretty fascinating to see how we’ve moved from sports entertainment to more pop culture.”
Flyers players “have been great from the very beginning,” Shane said. “They are willing to put themselves out there and have some fun. It takes a special kind of person to be willing to come out there with a mascot who can’t talk.”
Sponsor satisfaction
The absence of games has created the potential problem of corporate partners asking for refunds on sports sponsorships, an advertising segment that was expected to generate $65 billion globally in 2019, according to data agency Two Circles. Many deals — which can span from six figures to multimillion-dollar campaigns — give brands exposure to signage and promotions within venues during live events.
Those refund requests haven’t occurred.
“I think that would be a reasonable response,” the Phillies’ Cuddeback said of sponsors inquiring about restructuring the financial aspects of their deals with the season being shortened. “Those are conversations we will have very thoughtfully when Major League Baseball makes a decision about what the season will look like. … I think our partners know we will do what is right for them and their brand.”
Arbogast at POV Sports Marketing said teams have the difficult task of placing a value on the lost trademark activation for brand sponsors.
“Brands are losing months of intellectual property activation,” she said. “There are no live events. There are no ticket giveaways. There is no retail activation. The key driver behind sponsorship has been muted. The silver lining is that most sponsorships are multiyear agreements, and so both the brand and the team will ideally want to work together to recoup that lost value when play returns.
”Some teams may need to extend contract end dates, Arbogast said. Contingency planning for next season is also on the minds of companies, she said.
Local teams and their marketing partners are already teaming on dozens of community programs to support those impacted by the pandemic.
Examples include:
Red Bull and the Sixers providing 600 meals, which Sixers forward Mike Scott helped deliver, to the overnight staff at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Bud Light serving as presenting sponsor of a virtual watch party, hosted by Hall of Famer Eric Lindros, of the 2012 Flyers-Rangers alumni game at Citizens Bank Park.
The Philadelphia Union working with Captain Morgan for the community outreach portion of its Fight for Philly community assistance campaign, which included T-shirt sales that have raised more than $40,000 for Covid-19 relief efforts.
Cuddeback said the Phillies are trying to align its partners with the team’s community activities and new online content during the season’s delay. “We haven’t tried to shoehorn brands in where it doesn’t make sense,” she said.
Toyota, for one, is serving as a sponsor for a Phillies “tip of the hat” promotion in which a video was shot of players literally tipping their caps to the efforts of hospital staffs, first responders, the military and other frontline workers during the pandemic.
No fans in the stands
A likely upcoming challenge for most teams will be how best to engage with fans in-game when they won’t be in the stands and some teams won’t be playing home games.
All Philadelphia franchises are looking at “second-screen” opportunities. That means taking what is happening at a sports venue and delivering it virtually to fans.
“In general, it’s essentially creating a mechanism that can accompany a television or radio broadcast and be delivered to a laptop, iPad, smartphone or smart television,” Harris said. “It’s a second avenue of programming that will recreate the in-park experience. … There are a lot of different things we are talking about. All require league approval.”
The Eagles are planning for fan engagement whether fans are allowed into stadiums or not, Kavanagh said. The Eagles are exploring the possibility of giving fans access to features such as unusual camera angles and miked-up players, actions that would also require league approval.
“It’s difficult to assume you can replicate the energy of 70,000 people at Lincoln Financial Field,” she said, “but what we can do is offer access and exclusivity that only we can.”
Assets like the team’s mobile app could become critically important. “It’s a portal into exclusive content, video, things on the second screen that can complement the viewing experience whether you are in Philadelphia or Thailand,” she said. “We have fans all over the world.”
Teams are also considering viewing parties and sending local broadcasters to the neutral sites to provide game coverage.
Among the options the Sixers are looking at to re-engage with fans locally include drive-ins, tailgates and block parties tied to the games in Orlando.
“Don’t be surprised if we mix it up with radio broadcasts and bring in special guest commentators to join [play-by-play announcer] Tom McGinnis,” said Heck, when asked what the Sixers are planning.
He also said season ticket holders shouldn’t be shocked to get T-shirts in the mail that can be used for a “virtual white-out” during the playoffs.
By: John George.