Hey, ChatGPT, how can sports marketers stay relevant considering the growth of artificial intelligence?
Sports marketers can stay relevant in the age of artificial intelligence by continuously educating themselves about AI and its applications in marketing, leveraging AI-powered tools to gather insights and improve decision-making, and focusing on building strong relationships with customers by delivering personalised and relevant experiences.
It is also important for sports marketers to stay agile and adaptable, as new AI technologies and marketing strategies will continue to emerge and evolve.
Well, not bad!
Programmes powered by AI like ChatGPT are transforming the way we communicate and interact. While this revolutionary technology brings powerful tools for research and learning, it also raises debates around privacy, data protection, and biases.
AI programmes are here to stay, also at the service of the sports industry. As marketers, it’s our job to leverage this new era of hyper-connection to build valuable relationships with fans, media, and partners.
Okay, but, how will this affect my work?
Let’s get real, or let’s not play, as author Mahan Khalsa says.
AI can help in delivering repetitive work, data analysis, and automation at a higher efficiency and lower cost than humans. Yes, simple and monotonous work will easily be replaced by machines.
Empathy, intuition, creativity, persistence, and sensitivity are what will differentiate us as professionals in a new reality, using AI techniques as tools to improve human connection.
Do you imagine receiving an instant, automated and super-personalised video message from your favourite player when entering a stadium?
Humans being human
Instead of interrupting fans and brands to get their attention, we can choose to listen, talk, and behave like humans.
From shouting to engaging marketing.
In the world of sports and entertainment, content production, distribution, and data are established as essential pillars to secure relevance, interaction, and sales.
Content is the language through which we can produce a different experience. Please, check Red Bull’s social media. Amazing images for the ones who explore their limits.
In terms of distribution, in a highly-competed digital ecosystem, exposing content to the right audience is vital for connection. Influencers have become massive media platforms.
When analysing fans through data, intent segmentation should support our strategy. What is the expressed behaviour of your fans?
Why is age or gender important when it’s passion driving ticketing sales or likes on Instagram? It’s not about demographics or psychographics, but about human behaviour!
The real work
Critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making should be the top players in our daily agenda, seeking to provide our organisation with short-term revenue and long-term economic value.
If AI will eventually be responsible for automated processes, how can I do real work?
First, setting the appropriate metric is as necessary as the effort behind its achievement. The more strategic and long-term output of our work, the bigger impact we’ll be making on the business.
To guide teams’ resources and dedication towards meaningful contribution, here’s a framework of the different metrics that could be used in sports organisations, based on Avinash Kaushik’s Impact Matrix (life-changing, as he promised!).
(Download here)
While impressions, visits, or cost per acquisition reflect a basic picture of today’s results from a tactical perspective, fan and sponsor lifetime value shows a super strategic and long-term situation of the business.
A solid foundation of the bottom left area of the graph is fundamental to increasing the business impact of our marketing strategy, progressing towards more challenging metrics on the top right cluster.
Finally, incrementality will allow you to prove the value of your plan. In other words, what growth can be directly attributed to your work?
For instance, a club can naturally sell 20,000 tickets per game or USD 20m in annual sponsorship because of its brand equity. However, what is the extra result you’re bringing in?
Summary
Artificial intelligence is here to help sports marketers do their job.
Real work is based on human connection, empathy, and critical thinking.
Content production, distribution, and fan data create engagement.
Short-term revenue and future economic impact should lead decision-making.
Let’s get real.
PS. This week marks exactly six years since the first blog post! Thank you for reading : )