“Never waste a good crisis” – the quote from Sir Winston Churchill briefly summarizes the current situation in almost all industries. Strong companies are investing, the less fortunate players are trying to survive. Although the involvement of each economic player is variant, one thing is sure: the crisis has to be successfully managed.

The pandemic crisis has revealed systemic weaknesses within the sports sector, which makes a scenario of imminent recovery highly unlikely. But as Churchill said, we should see the crisis as an opportunity to grow. It is time to introduce the long-delayed developments!

Digital assets can unlock a broad space for growth

The yearly research of PwC was conducted in this hectic environment between June and August through an online questionnaire distributed to sports industry leaders around the world. They have received 780 responses across more than 50 countries, which gives the credibility and transparency of this comprehensive report. Without being too detail-oriented, in this article we have introduced primarily the discoveries that kept the OPPORTUNITY in focus.

On the bright side, most sports leaders agree that sports’ capacity to engage audiences remains crucial, as interest in live sports content is not expected to drop. But the way fans want to consume it changes even more rapidly than before.

The pandemic has significantly weakened physical entertainment, reinforcing the value of both immersive and interactive technologies to compensate for sports’ diminished visual and social experiences. Highly rated by survey respondents, digital assets can unlock a broad space for growth in particular by making use of the rising interest in short-form and on-demand content.

The results of the survey also show that sports leaders fully recognize the digital fan experience as a TOP priority, although few organizations have yet managed to deliver it in a way that allows it to acquire and retain fans sustainably.

The final part is the most important, and here is where most sports businesses fail right now. Clubs, federations and even athletes are spending a tremendous amount of resources by creating content for their fans, but many of them are unable to sell them properly for the brands/partners/sponsors and unlock the full potential of their digital platforms.

Digital partnerships are not expenditures but INVESTMENTS

This is the point, when it is well worth turning to external partners and bringing in knowledge. As the winds of change have affected everyone, it is worth turning to actors who have been active in this field before and can bring tangible experience into the organization. Because digital transformation does not happen overnight.

As Seyu is a 200+ event proven technology, we had enough time and experience to improve our service hand-in-hand with our partners. Remaining with the example of PwC presented above, Seyu is capable of adding immediate value for a right holder in each step. As for the creation part, Seyu enables moderated, mass-produced, fan-generated social media content. There is a consensus between the marketing experts that user generated content is one of the most powerful materials for content creators: now we can fulfill the second point either, as the selfies bring incredible results on the social channels. The third session, monetization is where Seyu improved the most. Depending on the goal of each partnership, the solution could bring different flexible and jointly developed digital business models.

First of all, a cooperation with Seyu immediately opens 8 new marketing channels to directly reach fans, which can be sold to sponsors or any stakeholders. Secondly, within a framework of loyalty marketing campaigns it can generate added revenue by rewarding the high-spending fans with the V.I.P photo sharing experience, which is a compelling upsell solution. Thirdly, the merchandising part also could gain momentum with the bundled offers. These are the key “quick win” areas, and we did not even talk about smart data, which represents value in the long run from one such collaboration.