Sports Takes The Lead In Online Video
For years, broadcasting video to millions of people was the exclusive arena of television stations and movie theaters. Getting your message out on either of these mediums was and continues to be cost prohibitive for all but the largest of advertising budgets. Today, with the advent of high-quality online video, companies only need a little creativity to engage the minds of core target markets both efficiently and effectively.
However, just because the playing field has been leveled doesn’t mean online video is a second-rate vehicle for your company’s message; in fact, some of the largest players in sports television are moving to offer their broadcasts online as well.
One entertainment giant to recently take their show online is the WWE, producers of the legendary Wrestlemania.
If you wanted to take in all the headlocks and arm bars of Wrestlemania 26, you had a chance to tune in on multiple platforms to see the rumble results—through live TV and via online video. The rise of online streaming for sports has left many fans happy with “anywhere” access to their favorite competitions. Likewise, online sports streaming has made advertisers happy due to the increased marketing opportunities.
The WWE isn’t the only name in the sports industry to utilize the medium. The 2010 Winter Olympics streamed online video on the NBC website, offering anytime, anywhere followups on the world’s biggest competitions. According to ComScore results, in the first two days of the Olympic games, NBC’s Olympic site generated more than 177.4 million page views for their online videos.
More recently, millions of people around the world have watched World Cup matches on ESPN3’s online video site, opening up the games to people who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to watch.
Any industry would be crazy not to capitalize on the opportunity that online video offers, and sports companies are leading the charge. Sports media giant ESPN is partnering with major research companies to study consumer behavior when watching sporting events across various platforms, especially digital. By researching engagement, marketers will be able to utilize live sports on the web and make smarter decisions to help grow their branding initiatives.
In the article "Benefits of Online Streaming for Sports", Kent Seiders urges sports marketers to make money while giving their fans what they want by outlining some of the benefits online video provides.
• Avid sports fans will now be able to watch games they are interested in seeing online, on their phones, or at a later date. This keeps fans interactive with their teams and up-to-date with how their teams are doing during their season.
• Advertisers now have an opportunity to sponsor online and smartphone videos and content allowing them to increase their branding strategies as well as hit some of their target markets
• Sports teams now have the opportunity to profit from an online market by offering these live streams of their team.
While online streaming of sports offers marketers the chance to advertise to a targeted market on the website, the article "Web Video Viewers OK With More Ads" by Mike Shields discusses the acceptance viewers have for online video ad breaks.
“The Web researcher released new research today at the Advertising Research Foundation's annual convention and expo in New York which found that people who watch TV shows on the Web are far more tolerant of ads than perhaps once thought, and would actually stand for more clutter. Specifically, comScore found that while sites like Hulu typically serve around four minutes of ads for every hour of content, users would be OK with six to seven minutes of ads,” Shields said.
The ways in which sports fans are watching and consuming their favorite events is changing, and sports marketers must move to the digital space in order to keep up. By offering access to sporting events through multiple platforms, marketers are increasing the opportunity that their target will access the content and engaging the brand.
To learn more about online video, visit the digital marketing experts at The JLS Agency today at www.TheJLSAgency.com/
