99SYN14528_SocialSportsFanDoc-V2

Sports Fans,
Social Media and
the Millennial Myth
#socialsportsfan
socialsportsfan.info

What motivates
sports fans
to use social
media?
Rarely does a moment go by without
the ‘Top 10 social tips of the day’
dropping into your feed…
‘Social Gurus’ come at us relentlessly
with hot new widgets that achieve
unparalleled engagement… Wired tells
us what’s ‘wired’ before we’ve got our
heads round what’s ‘expired’…
and global events from presidential
elections to World Cup finals are
measured by their tweet-count.
The world’s biggest brands tirelessly strive to deliver rich
digital experiences that stimulate conversation, ignite
interaction and create new communities.
This is not what Millennial sports fans want.
We have a new ‘front page’, or in
sport’s case, a new back page.
Sport is never far from the epicentre of
social discussion. Nor are Millennials.
As sports marketing people, we are
fascinated by the power and potential
of social media. Yet there is shockingly
little publicised research into what
motivates sports fans (let alone a hefty
chunk of the human race) to use it.
Our social strategies are often
shaped around unsubstantiated
insights, convenient assumptions
and marketing myths.
Here, we lay bare the findings of
#socialsportsfan. We put evidence
around the importance of social media
in the lives of sports fans and expose
assumptions that are often made about
what sports fans want from social.
Our goal is to inspire a smarter breed
of socially supercharged sports marketing
where innovation is driven by real
consumer needs, not the marketing
industry’s need to ‘do something new’.

Some
inconvenient truths
Our findings are presented
across two territories:
Our research into what motivates Millennial sports fans to use social media
has exposed some inconvenient truths for an industry more easily seduced
by creativity than consumer behaviour:
- It is not interactivity and rich content experiences that Millennials want
from social. It’s real-time content, immediately and easily accessed.
- It is not the most official and trustworthy content that Millennials want
from social. It’s a rich breadth of perspectives – they don’t care where it
comes from.
1. The social love triangle
Brands craving ownership are muscling
themselves out of the perfect threesome.
- Sports fans are insatiable social animals
- Social grows fanship… Fanship grows social
- Sports fans are creatures of social habit
2. The great content crisis
Brands prioritising creativity over effectiveness
are missing the easy win.
- I want it all and I want it now
- Authenticity is the real deal
- The future is opinionated
- It is not recognition and reinforcement of their identity that Millennials
want from social. It’s much more ‘to me’ than ‘from me’.
However, our findings do reinforce the often-ignored reality that Millennials are not
one homogeneous group. The younger end does express a desire to interact,
to share, to express their opinion.
All this has great implications for how brands and rights holders think about social
media and the point at which creativity kills effectiveness.
Our findings are based on
over 500 Millennial respondents
(relatively even male/female split) and have been broken out across three groups:
1. Massive Sports Fans
2. Average Sports Fans
3. Small Sports Fans

1.
The social
love triangle
Sponsorship gives a brand a hot lead to a hungry crowd. A way into a warm relationship.
That crowd is as easy to get to through social media as it is in a stadium or on TV.
Gathered around their passions, sports fans are alive and sharing across the social web,
week in, week out.
Sports fans typically consume content in simple, ritualised ways. They are creatures
of habit. The scene is set for a match made in heaven… for fans, brands and rights holders
to come together in perfect harmony, through social content.
But often a brand will ignore the sports fan’s social habits – the obvious places to find and feed
them – and focus instead on enticing fans somewhere different, with something different. This is
usually in the name of ‘creativity’ and ‘ownership’. Of course, both are valuable, but not when
they cannibalise engagement.
Our #socialsportsfan findings encourage brands to avoid making assumptions about what fans
want and to work with existing habits and rituals rather than try to change them.

