Digital marketing and brand engagement are absolute musts for companies who want to be remembered and successful. Companies in the sports industry are no exception. In Indonesia, the sports industry has extraordinary potential, since many Indonesian people spend so much time, money and energy on doing or enjoying sports. Sports also connect many of us. We wear the same sports jacket, shirts, shoes, and connect digitally to our favorite sports teams and players.

While the audience continues to be a heavy user of digital channels, this also allows sports teams, leagues, athletes, and brands to reach their die-hard fans straightaway. The ability to reach a targeted audience is now more accessible than ever before. In digital, interaction in social media has a big impact on increasing connection with the audience. With the opportunity to connect with so many people literally at your fingertips, social media and sports marketing go hand-in-hand in today’s world.

Almost every day, sports enthusiasts browse various sports news, so they won’t miss any update from their favorite team or athlete. The digital age has also changed the habits of their fans. They can in real-time exchange information and update the latest issue around sports through social media, website, and blog. In my opinion, the most important thing for the sports industry to carry out brand engagement strategies for their fans is content. These are some content types that engage your audience and drive shares, likes, submissions, or comments from them:

  1. Live streaming

Sports viewership on platforms like YouTube TV come to rise. we’re also seeing social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter partner with sports organizations to broadcast real-time sports content to give the social media what they want—opportunities to watch the game more conveniently than ever before.

  1. Live Tweeting

People also turn to Twitter for big events—especially sports games. To help quench the thirst of fans needing to be updated on games in real-time, live tweeting has become an increasingly popular way for teams and broadcasters to keep their audience engaged.

  1. Augmented reality

Sports companies can also utilize interactive marketing campaigns throughout a game by using augmented reality. For sports fans, every game or competition is fine entertainment. Besides, you can explore in creating custom Instagram stories AR filters as a fun and interactive away of reaching new users and strengthen the brand engagement.

By engaging fans via social media, the sports industry can open new communication channels with their audience. Successful brand engagement also will help brands, teams, athletes to build a passionate and loyal fanbase and connect with them on an emotional level. So, don’t forget to involve your audience on your digital content because sports fans love to be a part of everything that their favorite team, brand, or athlete represents. Last but not least, brand engagement also helps the sports industry to open up commercial opportunities through sponsorship.

Author: Seruni Putri Yudithia (Asc. Account Manager)