More than ever, Australian consumers have a growing expectation that brands will play an active and meaningful role in the community, and there’s no greater place to start than with sport.
Elite sport has given us something to rely on, some continuity and consistency, but the communities at the heart of all sporting codes are possibly the ones that have made the biggest sacrifices in recent times.
Rebuilding community foundations
Research from audience insight company Gemba shows that a strong community sports base provides incremental value for all major sporting leagues, with participants three to four times more likely to become long-term fans of the sport.
For a healthy sport industry, we all – brands, broadcasters, government bodies – need to nurture the foundations from which Australian passions stem, by sharing, showcasing and making community sport more accessible than ever.
A great example of this is a sport like rugby union, where kids can watch their clubs’ first-grade team train and play at their local ground, watch them play in the Shute Shield on Stan Sport, see their favourite players get picked for the Waratahs, and eventually watch them play for the Wallabies on Channel Nine or 9Now.
The ability to showcase community sport, and the role it plays, provides more opportunity and more unique stories to tell, and that can really inspire and motivate the next generation of talent in my view.
Sport Streaming Providing New Ways in For Brands
The past 12 months have ushered in a new era for TV. We only have to look at the numbers behind last month’s NRL Grand Final on Nine to highlight the sheer shift in consumption changes and the opportunity that delivers for marketers.
It was the most watched grand final in five years. More than 3.2 million viewers tuned in on Channel Nine and another 400,000 live streamed on 9Now. The match delivered the highest ever audience on any BVOD platform to date, and throughout the season more than half of our streaming viewers watched via connected TV sets.
With this shift in audience comes a shift in brand possibilities. 9Now is allowing brands that possibly viewed sport marketing as too expensive a way in. And for those heavily on board the sport train already, there’s the ability to engage the most passionate viewers in the most personal way possible, tapping into Nine’s 14 million signed-in users with enhanced people-based marketing products like Nine Audience Match.
Streaming is also altering the way in which we craft our digital product. For example, we know the fan experience doesn’t always mean watching a match from start to finish, and we only need to look at the growth of our short-form video on 9Now/WWOS.com.au, which is up a huge 147% year-on-year, largely driven by rugby, to know the appetite for highlights is a real growth opportunity.
Armed with this knowledge, next year we are launching our Wide World of Sports Mini Match content across all major sporting codes. It’s the best parts of the big matches, curated by the world’s top storytellers, with only the highlights in mind that connect with lean-forward Australians.
Think Big, but think broad … and make it easy with one media partner
In 2021, so many clients, hand in hand with Nine’s marketing solutions team, Powered, delivered more big ideas and produced more integrated cross-platform work in and around sport.
We connected the dots across more cross-platform campaigns, like Rebel Sport’s ‘Sport is Calling’ with Erin Molan and James Bracey.
We helped McDonald’s tell their story of being part of NRL’s game-day ritual in State of Origin, which saw them take out the inaugural State of Originality award, Australia’s richest creative award.
We put DoorDash front and centre on the biggest day on the NRL calendar, Grand Final day, and in doing so, gave them the largest number of new app users acquired in one day.
And in the case of Samsung, when they introduced the Galaxy S1 Series smartphone to Australia, we helped to leverage summer’s biggest sporting event – the Australian Open – to tell their story across our entire ecosystem, serving up an incremental 6 per cent consideration and a 15 per cent uplift in consumers who agreed that “Samsung Galaxy smartphones have the best quality camera” in its wake.
Why did all these brands turn to a partner like Nine?
Because this kind of marketing works, and it’s best done when a media partner can serve up TV, digital, radio and print alongside data and technology solutions, all in one place.
We know that creativity is one of the key drivers of advertising effectiveness, and when done at scale, across multiple touch points, that’s when the magic happens.
So as we head towards 2022, it’s clear that Nine is really putting the “Wide” in Wide World of Sports. There’s the reach and power of Nine’s total television offering backed by its 14 million signed-in users. Then there’s the live and local appeal of Nine Radio, along with expert deep-dive content from The Herald and The Age.
Add to that Nine’s marketing solutions division Powered, which can help you make sense of it all and deliver the best possible outcome, and you’ve got an unparalleled sport marketing solution.
You can view a recap of Nine’s Wide World of Sports Playmakers event, where Nine showcased their sport content strategy for the year ahead across TV, digital, radio and print.
Find out more here