Sports Advertisers Adapt As Viewer Habits, Industry Trends Reshape Marquee Event Marketing
The highly anticipated NFL and NBA Christmas Day games along with college football bowl matchups like the Rose Bowl continue garnering strong advertiser demand and prime ad rates. However, the sports marketing landscape faces shifts in audience behaviors and industry changes influencing strategy.
Disney advertising exec Jacqueline Dobies said inventory for the Dec. 25 Monday Night Football matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers is nearly sold out. Christmas NBA games are also nearing sell-out thanks to revitalized interest this season.
But sports viewing patterns continually evolve in today’s streaming era. Younger fans especially engage more with bite-sized highlights on social media and mobile devices rather than entire broadcasts. This fragmentation challenges networks to better attribute value of rights and sponsorships. Advertisers also balance targeting mainstream TV audiences with niche digital platforms.
These dynamics have streaming giants like Amazon bidding aggressively for exclusive packages while being cautious on profitability. Meanwhile the growing economic downturn may cool recent ad spend spikes from certain categories.
Looking ahead, Dobies expects strong demand but warns of potential plateaus as consumer habits shift. She notes opportunities around advertising inside streaming now that Disney has taken control of Hulu.
Disney’s pending 10-year SEC rights deal also stokes optimism but requires calibrating ad loads and pricing to changing behaviors. Rival leagues face similar challenges catering to modern fans while avoiding saturation.
Ultimately sponsors and networks must rethink event marketing strategies with flexibility to capitalize on both reach of tentpole broadcast programming and engagement offered by personalized digital extensions. The convergence of media industry evolution with sports advertising inoculates risks if innovation stays central.
Branded Car Swarms
No budget for NFL?
Carvertise is a rideshare advertising company that puts brand ads on cars. Over the past couple years, Carvertise has seen increasing interest from brands wanting to send fleets of branded cars to swarm around major sporting events, especially the NFL’s Super Bowl. These mobile ads around events offer brands a way to sponsor high-profile events without paying official sponsorship fees.
Carvertise co-founder Greg Star says broadcast ad inventory for events like the Super Bowl sells out incredibly fast, so brands turn to alternative sponsorship avenues like their roving vehicle ads. Beyond just the Super Bowl, Carvertise has orchestrated branded car swarms at events like the Daytona 500, PGA Tour tournaments, Taylor Swift concerts, and more.
Star notes that while some brands also swarm the MLB and NBA All-Star games, the most consistent major interest is from advertisers wanting to swarm Super Bowls and other marquee NFL events and tap into that audience. Brands view it as a creative way to tap into premiere event audiences by capturing attention around venues.