As fanship grows, so does total time spent
on sport based social media
1.1 Insatiable social animals
Let’s just put this one to bed: Millennial sports fans love social media. No surprises there.
But there’s more to it than that. The bigger the sports fan, the more time they
spend on social in general… and the more of this time is devoted to sport.
3.5
3
2.5
Time on
social media
Time on
sport based
social media
Throughout this research we cut our findings across ‘Small Fans’, ‘Average Fans’
and ‘Massive Fans’. And also by male and female.
Male Massive Fans report spending 2.5 hours on social media a day, with
72% of that time on sports content. This is compared to female Small Fans who
spend the same number of hours a day on social, but with only 21% devoted to sport.
Hours/Day
2
1.5
1
0.5
This is clearly an opportunity for great traction. But do brands and rights holders
really make the most of it? Let’s dig deeper…
0
21% 21% 38% 41% 53% 72%
FEMALE
MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE MALE
SMALL
FAN
AVERAGE
FAN
Level of Fanship/Gender
MASSIVE
FAN
“The main social media I probably
use is YouTube, and from there you
find names, and that leads you to
Twitter, and then they’ll probably
advertise their Facebook and then
you’ll be linked back round to
YouTube to see more videos.
– Robin, dancer.
“
In order to understand sports fans’ usage of social
media, we first need to look at how long they spend
on it. Respondents were asked to estimate how
many hours per day they spend on social media,
both for general use and specifically for sport.
By cross-tabulating these results
against their level of fanship, not only do we see
that the larger sports fans use social media
more in general per day, but they also spend a
greater amount of that time consuming sport-based
social content: overall, 64% of massive fans’ social
media usage was devoted to sport.
Interestingly, when delving deeper into the data
and looking at gender-specific findings, we found
that on average male sports fans spend 22% more
of their total social media time on sport than
female fans. This gender split becomes even more
visible when fanship is taken into consideration,
with ‘massive’ male fans spending 72% of their
social media time on sporting content, compared
to just 53% for female massive fans. Although these
are perhaps predictable findings, they help to support
the notion that sports fans’ interest levels are reflected
in their usage. Furthermore it cements the importance
of massive fans, particularly males, as a valuable
audience for sponsors.
Male Massive
Sports Fans spend
72% of their social
media time on sportbased
content

The younger the sports fan, the greater the effect
social media has on their fanship
22-25yrs
17%
18-21yrs
34%
“The thing I think Cross Fit does very
well with social media is that they are
very quick to pick up the athletes,
and give them a chance to shine so
you can share and experience that.
– John, Cross Fit athlete.
“
16-17
18-21
22-25
16-17yrs
49%
1.2 Social grows fanship…
fanship grows social
Our findings point to a symbiotic relationship between sports fanship and social media usage,
at least amongst the younger members of the Millennial demographic. The more they use
social media to engage with their passions, the more of a fan they become… and
the more of a fan they become, the more they use social to feed that fanship.
This should encourage brands and rights holders to think of socially supercharged sponsorship
as not only a great way to engage with consumers now, but to nurture them for the future:
content is an investment in growing a hungrier consumer.
Sponsorship is typically a long-term game, with a multi-year calendar built around a season or
the build-up to a big event. This gives a brand time to nurture an audience that seems to naturally
grow through social.
But where are these fans gathering and growing?
In order to understand the effect of social media on
fanship, we asked participants whether they were a
bigger fan of the sports/teams/athletes they liked
because of social media. 49% of 16-17 year-olds
agreed that they were, compared to 40% of 18-21
year-olds and only 28% of those in the 22-25 bracket.
This suggests that the younger the fan, the more social
media affects their level of fanship. This poses interesting
questions: is this age skew because those 18-21 yearolds
are too young to have ever really been consciously
interested in sports like rugby, football or tennis without
the facilitation of social media?
Face-to-face interviews with sports fans offered up
another possibility. Cross Fit fan-athletes spoke of the
‘sense of community’ that they feel in their online sports
circles, and added that social media plays a key role
in enabling them to endorse what is a relatively new
sport, to which they want to attract more participants
and fans. They noted that whilst fans of traditional sports
(like rugby) may use social media as ‘one of many’
platforms for discussion, fans of less traditional sports
(like Cross Fit) don’t have this luxury, and champion
social media as a main source of information and tips.
Content provided by teams or individuals has therefore
been pivotal to establishing fanship around these
‘non-traditional’ sports.
49% of 16-17 yearolds
agree that
they are a bigger
sports fan because
of social media
compared to 28%
of 22-25 year olds

