Soccer, Tennis, NBA Finals - This Week Online
By Heather D
There's a lot going on in the world of sports this week. With passionate fans rallying around their favorite teams and supporting their favorite players, fan loyalty sites are a huge opportunity for teams, sponsors, and advertisers to attract, engage, and interact with these loyal fans online.
The professional athletic leagues and franchises have also learned that keeping connected with their fans means constant and sometimes personal contact through online journals with the players, streamed interviews, RSS feeds of stats and updates, and special offers.
USASoccerstars - 2006 FIFA World Cup™ Germany
One site that launched this week, is a great example of connecting with the fan base. USA Soccer Stars.com, sponsored by Adidas (adidas.USASoccerstars), presented by Slingbox with the technology powered by SeaBridge Inc. launched a portal that really gets fans up close and personal with the most popular players on the U.S.A. soccer team: captain Claudio Reyna, Eddie Lewis, and Pablo Mastroeni. USA Soccer Stars offers a a real-time journal of the players experiences in preparation for and during the World Cup. In addition to the player's journal, adidas.USASoccerstars is loaded with interactive features. Fans can download the sights and sounds of The World Cup as ringtones and wallpaper to their cell phones, they can text message the players, and send personal photographs, offering their support to the players. In another section, fans compete in online games for prizes from Adidas, Slingbox, and Sirius Satellite Radio.
2006 French Open - Roland Garos
Another interactive site, Roland Garros - The 2006 French Open - Official Site by IBM, provides a TV-like experience online offering the sights, sounds, and personalities of the French Open in audio and visuals. Real-time scores and updates can be downloaded to your desktop or to your cell phone. Keeping fans in the know -- providing rich content and an interactive experience makes this a big draw for tennis fans worldwide. (Note: No RSS feeds which would have been a nice feature.)
NBA Finals 2006
Starting today, the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks square off for the NBA championship. With ABC ESPN covering the Finals, the NBA Finals 2006 is the mega NBA news/content portal featuring the Finals in real-time with video, photo slideshows, stats, schedules, player interviews online and by cell.
- Also, to see how the game owners are involved in their own "conversations" with the fans, check out Mark Cuban's Weblog which we've followed for months now on Viaspire's Blogroll.
Sports marketing has recognized the power of mobile media. Reaching consumers anytime, anyplace is making the Internet/data plan-enabled mobile devices the hot zone for delivering content, interactivity (polls, sweepstakes, TXT interaction, etc.), and most importantly advertising right into the hands of the consumer.
ESPN recognized this opportunity with the MOBILE ESPN which launched earlier this year. (Avery got a special preview of this in January while rubbing elbows with some of the ABC/ESPN product marketing team at the Rose Bowl.)
So, whether you are a soccer fan tracking Cup play in Germany, a tennis fan keeping score in France, or a fan of the NBA getting ready for the tip off in Dallas tomorrow -- there are so many rich media sources out their for you to connect with.
If you are a marketer -- look to these sites and others to understand how these organizations are reaching and interacting with their fans, building community, and driving traffic to their partners. You can learn a lot from how these sites are maximizing their relationships and how their consumers' loyalty breeds opportunity with affiliates, advertisers, and further conversion with your brand.
Goooooooaaaaaaaaal!
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