Art and sports may seem as though they have very little in common. That’s what I thought until I completed Coursera’s Sports Marketing course with Candy Lee at Northwestern University and attended Hashtag Sports.
I’ve grown up my whole life as a baseball fan and a supporter of the arts and it might seem as though my interest in sports marketing is a major switch from my work as an arts marketer. What I’m finding, however, is that these two industries overlap more than I expected. Below are five art and sports similarities you’ll find in marketing:
Competition with the couch
Both art and sports require audiences to dig into their pockets to spend extra income. Even before the pandemic both of these fields’ competitors were not necessarily other organizations, but the couch. Why take the time to get dressed, make dinner plans, and deal with traffic to attend a live performance or visit an exhibition when you could make your own popcorn and turn on Netflix? Why go through the hassle of figuring out which game to attend, where to park, and stand in line for concessions when you could order delivery and watch a game at home? These are questions and challenges both arts and sports marketers face when considering competitors.
During the pandemic, both arts and sports marketers were still competing with easy to digest online content as they decided how to best switch to virtual events. In Hashtag Sports’ session on reimagining fans’ experiences, sports teams shared how they used new virtual platforms and interactive games and puzzles to keep fans engaged remotely. Although moving programming to an online setting might seem like a viable way to compete with other streaming services, it’s much more complicated.
When switching art programs to a virtual setting, I discovered it was not easy keeping people invested after their long days on Zoom. After too many days staring at a computer screen and the same walls of a home, limited human interaction led to many audiences bailing on virtual experiences and craving in-person interactions.
This behavior may shift as places reopen, but I’ve noticed more people are taking the time to slow down instead of rushing from place to place. Pre-pandemic our world was go, go, go, but returning to that state may not be the first thing on peoples’ minds, especially with so many situations still up in the air. While we don’t know what a post-pandemic world will look like, what is certain is that people are very selective with their time. Pandemic or no pandemic, both sports and arts marketers have to consider how they can continue to engage audiences and make their offerings worth their audiences’ time.
Combination of service and product marketing
Among art and sports similarities is that both embody characteristics of service and product marketing. Product marketing involves fulfilling a target audience’s desires and the promotion of a tangible item that audiences can see and touch. Products can also be bought and used at different times.
Service marketing, on the other hand, does not involve connecting audiences to something that is tangible. Instead, it’s about providing a service that builds a relationship with the customer. That service varies each time and must be purchased and used at the same time otherwise the company is left with unsold inventory.
Which kind of marketing is art and sports? Both. How does this work? The arts and sports both have venues or spaces that have tangible qualities and stay the same. They also have memorabilia like t-shirts, keychains, and books that are tangible products for fans to buy.
What makes the arts and sports also a service, however, is that the experience is never the same each time. For performing arts, the performance may shift depending on audience response, if there is an understudy, or an unexpected mistake occurs. In the visual arts, the exhibition may be the same, but how people interact with it or what they take away from it is different for every person. Sports games experience similar scenarios. Every game is different with no predictable outcome or the same set of players.
Partnerships matter
In sports marketing, it’s all about sponsorships. Through sponsorships, teams and companies can increase brand awareness, set themselves apart from their competitors, and give value to the community they’re building or managing. Sponsorships give teams a sense of intimacy and authenticity.
Marketing in the arts, my co-workers and I consider sponsorships and partnerships of all kinds. Having a sponsor means we have to think about what we want to accomplish from any kind of partnership. While this promotion sounds great in theory, it can also be complicated as we think about how an association with a certain company might reflect on our organization. If a company sponsoring or partnering with us is called out for a major blunder or inequities, does that also reflect on our organization? How do our partners want to be recognized? It’s something my colleagues and I consider and I’m sure sports marketers have the same question on their minds.
For an interesting look at how sports sponsorship trends may evolve in 2021, check out this story from Hatch Communications.
Many people represent your brand
This was such a treat to witness. On the anniversary of Fernando Valenzuela's no-hitter, let's salute the beloved @Dodgers pitcher who incited "Fernandomania." https://t.co/aZ1neGW70M
— Vin Scully (@TheVinScully) June 29, 2021
As a social media marketer, I know that content on the institution’s accounts are not the only ones that reflect an organization’s brand and values. At a nonprofit arts organization, the artists, designers, staff, and volunteers reflect who you are and what’s important to you. It comes as no surprise arts organizations’ audiences gravitate more towards content about and from artists and not the institution for a more personalized approach. Their messages and perspectives capture the attributes of the organization, not the words from the organization itself.
The same thing goes for sports marketing. On social media, it's the athletes audiences want to hear from and learn more about. Like art fans, they’re looking for stories about the people in your company that they can’t get anywhere else. I’m not shocked to learn that sports marketers also have to evaluate their athletes’ social media content, not just the team’s social media posts. Having worked in companies with many sub-brand accounts, I understand the importance of evaluating how any account associated with your company is operating. In the end, their posts reflect on your brand as a whole.
Effective marketing requires more than being a fan
If there’s one major takeaway from the courses and conferences in sports marketing it’s that you have to be more than a fan to be an effective sports marketer. Everybody wants to create content for their favorite team, but not everyone understands how to also be strategic about it. This realization is yet another strong example of art and sports similarities in marketing.
Although being a fan helps you develop a sense of affinity to a team, as a marketer you also have to listen to your customers and determine what you can do to add value to their passion for their favorite team or athlete. From a Hashtag Sports session about eSports, I see how the gaming world is converging with sports to develop programs that are credible, interesting, and provide opportunities for multi-faceted conversations. It’s important to remember that even if you’re a fan, marketing for fans and providing them a sense of community is very different.
The same goes for the arts. Before I embarked on my career in arts marketing, I was an artist with lots of ideas and dreams. Now working in marketing, I find that audiences don’t always comprehend artists’ imaginative and conceptual pieces we share with the public. Taking the time to understand what’s important about a specific production or installation and how we want audiences to feel and react is integral to my work as a marketer. It’s not enough for me to be an art fan. I also have to take a step back and determine if how I’m presenting the work has emotional resonance with viewers and if my company’s programming gives them the sense of community they’re looking for.
Enjoyed my take on art and sports similarities in marketing? Explore my course work.
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Cover Image: Manfred Guttenberger from Pixabay