As fanship increases, Twitter overtakes Facebook as the
sports fan’s most used social platform
“I mainly use Facebook for
Arsenal and football, but I’ll use
Instagram where I usually follow
brands like Adidas and Puma.
– Khash, football fan.
“
WWW. WWW. WWW.
SMALL
FAN
AVERAGE
FAN
MASSIVE
FAN
1.3 Creatures of social habit
Level of Fanship/Gender
Sponsorship agencies have long claimed that their ‘knowledge of fans’ is what gives them the edge
over other agencies. This may or may not be true. Let’s face it, ad agencies do produce some pretty
tasty 60-second sport spots.
There is, however, a real need to understand what makes fans tick (and click) when it comes to social
media. The content that really flies is the stuff that taps into exactly what fans are thinking
and feeling at any given moment. Truly insightful content puts their thoughts into words,
pictures and film… and helps them express themselves better than they could themselves.
But getting social content right isn’t just about understanding the intricacies of fans’ needs.
It’s about where and when to publish this content. Those who create content are increasingly
responsible for the reach and engagement it achieves. No longer is this the sole preserve of the
media agency.
Add to this fans’ increasing desire for real-time content that drops within seconds of the live moment
and you move towards a one-stop-social-shop that needs to create, publish and promote content in
a single movement.
Fortunately, Millennial sports fans are creatures of social habit. They know what they like and they
know where to find it. Brands should think hard before they opt for ‘build and they will come’ over
‘fish where the fish are’. Moving into section two, we look at who is feeding fans the content they
want. What are the cornerstones of compelling content?
51% of Massive
Sports Fans use
Twitter at least
once a day
Using a scale of 1 (never) to 7 (multiple times a day),
respondents were asked how frequently they used
a number of platforms (both on- and offline) to fuel
their desire for sport. The results showed that YouTube,
Twitter and Facebook massively dominate sports fans’
consumption, with 51% using Twitter, 49% using websites
and 43% using Facebook daily or multiple
times a day. This trend is magnified as fanship increases.
On the other hand, platforms with a comparatively
new digital presence showed dramatically lower usage
across all levels of fanship, with 97% using Pinterest
and 69% using Vine weekly or less. Whilst this certainly
does not suggest these channels should be ignored
(particularly as they have the ability to be integrated
into content on more popular platforms), it does imply
a hierarchy among social media in terms of traction
and engagement.

2.
The great
content crisis
So, it’s easy to find Millennial sports fans who are hungry for great sports content. But what
do you feed them when you’ve found them? What do they consider great content to be?
It looks like brands might be overcomplicating things. According to Millennial sports fans,
what brands publish is less engaging than what teams and talent put out.
This does not add up when you look at the dramatic difference between a brand’s strategic,
creative and social media resources and that of an individual athlete or even a rights holder’s
marketing team.
Our findings suggest that brands’ desire for creativity may be getting in the way
of the simple, real and raw content that fans crave.

Across all levels of fans, motivation for using social
is strikingly simple; everyone wants immediacy and ease
of access to information. As fan level increases, demand
for a richer breadth of information also increases
“You can be watching Sky Sports
News and hear something you
already know because it’s been on
Twitter for 30 minutes to an hour.
– Niall, athlete.
“
Reason for using
2.1 I want it all and I want it now
Smartphone-packing sports fans move fast. So does social. Today, content must be quick
too. ‘Real-time’ is possibly the best example of where brands are getting content right.
This new trend for publishing branded content from social command centres within minutes
of the action is in perfect keeping with what Millennials want.
Immediate access is of massive importance. Wrapped up in this is the need for this access
to be ‘easy’. Content that drops into the palm of their hand, through the channels they already
use, when they most expect it. Don’t make me work: work for me.
Our findings report something a little deeper as a driver of content consumption: ‘breadth of
content’. Millennial sports fans don’t just want one angle on the story, they want all
the angles. They suck up the range of perspectives available and make up their
own minds.
So, brands need to be fast and stand out. This is where creativity counts. Creativity that
doesn’t get in the way of the content, but elevates it. Give them what they want. Give it fast.
And give it beautifully packaged.
Having found out what type of content sports fans
found most interesting, we are now able to evaluate
why this is the case.
Respondents were asked to measure on a scale of
1 (‘not a driver’) to 5 (‘main driver’) how much certain
aspects drive their sport-based social media usage.
Results showed that immediacy of information (79%
main driver) and ease of access to information (78%
main driver) were the key drivers for social media use.
Fans want real-time content and they want to find it,
fast. The need for a richer breadth of information was
the next biggest driver, and became increasingly
important as fanship levels grew. This suggests that
the ability to understand all sides of an issue, and have
all the facts possible, is essential for those Massive
Sports Fans.
78% of sports fans
state that ease
of access and
immediacy of
information are key
drivers for social
media use

