MIT SLOAN "SPORTS AND ANALYTICS CONFERENCE" IN BOSTON, MASS IN MARCH OF 2017
I will post a link at the end of the article with the 25 minute speech by the Chargers. For those that want a quick summary, I have that for you.
This is a new digital era in the world today with the popularity of all the social networking sites. Corporations to grocery stores to mom and pop businesses are all taking advantage of this new phenomenon to advertise their goods and products. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are the biggest social networking sites out there. The NFL has been very successful tapping into that market as well.
The National Football League assists all 32 teams in the league with analytics in their markets. The Chargers moving to LA was met with misstep after misstep but the Chargers are still trying to gain the social media advantage. Recently, they hired Megan Julian as their Social Media Director. She will work under the Social Media Senior Director Joel Price.
The Chargers Director of Digital Media for Chargers.com Nicoletta Ruhl spoke in a segment called... "How The LA Chargers Are Tackling The Digital Challenges and Opportunities"
Who is Nicoletta Ruhl?
Going by her Linkedin profile she is a school of business graduate from Stanford University. She has spent 12 years in the sports media world and the last 6 years now with the Chargers building their Social Media audience with the teams website Chargers.com. She was vital in revamping the social media department back in 2012. She has accelerated the online revenue and audience growth through social media platforms, the Chargers.com mobile application and TV production. She was a executive producer for 2 broadcast TV shows including the Emmy Award winning "Charger Insider". She was also a member of the NFL Unified Media Committee which assisted teams in consolidating broadcasts and digital social media functions. Translate: She's a pretty smart cookie.
This entire conference was centered around the digital team at Chargers.com and how they use that platform to try and win LA. Nicoletta led off admitting the Chargers suffered in their digital rankings because of the recent on the fields problems. Winning 9 games in two seasons that is expected.
They expect this to be a challenge to attract an audience in LA, Get the audience to like them engage them and to respect them was the goal. The data showed after the move they lost a lot of Charger fans and especially in San Diego. She said they were prepared for that outcome and hoped they would be able to at least maintain the Chargers season ticket holders in San Diego. The majority of the focus though would be on Orange County and Los Angeles.
They planned on doing something in San Diego for advertising but " Not as heavy" as in LA. They were hoping at the time to also get some help by their stadium partner the Rams. She admitted though that might not happen as they are in competition for the same market. LA is the 2nd biggest media market in the United States.
FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM
Nicoletta shared some graphs on the big screen displaying how the team uses the data they gained to use to their advantage.
The Chargers are in the middle of the pack with regards to rankings in the NFL. They expected a huge drop off after the move but that didn't happened.
She stated they had 1.8 million followers on Facebook before the team left San Diego. Facebook saw the biggest drop off of all the social media channels dropping down to 1.7 million after the relocation. The Chargers claimed to be rated 9th in the league with facebook followers.
In 2016, the teams last year in San Diego, they were #1 in the NFL with the Chargers.com mobile app videos through the 2016 season.
They were also in the top 5 in the NFL with their mobile app in engagement. They were 2nd on Twitter in the league going by percentage of referrals.
She claimed the teams twitter followers actually rose from 350,000 followers to 500,000 at the time of the conference in March of 2017. An increase of 125,000 followers. ( No word on if they were fake followers or not). She said overall they were in the middle of the pack for views but the increase in videos and content on the site proves they know what the viewers want and they give it to them.
Instagram saw a slight decrease in followers at this same time period. Although, Instagram saw a 17% increase in followers in 2016. 25% of their content referrals to Chargers.com is from social media channels.
Unique visitors were ranked 19th and now rank 24th. Articles on the site went from 11th to 21st among the 32 teams in the NFL. Videos per post was ranked #2 in the NFL and are #1 in the league with fans using the mobile app. They are 4th per visitor and time on the site is ranked 6th in the league. Their photos are ranked 6th going by visitors to the site. They were ranked 6th before.
Content was the most important data that the fans want. ( no shit sherlock)
While their views have declined over the 2015 and 2016 seasons. They have kept those following the team engaged. 2017 would be a trial and error year for the team. They are presently at the time of this taping working on what is the most successful video or editorial that doesn't yet have a sponsor?
She explained the data and what it showed was fans want content, content. They also use buzzwords on the site such as "roster moves, Joey Bosa, Scouting Reports, and fans1 especially enjoy the images and videos that get put out on the site. They found a way to create revenue using Chargers.com content. The sponsor would get their logo, name and rights on the site. The buzz words "roster moves" became a editorial blog segment called " Bolt Transactions". Then the sold the advertising to sponsors. Ricky Henne is the managing editor of Chargers.com for those of you who know him.
She said they study the data now 10 times more thoroughly than they did in San Diego. The data tells them what is working and what is not working on the site. "For everything that works there is something that's not working". Videos and editorials pieces work the best at Chargers.com. The average view per post was 14,260 with 13,829 of those being sponsored. The annual totals views are 285,292 and 165,590 being sponsored.
WHAT NOW?
Their thinking was the foundation is set and now they just have to amplify everything. They acknowledged the crowded sports market already in LA. "We're not going to steal Dodger fans, we're not going to steal Clippers or Kings fans. How can we tap into those fans and get them to like us, respect us and how can we connect to those fans"? They were working internally and with a agency to began the FightForLA. `
"Who is our audience? What does our audience want? How can they earn their way into the marketplace. How can they maximize the game day experience? This was the questions the digital leaders of the team was asking themselves." They figured they had to establish top tier content engagement with the bigger audience. They had to grow the social audience in LA.
The Chargers see the opportunities as...
1. Establish the same top tier content engagement with a bigger audience.
2. Take that content to the big screen in a very big way. (Shows for tv)
3. Grow the LA based social media audience (listen to the fans in LA and want they want)
4. 360 with a unified media team (put together web, social, media, and TV putting all those components together.
She added in San Diego with their market you could npiece mail it. LA requires a lot more work and resources. Their are going to dig deep into the data to accomplish their goals.
THE LA LOGO
In regards to the logo fiasco right after the move was announced. She said she was deep into that. "What we did wrong was because everything was moving on so quickly, we had this great branding campaign. With it we had a bright new shining marketing logo. It was not a uniform logo but marketing logo we thought people could attach themselves too. It was only 5% of our marketing. We did wrong and it was a mistake to lead with that. We didn't clarify it was a marketing logo only. It was an element of confusion so we put it to the side".,
She added at the end "At the end of the year, how and what are you going to look back on and say this was successful? I think it was being able to establish the opportunities with building the media team and admitting it's not going to all come together at once. It's an investment and it's going to take some time to conquer all of that in the 2nd biggest media market in LA. In doing so, I think year one was successful."
Here is a link to the full presentation. http://www.sloansportsconference.com/content/los-angeles-chargers-tackle-digital-challenges-opportunities/
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