Just flying home from a workshop where we’ve been speaking to the football industry about sponsorship, social media and growing fan loyalty.
Here’s a quick overview of why the three work so well together with less of an emphasis on football and more on sponsorship in general.
Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Disney, MTV, Red Bull, Converse. All brands that have achieved an impressive following across the pages of facebook, twitter and their own socially-supercharged sites by mastering the art of ‘storytelling’.
Just take a look at facebook’s fanship charts as a good indication.
These brands work tirelessly to keep the story flowing and their audiences alive. It’s the modern day Arabian Nights, where Queen Scheherazade avoided execution by telling an endless story to King Shahryar!
Today, brands need to feed consumers to keep consumers.
And consumers are hungry.
Social media has a different dynamic to other channels. Social loves stories that keep the content coming. Why? Because that’s what consumers want.
We hear a lot about brand managers becoming more like publishers. In fact, it’s more like programming schedulers. Brands now have big, open, 24 hour communication channels that are aching to be filled.
But, brands can’t just rapid-fire any content to ‘fill the facebook gap’. Quality counts or you'll turn people away.
Sponsorship offers brands a river of great content for high quality, compelling storytelling...
...an emotional theme that gives the story immediate appeal, connection and traction with an audience.
...longevity, across a tournament, a tour or a season.
...great characters, through talent.
And, sponsorship provides the foundations for a creative narrative that ensures the story is ultimately about bringing value to the brand.
Social media encourages sponsorship to be more creative and to work harder to understand what audience’s really want in order to build richer, more valued, more enduring stories.
Stories that keep audiences coming back for more.
