A keynote presentation given in London at the Fanographie conference on the topic of trends and predictions for 2012 in sports and entertainment.
The presentation looked at where we have come from, to where we will be going, particularly in this Olympic year.
Many a quote today, but this is my favourite And it’s 3 years old already. This is the reality. This is where we, our fans, and followers are spending time. For sports, the internet is now the first, and the most important place to pick up information and connect with others to follow their passion.
But first, before i take you through the fundamentals that we instill in our teams, and our predictions and activity we’re focusing on for 2012, I’d like to rewind back to one of my first experience with online, on behalf of a band called Travis, and their record company Warner. It was 1999. we were one of the first agencies to create a dedicated digital division. It was called Cake New Media. We made online games, viral clips, websites, banner ads. We reached out to important editorial sites, and we worked with partners sites and portals. We also seeded content into blogs, forums, and newsgroups. And we leant an early lesson then, that’s as true and relevant today as it was then. This is what happened:- Travis were performing in Boston, its 1999. The event was being streamed live online, on AOL. We thought fans would want to know. So we created a profile, and posted this message. You’d think that was fair wouldn’t you ?
Wrong. This is what they said – lovely! (and see already the viral effect with 58 other people liking this comment) But, it was a very early lesson we learnt, then, which has prevented us from making the same mistake since then. Vey simply – we were imposing within their fan space. And earned media could not be bought- it had to be earned. We hadn’t followed the simple rules that ever since then we’ve stuck by. Simply put: don’t pretend to be something that you aren’t. Be honest, transparent, and do it with reverance or humour. If you have some useful information, be honest about it’s source. So this is what we responded with.
And look how many likes this now got. This was socila mdia in action, way beofre people alled it social. This is what we did day in day out for bands, brands, sports, gaming, film, consumer goods, events, product launches and may more. We made sure that we were honest, and straight talking. And look how many people ‘liked’ this comment. But here’s the important thing…
The original person who responded to us (on behalf of all the other forum members) gave us a smiley face. And this enabled us to start a relationship with him. Him – the influencer- who was a gatekeeper to this community. So what did we do ? Well, we started having a 121 relationship with him, for him to then post messages into the travis forum (and indeed others which he was active in : Jamiroquai, Coldplay, travel and computer gaming!). We invited him to events, we gave him products, we gave him links and clips before others got them. So he passed our messages on to others, in the most credible way. And 13 years on, we are still in contact with him. He may be older, but he is significantly more influental, and in fact is one of the leading independent bloggers for music and culture right now. And all because rather than accept defeat, we respected the rules and were honest (+ a bit of humour)
Fast forward to last week, and this is what happened in Mexico. One of the bloggers who is incredibly influential in Mexico asked for $15k to send a tweet. Can u believe that ? Sure he has a lot of followers – approx 105,000 but it worked out at $100 per character! Wow.And did we pay ? No,not $15k! Why ? Because just like 13 years ago, we and all our teams approach social media and online relationships from a postiion of ‘earning’ those reltionships. And we do that by all adhering to the following 5 core principles and ensuring we are super good at doing them all: Content Communications Communities Connections technologies
Content is king. Without strong content, the conversation is weak. It’s difficult to get people excited about something, especially in this high bandwidth and visual world, without a creative object to gather around
The most popular sports clips of 2011 – by fans, of fans, not always super professsionally shot. This was the 2 nd most popular sports clips last year. It’s a fan compilation of football fails.
This was the most popular clip last year. A fan in japan, diving for the ball, despite holding his daughter in his arms. (drops both her and the ball)
If you , or your teams, are proficient with using the online tools to communicate, you’re out of touch with those you’re trying to communicate with. Remember icq ? I currently have 4 blogs. 1 on classic cars. I on italy, 1 on virals. 1 which is a rant / frustration about integrated marketing.
Communities. Way before facebook, we (the profrssionals in this room, and our local teams) were active in community marketing. It was where the fans hung out. Whether it be for Dr Martens (top left) Second life (top right) – want to kjow a story about freebee heaven in second life ? Eatmail tv- a community of 5000 opinion formers. Or facebook ?
Connections and influencers Being an expert in some and digital means accepting that you only know a fraction of the answers, but making sure that you have connections to those that do. We hear the work crowd sourcing a lot these days. But many of us have been doing that for year. These images are a few of those that I connect with, to learn and be inspired by things I never thought possible.
And increasingly a fascination with what technology can do and being inquisitive to ‘look under the bonnet’ All the things above, came about be people being inquisitive. And if there is one video or link to take from me today, pls take this one: Pranav mistry – ted – the sixth sense. The most enlighteneing 15min you will ever watch.
So, how are we shaping up for 2012 ? welll, everything is in shape for this to be a unique year of world records on the track and on social media.
