ROI – Creative Journal: Marketing and Creativity

How Sports [Marketing] Has Changed

December 30, 2014

The sports game has drastically changed. Yes, fans still root for their favorite teams and wear their lucky jersey on game day, but off-the-field, sports teams have shifted from traditional marketing strategies and advertising models toward more progressive and hands-on approaches.

With an ever growing demand by consumers for engagement and relevancy, the sports industry has responded by taking marketing and creativity to new levels. As a result, the sports industry has opened up new partnership opportunities and ways to connect with fans.

Reactive and Proactive

In 2010, the top 50 advertisers in sports spent a combined $6.6 billion on sports advertising, up 27 percent over what the top 50 companies spent in 2009 and 22 percent more than 2008 (SportsBusinessJournal.) So what changed? While we may not go so far as to say everything, a clear change was the way that the sports industry approached fan engagement and the creative process.

Although social networks Twitter and Facebook started in 2004, the sports industry only began catching up with it around 2008. Although ‘late to the party,’ sports teams quickly began to turn their attention toward the digital space and social networks because of the intriguing opportunity that they offered. Prior to the ‘new digital age,’ sports advertising and marketing online revolved around advertising opportunities where success had a clear definition. From traditional advertising campaigns that focused on the PPC/CPI/CPM model and standard sponsorship titlement of web assets, sports teams played it safe when it came to online marketing and advertising, with creativity often found only in offline opportunities.

Social Media

How Do You Measure ROI In Social Media?

December 2, 2009

In the first 24 hours upon its’ release, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” smashed U.S. sales records by selling 6.9 million copies in the United States alone. It took J.K. Rowling over a year to write, but took only an hour to make millions. With any task or campaign one engages in, the ROI on the project is at the top of the list. Whether it be selling a book or a new TV commercial for your product, the ROI is how success is judged. With the explosion of social media marketing, companies often find themselves going through the motions of creating Twitter accounts and Facebook fan pages, but without any true understanding of “why.” This is due in part to the difficulty in measuring ROI for social media.

The Conflict of Push Marketing and Social Media

The biggest reason why it is difficult to measure the ROI of social media campaigns stems from the premise of social media itself. When sites like Twitter and Facebook were started, the immediate goal wasn’t to monetize it, but rather to create a platform that allowed users to interact, share, and network with one another in a seamless and simplistic manner. As these platforms gained popularity, it also began to attract marketers and companies that were exploring new ways to ‘push’ their product out there.

Here in lies the problem. The concept of ‘push’ marketing is one that is used by most if not all companies, and involves creating a product and actively reaching out to consumers in hopes that they will buy it. Traditionally, this involved an assortment of strategies including cold-calling, advertisements, and extensive marketing campaigns all of which were geared toward and increase in sales. Here, a successful campaign involves an ROI where money was made. Plain and simple. Continue Reading…