Branding & Storytelling through Digital Marketing in the World of Sports!

Branding & storytelling go hand in hand, they are one, you can’t have one without the other, at least in the sports industry. Your story develops your brand and every sports property, athlete and organization has a unique story that makes them who they are. This story is what resonates with consumers and fans, which in turns becomes your brand. Your brand is what you stand for but most importantly it is how your fan base or consumers perceive you. As we mentioned from the beginning you tell your story through your brand and thanks to the Internet and digital marketing, communicating what you stand for (A.KA. your brand) is easier than ever.

Digital marketing has revolutionized the way we interact with brands, we now hold an actual conversation and we choose what we want to watch. Consumers now hold the power and they follow the brands they love. The good news about this is that it is now easier to tell your story with engaging content through different platforms and see actual benefits! With channels such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter you can easily track and measure the success your marketing strategy is having and the overall level of engagement people are having with your brand.  

Now that we understand this, how do we do all of it? From telling your story, choosing the channels and measuring the success of your campaigns? It sounds daunting but through a great example from the world of sports we will show you how easy it is!

-MLS:

Source: Major League Soccer (February, 2015)

                                   

MajorLeague Soccer is one of the most active sports leagues on the digital marketinglandscape, with channels on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Google plus, the amount of content they create is unbelievable! The main objective with their content is to engage & connect with fans in order to grow their fan base, which in turn translates into more ticket sales, bigger TV ratings and more merchandise sold.  MLS actively promotes all of the teams’ brands with great storytelling content through their YouTube channel:

Source: Major League Soccer(May,2015)

Through YouTube, MLS leverages the way their fans communicate and their appetite for content and stories (just as we mentioned before). The video above talks about one of Toronto FC’s star players an Italian playmaker named Sebastian Giovinco, through his story coming to Toronto FC adapting to the team and life over there MLS creates an emotional bond that reaps marketing benefits for them, which can be measured in this way:

 First they look at KPI’s, for example:

1.Number of views, comments and shares

2.Attendance and ratings increase after the release of the video in the next 6 months.

With these KPI’s MLS will set specific targets, for example 100 views, comments and shares and a 10% increase in attendance and TV ratings. MLS starts tracking the performance of the content, measuring every interaction and this is where the real revolution of digital marketing happens in the sports industry! Everything can be measured, everything can be tracked and with engaging content such as sports it is easier to increase the overall brand value. Digital marketing also allows switching from online to offline, this content strategy is online but it has a ripple effect on the offline world, and everything can be measured! MLS can actually see if the video had the response they were looking, through engagement and also measure their ROI. Based on this data they can adapt their strategy to reap more benefits! This is the beauty of a digital marketing strategy!

People don’t choose a brand or team because of their benefits; they choose them because they connect with the story and values the sports property shares with them. Sports organizations have something truly unique and that is PASSION; fans don’t just like them, they love them and sports organizations need to leverage this in their favor with great stories and content.

Through branded storytelling using a digital marketing strategy, the success can be enormous. As in the case of MLS they understand the importance of telling a story, putting that story on the right platform and eventually create a powerful love brand.