SportsTG launches ‘Game Day’ app to commercialise local sport
SportsTG has released an app to connect brands with sports clubs, players, parents and associated parties in a bid to monetise the local level of Australia’s most popular games.
SportsTG, a News Corp company which formed in 2015 following the merger of Fox Sports Pulse and IMG Sports Technology Group, believes grassroots sport is the last “truly uncommercialised area of sport” – something Game Day seeks to change.
Game Day provides functionality for three segments of local sport, according to MCN, the ad representation company for both the app and the SportsTG network – families, who can now co-ordinate their Saturday morning logistics and plan their sports drop offs; players, who can communicate with their team members and prepare for training and game day; and clubs and competition organisers, who can use the app for administration purposes such as fixtures and results.
“These are all three important audience groups in the grassroots audience chain and SportsTG allows you to not only target each group, but a combination of the three, helping advertisers connect with the grassroots sports community end to end,” Martin Medcraf, MCN national sports sales director said.
Glen McGoldrick, CEO of SportsTG said every other element of sport had been successfully commercialised on a large scale, but the largest audiences for advertisers were actually at the local level.
“If we think about grassroots sport, which is really the wheelhouse that we’re in, we genuinely believe it’s the last truly uncommercialised area of sport,” he said. “If you think about sport stadiums, broadcast rights, merchandising, licensing – they’ve been done to the enth degree over many, many years.
“Whereas grassroots sport is a massive industry that touches so many Australians, but it’s always traditionally been a cottage industry from a technology perspective… so we see that there is a massive opportunity both here and certainly in other markets. The amount of engagement, the amount of money spent, the amount of people just actively involved is a massive, accessible market.”
In addition, he said most advertisers see sport as a “feel-good” spend, whether they be local businesses or multinational conglomerates.
“Where does a lot of funding come from at a grassroots level? It’s from the local plumber, the local hardware store – so certainly I think it creates an environment where national advertisers or large-scale advertisers can be supplemented and complimented by something that otherwise wouldn’t come into the mainstream, and that’s your local hardware store, your local plumber,” he said.
McGoldrick said brands had various options for engaging with the app, whether it be hyper-localisation or targeting one segment across Australia – female football, for example – or traditional banner ads. Brands also have the option to command 100% share of voice in the app for certain segments of its audience.
MCN said its alignment with SportsTG gave it another sporting touchpoint.
“SportsTG completes MCN’s ability to penetrate the sporting market for all levels – elite to grassroots,” said Medcraf.
Mumbrella will be tackling a range of sports marketing issues at the Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit on July 21. To see the program and to buy tickets click here.
The current sport app is almost unusable due to the advertising
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Having been on the committee of a local team for over 10 years now I can honestly say no one uses this app.
Clubs are forced to use it for registrations but most clubs use another application or social media for everything else. If I was a brand and wanted to connect with grass roots sport then I’d either be using social or Team App which actually delivers what this app is meant to and has a much higher level of engagement.
I’d also be interested to see if any of the revenue will find its way back to the local level given they don’t have a choice but to use SportsTG.
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