First, Final or Forever
After 18 years, Feyenoord of Rotterdam won the Dutch ‘Eredivisie’ title for the first time this century and automatically qualify for the next UEFA Champions League. Will arch rivals, Ajax of Amsterdam achieve the same feat by winning the UEFA Europa Cup Final against Manchester United on 24th May in Stockholm? More importantly, as marketers, what effect will this have on the bonds between a fan, their club and the brands who sponsor them?
Neuroscience research suggests our brain forms memories and brand associations more strongly when messages and experiences are more personally relevant. Every Feyenoord fan will remember exactly where they were the minute Dirk Kuyt scored his third goal and, as they say, the rest is history.
When talking about the first ever sub 4-minute mile, the name Roger Bannister comes to mind. Bannister set his record of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds on 6th May 1954. His record lasted just 46 days but he was the first. Some 63 years later, Olympic marathon champion, Eliud Kipchoge and two other athletes attempted to break the 2-hour mark for the marathon at Monza F1 track in Italy. Kipchoge was 25 seconds outside the magic 2-hour barrier. However, the attempt orchestrated by Nike to promote the new Zoom Fly sneaker did generate 4.9 million views posted on twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It was also part of a campaign challenging runners to login in via the Nike running app and participate in a 5,000 meter sub-25 minute challenge the following weekend. Even great brand rivals, Adidas, sent out a congratulatory tweet to Nike and Kipchoge for a courageous run!
Great sporting achievements are one of the few moments that truly resonate and stay embedded in our memories for years to come. The difference today lies in the potential to engage with each one of those fans in Rotterdam or those online watching the Kipchoge attempt. The opportunity lies in data and personalisation at scale, according to Asad Rehman, Director Media, North Africa and Middle East from Unilever. A couple of months ago, one of Unilever’s household cleaning brands, Jif, ran 78 7-second pre-roll videos on YouTube based on various searches people performed on the platform. Instead of the same message going to millions of people at the same time, the audience was segmented into 78 different groups based on their search habits. While the message remained essentially the same, the context of the message was different, and that context delivered greater relevance and salience.
In sport, we are fortunate that images of Kuyt and Feyenoord or Kipchoge at Monza are highly emotive and engaging. We do not need 78 different versions to express the message. However, we do need to better understand how to personalize this memory for the fans in association with the sponsors, volunteers and stakeholders who worked tirelessly to make it all happen. When it comes to changing the course of history forever, there are few better examples than Edwin Budding. His contribution? He patented a machine and sold it to Regent’s Park Zoological Garden in 1830. Budding’s technological breakthrough was more commonly known as the ‘lawnmower’ which allowed fields and grass to be cut more evenly which ultimately led to the creation of sports playing fields. One simple invention at the heart of an industry worth $620 billion today…..
As the sun sets on those final matches and those who were first, one has to wonder who will be the budding genius that will create the lawnmower of data, personalisation at scale and the power of sport to go down in the history books forever?