After heavy flirting with social media in 2011, brands will go beyond merely looking at Likes and Fans, and start caring and measuring engagement and community building The value of a meaningful relationship will be properly appreciated to build strong communities, CRM programs, loyalty and integrated transactions To prove the effectiveness of social media campaigns, brands will develop more sophisticated measurement algorithms to prove the ROI, more commonly to be known as ROSS (return on social spend) By the end of 2012, successful brands in social media will have focused more upon increasing their levels of engagement with fans, than the number of fans Social media, Facebook, Facebook likes, Facebook engagement, Facebook friends fans, social CRM, social engagement, community building, ROI, ROSS, return on social spend, 2012 predictions, jezmond, jez jowett, @jezmond http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Brands will commit to their social presence with dedicated teams, processes , resources and guidelines . Every company will have a Social Media Director . There will be a SM strategy aligned for all stakeholders, not just for tactical campaigns. No longer here today and gone tomorrow, but always on, listening and responding. Especially at the weekends and when people are social. Social media strategy, social media strategy 2011, social media strategy 2012, social media director, social media guidelines, social media strategy not tactics, SoMe jezmond, jez jowett, @jezmond
Sports federations will face a huge challenge in 2012: “How to evolve their (traditional) broadcasting rights package, when many of their audience are no longer tuning into traditional broadcast channel, and in some countries don’t even own a TV anymore?” With more and more fans watching mainstream and niche sports on the web; on social networks; on mobile devices, successful federations will embrace the opportunity The ability to watch catch up and real time sporting events, will increasingly be consumed on Facebook and YouTube. Social media subscription packages will provide new revenue streams and help reach and engage with young and new fans Sports subscriptions, sports marketing revenue model, sports rights package, YouTube, Facebook, jezmond, jez jowett, @jezmond http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/6123331851/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Sport will continue to become more scientific, and technology will bring the most dramatic imagery and revelations to both big screen and little screen Enjoyment of sport, even from an armchair, will become a thrilling experience. No longer a lean back and enjoy, but lean forward and immersion Sports cam technology will bring footage to our screens that we’ve never seen before. From 3D to 4D; slow motion to split screen; helmet cam to ball cam; adrenalin sensors to heart monitors… Sport and technology, sport social media, 3d, 4d, slow motion, time lapse, adrenalin sensors, heart monitors, jezmond, jez jowett, @jezmond http://www.flickr.com/photos/pe5pe/3242342574/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Sport will continue to become more scientific, and technology will bring the most dramatic imagery and revelations to both big screen and little screen Enjoyment of sport, even from an armchair, will become a thrilling experience. No longer a lean back and enjoy, but lean forward and immersion Sports cam technology will bring footage to our screens that we’ve never seen before. From 3D to 4D; slow motion to split screen; helmet cam to ball cam; adrenalin sensors to heart monitors…
London 2012 will be swamped in social media More Tweets, shares, Likes, posts, comments, views will take place in 1 month, than ever before. News, scandals, records & exclusives will all be read on Twitter first. Then on the news channels and papers. Footage we aren’t supposed to see, we will. Thanks to Facebook, bit.ly and YouTube. There will be more Likes and friends for London 2012 than any other sporting event, ever. It will remain one of the top 5 trending topics in Twitter globally, for 1 month. During the 100m final there will be more messages, images and videos shared via social media, than at any other time since the dawn of the world wide web /London Olympics 2012, social media Olympics 2012, SoMe2012, SoMe London Olympics 2012, sports marketing London 2012, Havas sports & entertainment, sports marketing Olympics, flickr, Usain Bolt social media, twitter, 100metre final, jezmond, jez jowett, @jezmond http://www.flickr.com/photos/31808226@N05/6130296771/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Sporting venues and stadiums are the second most checked-in places worldwide. The most popular checked-in places are airports Brands, sponsors and rights holders will leverage this opportunity to geo target fans with compelling and shareable content and promotional messages. Having identified a physical fan, data will provide an on-going and customized relationship back to their home 2012 will see a huge increase in the connections between these attending fans, virtual fans and brand messages. 2012 will become the year of social currency – more shareable, more entertaining and more personalized
Stronger corporate social responsibility, combined with increased consumer awareness of recycling and the need for a cleaner environment, will result in more environmentally friendly events. Sponsors will require event producers to have committed to make the event as carbon neutral as possible. Sponsors will consider this ‘green score’ just as much as the number of attendees and media value. Recycling will have high visibility at each event and be a creative and entertaining activity that attendees warmly embrace.
The new ‘year of mobile’ = ‘year of social commerce. Confidence in place. Technology in place. E commerce in place, now social commerce. Facebook (and Pinterest) as a traffic driver, through to ‘owned media’ or preferred partner (ie Amazon). Shop and share for a social discount to be exploited this year by early adopters. Social media, Facebook, Facebook likes, Facebook engagement, Facebook friends fans, social CRM, social engagement, community building, ROI, ROSS, return on social spend, 2012 predictions, jezmond, jez jowett, @jezmond http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
More data, more sources, more often, more interests and likes, will require tighten filtering. Not enough time in the day to read even a half of those you follow. Aggregators of information, and curated content, will charge subscriptions. A service will be launched to have your own Social PA ( I-Google in person). Your PA for info, to avoid info meltdown. Million dollar bloggers, Mexico, latam, $15000 per tweet, blogger networks, bog syndication, jezmond, jez jowett, @jezmond http://www.flickr.com/photos/suzanneandsimon/1746100681/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ , SoMe
Cyber PR will become more challenging across online influencers who traditionally would blog or tweet about a campaign for free. This will change in 2012. The world’s first million dollar blogger will be created Already in LATAM, and especially in Mexico, it is not un-common for a blogger to request $15,000 for a Tweet or blog post mentioning or linking to a brand. This emerging trend will spread across the globe Accessing a blogger, will in some instances require contacting a blog management agency. Blog networks will manage the syndication of posts across a diverse range of interests and passions Million dollar bloggers, Mexico, latam, $15000 per tweet, blogger networks, bog syndication, jezmond, jez jowett, @jezmond http://www.flickr.com/photos/suzanneandsimon/1746100681/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ , SoMe
1 day a year, everything will shut down, almost. Companies will ask all their staff to ‘switch off and unplug for 24 hours’. At first employees will be scared and confused. They will scratch their heads wondering how they can perform their job or task, without a digital connection. After 3 hours a smile will spread across their faces. It will be a beautiful day or real relationships and friendships the old fashioned way, face to face. We will re-discover social skills, beyond Facebook. We will put into perspective the role of digital. It will become a yearly event. Sports subscriptions, sports marketing revenue model, sports rights package, YouTube, Facebook, jezmond, jez jowett, @jezmond http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/6123331851/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/