Content from teams and athletes is deemed most engaging
with sponsors and governing bodies lagging behind
“You see an individual MMA fighter,
and he’ll say ‘Look, I’ve done this’
and show you a clip. And you’re just
there like, that’s awesome, I want
to follow you and see everything
you do from now on.
“
– Chris, Cross Fit athlete.
2.2 Authenticity is the real deal
Millennial sports fans want a rich breadth of content, but they also want it to be authentic.
What does this actually mean? Our interviews point towards a desire for something ‘real’,
something that ‘gets me inside the game!’.
‘Behind the scenes’ and ‘getting closer to the action’ are terms that have graced almost
every sponsorship brief ever written. Yet social media has opened fans up to what direct,
personal access can really look and feel like. Today, Millennials chat with their idols and
flick through the holiday snaps of their heroes on a daily basis.
Those we spoke to report a dramatic disinterest in the content published by brands versus
that given by a sports fan’s favourite teams and talent. Less than 15% found branded
content to be engaging.
Is this another example of brands missing the point? Do brands package and polish content
so hard that it loses its authentic edge?
In order to understand how to make the most of
content on these platforms, it is essential to understand
which content sports fans find most engaging.
To do this we concentrated on content from four
sports-based categories (brand/sponsor, sports
governing body, athletes/sports person and teams)
and asked participants how engaging they found them
on a scale of 1 (not engaging) to 5 (very engaging).
Of the four categories, brands and governing bodies
were found to be equally uninteresting, with less than
15% of people finding the content they produced to
be engaging. However, men and women were split
on what content they did find of interest. Whilst men
tended to prefer the content provided by teams,
women found that produced by talent (athletes/sports
people) to be the most engaging online. For both,
the level of online engagement with these favoured
mediums strengthens as the level of fanship increases.
The preference for content from teams or talent may
be due to the fact that they simply appear as a more
authentic source than brands: why go to a third party
when you could hear it straight from the horse’s
mouth? Furthermore, they provide the in-depth
knowledge which sports fans crave. From our
interviews, we heard that sports fans ‘want to see
what these top-level athletes are up to’ behind the
scenes and in training because ‘that’s where
non-traditional sports athletes – like MMA fighters –
invite you to engage more’. Another added that they
specifically look out for ‘interviews with the manager and
players’ of their favourite teams on social media feeds
for extra insight into what’s going on. Fans are looking
for the detailed insights which teams and talent can
offer, and which many brands do not.
Less than 15%
of sports fans
find brands’
social media
content engaging

The younger the fan, the more likely they are to express
their opinion through social media
2.3 The future is opinionated
“I use it to get across things
which I want to say. It’s nice to be
able to say “This is what I think.”
– Niall, athlete.
“
Desire to express opinion through social media
‘Social Exchange Theory’ suggests that individuals engage in social interaction in order to gain some
sort of social reward or sense of community. According to the Dual-factor Model, Facebook use
is motivated by two needs: belonging and self-presentation and a study into the social influences in
the use of Twitter can be divided into two aspects: social benefits and social pressures to comply.
Our research suggests that these theories hold two myths about the primary motivations for sports
fans’ use of social media:
- firstly, that sports fans want to interact with content or enter into online debate.
- secondly, that sports fan use social media to increase their sense of belonging.
It appears that the need to engage with social media content, to endorse content, share opinions
and participate in conversation is not a large driver for Millennial sports fans.
However, it is clear from our research that within the Millennial sports fan group, those currently in the
younger 16-21 age range do engage more. Crucially, this is the same age range whose fanship is
most affected by social media.
This trend highlights that even within the ‘Millennial’ group there are important differences
in behaviour. Furthermore, it suggests that as these young sports fans grow up, we
can expect a greater level of interaction across social media as a whole, as well as the
increased fanship that goes hand in hand with it.
This is of vital importance to a brand’s social content strategy when considering this younger
Millennial now and in the future.
16-17 year olds 18-21 year olds 22-25 year olds
The majority of participants stated that they preferred
to be passive in their consumption of social media:
there was no real ‘pull’ to show that sports fans
use social media as a means to publicise their
opinions, contrary to common belief. One fan noted
that whilst they follow and check pages every day,
they were admittedly ‘reluctant to comment as it’s
on a public platform’ (Khash). This may be due to
the increased awareness around privacy. Indeed,
95% of respondents said they were aware that they
are making a public statement about themselves
when posting on social media.
However, responses showed that both bigger fans
and younger fans were more willing to be opinionated
online, corresponding to their increased levels of
engagement which we saw in the previous section.
Once again this highlights the necessity of identifying
the strata within what has traditionally been seen
as a single homogenous group. Whilst lesser fans
are more interested in consuming content, the larger
fans are naturally more engaged and want content
that creates discussion and a breadth of opinion.
Brands need to cater to differences such as this in
order for customers to find their content engaging.
Furthermore, compared to other elements (e.g. music,
clothing, company you keep) 65% of fans considered
their online sporting identity to be the most reflective
element of their offline identity. Clubs and societies
associated with were 53% reflective, whereas the rest
all showed at below average. This may be due to the
nature of the interest itself: for example, whilst music
tastes are extremely personal and therefore easy for
people to criticise, sport is inherently more collective.
It therefore feels ‘safer’ to showcase that element of
our identity through social media.
16-17 year-olds
are twice as likely
to be opinionated
on social media as
26-19 year-olds

