Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Use of technology by fans offers industry lots of room to grow t might feel like every sports fan is dependent on the Internet, cell phones and game systems to fulfill th eir sports desire s, but in real ity,we are only halfRICH way there. LUKER Watch th e research number s closely when they suggest large percen tages are on board. Most are based on those who use techno logy or talk about the per cen tage increase over the past year. But when you base it on the population or even on all sports fans , the numbers are still quite small . I CHRIS WElL CHAIRMAN AND CEO MOMENTUM WORLDWIDE • Arewe overplaying theimportance of technology inthesports space today at the expense of better and more-engaged personal exper iences? Some examples: • PricewaterhouseCooper s reports 17 million online game su bscr ibers . Tha t is about 6 percent of th e population or 17 percent of households. The same rese arc h reported roughly 20 million subsc ribers to mobile Internet access of any kind, not just for sports, or about 7 percent of the population . • Nielsen Online re ported ESPN.com topped video streaming in Decemb er, but less th an 8.5 million unique users or 2.8 perce nt of the populat ion. Not only is the use of technology limited, but nearly half of all sports fans today say that techno logy is "not at all important" to their enjoyme nt of sports. Today we are expecting technology to deliver too much of the marketing value in sports. Here are findin gs from five recent nat ional stu dies to back that up : 1 . The shift from newspapers to TV and now to the Internet is one of the most dramati c changes in how fans follow sports. Fifteen years ago, the local newspaper dominated as a lead source for sports infor mation (see top chart). The Internet is the leader now, but with only 33 perce nt of fans. The landscape for sports infor mation has divers ified. The futu re may be dominated by technology, but how likely is it that anyone form of technology will dominate the way newspapers did? 2. Less than half of American s (39.6 percent) ever use the Internet to get sports infor mat ion . In addition , the use of mobile devices for spor ts is below 10 percent penetration. FUTURE FIVE Wh at w ill be th e m ost im porta nt issue of th e second qu art er? SCORE (% OF1ST-PLACE VOTES I ISSUE ...!:.~tat? ?f.U:S:.ec.~n.0nlY. 2~0. (501 . . ...~: .~ bili.tY. of.nli.ddl e ~i ~ c.o ~ e. ~m.~ ri~ a.~ .t~m.i1i.es .to .spe.nd. ~ o.n ~y. o~ .s ~? rt~ 29~. 1231 . ... 3: .Ho. :" fi~ a.~ ~ia l p r~s.su ~? ~.om. p a.n i. e ~.~ee l .,:"iII. a.ff~.ct sports.i.~~est.m.e nt~ , ~ 73. 1 01 1 . ... 4: .Pen~ ing. le~.~u.e/unio.n .I a.b o~.~eg oti~tio~s 1 ~6. 1 31 .. .5: .C ?m'petit!?~ !o.~ ~nl~:ica.~ .s p~rts. ~.P?~.~or~h.i.~ .d ?lI.~ ~s 1 ~~. 1 91 . . "I believe in the power of per sonal, live experiences to build the business and profits of sponsors. We kn ow technology is one tool to accomplis h th ose goals , but we use technology to facilitat e person al experi ence , not as an end. We have seen companies invest cons iderable dollars in digital oppor tunit ies without a clear focus. Most of those efforts fail because th ey are not groun ded in bu ildin g enriche d personal experiences. As longas we think of technology as the destination , we are overplaying th e importance." Note: Results from a panel of 30 industry leaders. Participants ranked eachof 10 issues, with 10 points being assigned for a 1st-place vote, nine for a 2nd-place vote, dow n to one point for a 10th-place vot . Percentages have been rounded. Only the top five are listed. 3 . More than half of all Ameri can s said they were "not at all likely" to spend discretionary income on technology in 2009. Ameri can businesses are focused on developing new technologies for mark eting, but the everyday Amer ican has yet to share that priority, The August 2009Luke r on Tre nds / ICR survey of 1,074 American s ages 18 and older found that two-thirds said they had less to spend than they did in 2008. When asked how they would spend the money left after paying their bills, 54 percent said the y were not at all likely to spend it on technology, 4. Going int o 2010, less than 40 percent of American s said it was important for compan ies to spons or technology opportunities (39 percent) or sports (35 percent). The top three Fu ture Five issues (see above) are economy-based. The December 2009Luker on Tre nds/I CR survey found Americans taking a more positive view of th e economy.Sixty-three perce nt said they expected the American economy to be better in 2010, and 57 percent said th ey expected their own finan cial situation to improve in the new year. But even with th at more optimis tic view of the economy,cor porate investment in technology or sports was not a high priority to more than half of American adults (see chart below). 5. About half of Amer icans (53 percent) and sports fans (48 percent) say technology is "not at all important" to their enjoyment of sports. Going beyond mere use of technology,a February 2010 Luker on TrendslICR survey question asked: "How important to your enjoyme nt of sports is access to games, events and information th rou gh technology such as the Internet or on a cell phone?" Less than one-third of the most-avid sports fans said technology was very important to their enjoyme nt. _ Bright side to a cup half full If you have been thinking th at most American sports fans are already heavily usin g technology in sports, th e good news of the cup half full is that we h ave a lot of room to grow. Half of avid sports fans are above average in their general engagement with technology outside of sports. In general, the bigger the sports fan, the more engaged they are in technology. Generally, younge r people are even more connected to both sports and technology, But the youngest are not th e leader s in sports today. For exam ple, the peak use of th e Internet in sports is among th ose 18-34, not thos e 12-17. Similarly, use of mobile devices in sports peak s at ages 25-34 (46 percent) , followed by 18-24 (38 percen t), then those 12-17 (32 percent). _ What's the point of this trend? It's time to recalibra te our expectations regarding the use of technology in sports. There are too many measures essentially saying th e current top end for even the best technology applications is 50 perce nt , and that is extremely rare . Less than half are using an y specific techno logy application in sports. Less th an half of fan s say they wan t it; less than half want companies to sponsor it. There can be no doubt that, over time, technology will become an even more desired and valued element of the sports experience. But for now, we as an in dustry are far more focused on the role of technology in sports than are more than half of Ameri can fans. _ The use of mobile devices insports peaks with the 25- to34-year-oldage group. II I MARCH 29 ·APRIL 4. 201 0 Rich L uker (rich@lukerco.com) is a con. sultant with The Luker Co www.s ports busi ness journal .com Street & Smith's SpartsBuslness,JOURNAL

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