Understanding buying processes.
Introduction
As the world of live events is becoming more ‘normal,’ sports clubs are eager to market to ticket-buying fans in the best ways. The key to successful sports marketing, of course, involves understanding your target audience’s behaviour.
Crunch conducted research with a nationally representative sample of 1000 in the UK and the US. This research was conducted between the 14th and the 26th of January 2022. The results focus on several key topics that could be of use to those in sports marketing.
After evaluating the research, we collated this information into four-stand out aspects of sports fan behaviour in 2022.
- 41% Attend Sport Yearly
2/5 of those surveyed attend sporting events at least once a year, with age being a bigger factor in attendance than gender. Football is the most popular sport, with 71% of the surveyed population having attended a football game. The next most popular sporting game was tennis, with 20% of the population having attended.
- Nearly 3 in 5 Use Social Media When Looking for Tickets
57% of the surveyed population had used social media to look for tickets to sport events, so if your club isn’t utilising the power of social media – it’s time to start. These were some of the most popular sites fans used to buy sports tickets:
- Facebook – 34%
- YouTube – 32%
- Instagram – 28%
- Twitter – 23%
- Pinterest – 10%
- Never used social media to buy sport tickets – 43%
There was also a noticeable age gap percentage of those who have used social media to access ticket websites by age.
- 18 to 24 – 81%
- 25 to 34 – 79%
- 35 to 44 – 57%
- 45 to 54 – 53%
- 55 to 64 – 22%
- 65+ – 12%
- 82% Expect to go to More or the Same Amount of Live Sport Compared to 2021
We asked if people expected to attend live sport in 2022 more or less than previously, and here were the results.
- Less – 18%
- The same – 41%
- More – 41%
Though there was some scepticism over whether sports events would be widely attended after the pandemic, it is evident that most of the population are planning to attend events either the same amount or more so than previous years. Because of this, it is the perfect opportunity to start marketing to these types of people. The desire to attend games is there, so it is now up to sports clubs to home in on their marketing strategy to ensure they’re reaching the right people, at the right time, on the right channels.
- Around a Third of Those who Attend Live Sport Games Plan to Buy a Season Ticket for This Year
Out of those who plan to buy a season ticket this year, 42% are not regular buyers. This is a great opportunity to draw in interested sports fans who haven’t bought a season ticket from your club before.
Those more likely to be planning to buy a season ticket this year are:
- Young families – 48%
- Londoners – 46%
- 18-34’s – 38%
Case Study
So now that you’ve got up-to-date information about your target audience, how can you use this to your advantage? Successful sports marketing can be difficult without a dedicated team on hand, but we can help.
We’ve previously worked with a National Rugby Club who needed to deliver a strategy using various channels to reach the most relevant rugby fans. We used visual media and search targeting to engage audiences and drive them towards a seasonal membership lead. Here were the results:
- 1.4 million impressions.
- 1.19% click through rate.
- 17,200 clicks.
- 142 leads.
Get in Touch
If you’re interested in finding out how Crunch could help your sports club, you can book a quick chat with one of our experts today.