Busting the
millennial myth
At the absolute core of our findings lie three simple truths:
1. Sports fans are easily accessed, engaged and grown through social media.
2. Sports fans grow when they’re fed ‘authentic’ content, from a variety of sources.
3. Sports fans are typically hugely underwhelmed by the social content brands currently publish.
So what are brands doing wrong? Why are these strategic and creative powerhouses
underperforming against teams and talent?
Firstly, too often brands prioritise ownership of communities over dropping branded
content into existing communities, including those owned by rights holders. There is,
of course, room for both to work together.
Secondly, too often brands prioritise innovation over effectiveness. The ‘creativity vs
effectiveness’ debate is rumbling across the whole marketing industry, not just
sponsorship. A number of luminaries delivered keynotes at Cannes 2014 that warned
of the poisoned chalice of ‘digital’: so many new ways to engage with consumers,
in the hands of agencies that would much rather win a Lion than report real engagement
or a strong sales uplift.
Brands are relying too heavily on the two key components of the Millennial Myth as the strategy
behind social activation, these being that:
- The idea that Millennials all crave rich interactive experiences that enable them to
express their opinions, reinforce their identities, make new friends and ‘belong’ to
new communities is simply not true. Most don’t. Most simply use social as another
broadcast channel.
- Millennials are one homogeneous group, united by a dominant range of behaviours
and needs. Clearly this is ridiculous when talking about a group that reaches from late
teens to early 30s.
Perhaps the most forward-facing insight of #socialsportsfan is that younger Millennial sports fans
do have different motivations for using social media from older Millennials. They are, perhaps, the
true social generation. They do want to interact, they do want to share, they do want to express
their opinions and they do want to ‘belong’. And their fanship does grow as a result.
These are rich insights for brands and rights holders looking to take the effectiveness
of sponsorship to the next level in the age of the social sports fan.

Mind the gap
“Few subjects are more hotly debated across the sports marketing community than social media.
From the ‘power’ of a Premiership player’s tweet to the ‘fickleness’ of fans that don’t care where
content comes from, as long as it’s quick. Discussion is big, broad and rolling.
You would think that with so many questions being asked by an industry that claims to crave clarity,
that research would be rife. Not so. Each day our feeds bulge with case study round-ups, top ten
tips and indecipherable infographics that fan the flames of confusion. Typically, ‘insight’ focuses on
what is new and big, rather than what works and why.
Understanding what motivates people is the bedrock of worthwhile innovation and creativity. Our
recent work with real-time social content threw light on what motivates sports fans to follow and
share. This heightened our hunger for more, but when we looked for findings, few could be found.
In collaboration with Loughborough University’s School of Business and Economics, we set out
to lay bare the discoveries and debate that will inevitably erupt in response to the question,
‘What motivates sports fans to use social media?’”
Josh Robinson
Head of Digital
Synergy Sponsorship
Academic rigour
“One of the major issues facing marketing professionals is in the understanding of how social media
sits alongside conventional marketing strategies. Research has shown that many organisations
struggle to find where to place social media within their organisational structures. Part of the reason
for this indecision is that there is no clear understanding of the motivation of why particularly young
people use social media, and what impact this has on their engagement with products and brands.
As the number one university for sport in the UK, Loughborough, through its School of Business and
Economics, is interested in understanding how social media impacts on people’s engagement with
their sport or team, but more importantly how this affects their engagement with particular products,
brands and sponsors.
As a university, we train the marketing professionals of the future, and it is essential that our teaching
is based on well researched insights as opposed to simple, uninformed opinions. This research
project aims to develop this understanding and allow organisations to exploit the real potential of
social media.
The research partnership between Synergy and Loughborough University brings together leadingedge
commercial practice with academic rigour and will draw on work from thought leaders in
this area.”
Professor Jim Saker
Professor, School of Business and Economics
Loughborough University

#socialsportsfan
socialsportsfan.info