With the NFL season behind us and the NBA season heating up, I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about sports fandom and its evolution. The rise of streaming and creator content means fans can engage with sports in many more dimensions \u2014 in deeper ways and from different angles and voices. In particular, fans come to YouTube en masse to access worlds of sports content, including content from their favorite creators that they can\u2019t find anywhere else.<\/p>\n
The sports leagues themselves are taking notice. Case in point: the NFL. To meet the next generation of NFL fans where they are, the league partnered with some of Gen Z\u2019s favorite YouTube creators at the Super Bowl, like FaZe Rug, who got access to wide receiver DK Metcalf for a\u00a0This or That game, and Hayley Kalil, who posted\u00a0fit checks<\/u>\u00a0with her dad straight from the Super Bowl field. Beyond the creator partnerships, the league showed up on YouTube with a real-time, multiformat strategy, posting\u00a0reaction\u00a0videos,\u00a0candid moments<\/u>\u00a0from the field, and much more, generating tens of millions of views on the platform and reaching a younger audience.<\/p>\n
If you look to other sports, videos related to professional basketball content on YouTube have averaged over 150 million views a day over the last six months.1<\/sup>\u00a0People come to watch analysis and commentary on the games, hear directly from players who have started their own channels, and get a hit of nostalgia from classic moments. Live streams are particularly popular, with creators like\u00a0Caz\u00e9TV<\/u>\u00a0hitting 6 million peak concurrent views during the FIFA World Cup. The Paris Olympics are still a few months away, but fans and creators across the world are already participating in the hype. In just the first two months of 2024, there are hundreds of millions of views on YouTube of videos related to the Olympics. The official Olympics channel on YouTube has also joined in on the fun with videos highlighting past Olympic Games, stars to watch out for in #Paris2024, and\u00a0best-of moments<\/u>\u00a0for some of the most iconic athletes.<\/p>\n Sports fandom \u2014 and the opportunities for advertisers \u2014 is only getting more expansive and more exciting. Here\u2019s a look at what fans love on YouTube, how creators are innovating to connect, and how marketers can reach these critical audiences.<\/p>\n The surround sound of sports content is rich with opportunities for marketers across any vertical and category. That\u2019s because sports content is so much more than highlights. YouTube\u00a0creators are really next-generation studios<\/u>\u00a0who keep their fingers on the pulse of what people care about. Let\u2019s take a look at some examples.<\/p>\n Some of us prep for game day by dusting off the air fryer. Actually, millions of us do. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, there were over 900 million views for recipe-related videos in the United States.2<\/sup><\/p>\n Others want to get closer to the action from unique angles they would never get in a traditional broadcast.\u00a0The Scotts<\/u>, a couple with 3.6 million subscribers on YouTube, bring their fans along for the experience with\u00a0Get Ready with Me Shorts<\/u>. One of my favorites is watching creator Mark Rober show up at the game with a\u00a0reversible Chiefs\/49ers jersey<\/u>\u00a0to make sure he was having fun at every touchdown and making plenty of friends on either side.<\/p>\n Even though sports fandom is shifting quickly, one thing hasn\u2019t changed: Ads are still a quintessential part of marquee sports moments. Super Bowl LVIII ads and teasers posted on YouTube have more than 1 billion views (and counting).3<\/sup>\u00a0And, when brands post their ads on YouTube, fans don\u2019t just watch; they spread the word about their favorites. 2024 Super Bowl ads have had millions of shares so far.<\/p>\n Creating ads for a particular moment may be a Super Bowl-specific phenomenon, but there\u2019s a lot for marketers to learn by looking at what rises to the top. The top-three most-watched spots on YouTube on game day showed that, when brands feature well-loved faces and get humor right, it\u2019s a winning combination. From Tina Fey\u2019s \u201c30 Rock\u201d reunion for\u00a0Booking.com<\/u>\u00a0to a star-studded audition for\u00a0T-Mobile<\/u>\u00a0to Arnold Schwarzenegger\u2019s world-famous accent as a\u00a0State Farm<\/u>\u00a0agent, familiar faces and strong punchlines resonated with fans.<\/p>\n Pop culture also gets viewers talking. Uber Eats grabbed audience attention by getting the Beckhams to re-create the most viral moment from their recent documentary as a\u00a0teaser<\/u>\u00a0for their ad. Cetaphil turned to the Swift Effect for inspiration for its\u00a0#GameTimeGlow spot<\/u>.<\/p>\n The ways fans consume sports has expanded along with sports as a genre. Short-form video has exploded on YouTube, with\u00a0fan reactions<\/u>\u00a0and\u00a0memes<\/u>\u00a0shaping and reflecting culture as it happens. Long-form video like the\u00a0Kelce brothers\u2019 podcast<\/u>, \u201cNew Heights,\u201d is one of many podcasts on YouTube capturing viewers and listeners by the millions.<\/p>\n For brands, more variety means more opportunities to tell your story across all the ways fans are watching today. Some of the most popular ads this year included\u00a0teasers<\/u>,\u00a0extended cuts<\/u>,\u00a0Shorts<\/u>,\u00a0creator partnerships<\/u>, and more. We\u2019ve seen brands encourage viewers to rewatch ads multiple times by challenging them to find hidden QR codes or even enter a\u00a0national sweepstakes<\/u>\u00a0to kick off the tax season.<\/p>\n This explosion and fragmentation of video types and formats can feel overwhelming without the right insights, tools, and technology. The same Google AI solutions that help each fan find more content to love\u00a0power ad solutions\u00a0that help you reach people in those moments. That includes a spark of inspiration for your next campaign, finding the right audiences for your campaign, and scaling your creative across formats.<\/p>\n From the excitement of the Super Bowl to the global spectacle of the upcoming Olympics, sports have a special way of bringing us together. On YouTube, the momentum never stops \u2014 and I can\u2019t wait to see how brands will keep evolving their marketing to meet every moment.<\/p>\n Taken from: https:\/\/www.thinkwithgoogle.com\/marketing-strategies\/video\/sports-fandom-and-youtube\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the NFL season behind us and the NBA season heating up, I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about sports fandom and its evolution. The rise of streaming and creator content means fans can engage with sports in many more dimensions \u2014 in deeper ways and from different angles and voices. In particular, fans come to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[460],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-advertising-trends"},"yoast_head":"\nFrom recipes to reactions, creators drive worlds of sports-adjacent content<\/h4>\n
The most-watched Super Bowl ads are a window into what resonates with fans<\/h4>\n
More ways to watch means more ways to turn sports fans into\u00a0your<\/i>\u00a0fans<\/h4>\n