WATCH: Next-level content strategy: revenue, reach and purpose

Chaired by Cameron MacDonald from Leaders, James was joined by Daisy Vollans, Head of Digital and Engagement at SailGP. The panellists covered topics including, reimagining strategies to meet revenue goals, increasing global exposure and awareness to help elevate and tackle wider societal issues, as well as the value of data and insights.

Here are our key takeaways from the panel:

Reimaging content strategies to meet revenue goals

When thinking of a content strategy, fans need to be at the heart. The strongest content strategies are the ones that are a blend of multi-faceted strands that can also be flexible.

By utilising different forms of primary and secondary content, federations and brands can cut through a very busy sports media landscape. For example, live-action highlights evoke the emotion of being at a real-life sporting event, athlete-focused stories provide a human narrative and both used in conjunction with a strong news piece all come together to provide content that is engaging and much longer lasting than just highlights alone.

Creating flexibility with your audiences with the content they receive is also another key asset federations can have. By localising content or harnessing the power of ‘digital word of mouth’ through rawer more in-the-moment content, federations can strengthen fan loyalty and ultimately their engagement in real-time.

However sometimes no matter how much you plan the unexpected viral moment can be the most powerful tool, for example when Snoop Dogg was snapchatting along to a SailGP event about one of the crashes, pushing sailing to a much wider demographic that money just simply can’t buy.

When thinking of a content strategy, fans need to be at the heart.

Creative and authentic partnerships

Branded content is no longer about sticking a logo on a piece of equipment or a kit, it’s about having an authentic partnership that helps drive brand awareness and engagement with fans through a relevant, credible and intelligently told piece of content. An example of this is SailGP working with their sponsor Oracle, who also sponsors Red Bull racing, and creating a series around the power of data for both SailGP and F1. The series saw Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez being brought on an F50 boat and looking at the similarities when it comes to data across both sports. This authentic series saw 53% of people who engaged with that content, hadn’t engaged with SailGP before showing the power of cohesive working.

How sports can help elevate and tackle wider societal issues

Fans of any sport today are much savvier when it comes to environmental and societal issues that are close to their hearts and they look for sports and brands that reflect those values. Building content that is engaging, and educational can help drive awareness of these issues and give a brand a real purpose. SailGP’s ability to drive content through their initiatives such as Women’s Pathway, fast-tracking the training and development of female athletes with the goal of creating an inclusive sporting championship that has gender equity or Impact League which tracks the positive actions the teams make to reduce their overall carbon footprint, mean a potentially untapped audience can be reached through these important actions and messaging.

Any audience is a good audience

For newer or less well-known sporting entities sometimes any audience is a good audience. Making your content as widely available as possible to as many different audiences, through as many diverse platforms as possible, can help drive engagement and help the federation cement itself as a sports entity.

The value of data and insights

The power of market intelligence and reporting cannot be underestimated. These pivotal data points and reports provide brands and federations with the knowledge they require for the content they are putting out to create maximum impact. Using data, tweaks can be made to content to provide a more localised feel or publishing times can be modified to reengage targeted audiences, all helping to amplify the reach of the content.

But data doesn’t just help with fans and new audiences, it can also be a powerful bargaining chip to have with sponsors. Providing a great tangible metric such as showing them the reach a federation has in a certain territory and how many eyeballs could see their brand can prove to be invaluable when renegotiating contracts or onboarding new ones. Data really is king!

The power of market intelligence and reporting cannot be underestimated.

How Story10 can help?

If you are looking to reimagine your content to amplify your marketing campaigns around this year’s major sporting events, as the world’s largest sports video distribution network, Story10 is in the perfect position to help you.

We connect brands and federations to an engaged global sports audience through authentic storytelling, helping you reach your target audience on any platform, in real-time. Get in touch to find out more.

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