Broadcasters have taken notice. During the most recent Super Bowl, Ellis noted that Paramount created ads that allowed viewers to add its shows like Halo and Fire Country to watch lists or drive traffic to a partner like Pfizer.
Pointing out that 90% of the audience of a typical social media ad disappears within four seconds, Ellis said this is the year to tout the virtues of a 30-second, non-skippable ad and the metrics behind it.
“I feel like we’ve ceded the story about the effectiveness of the ad format to platforms for a long time,” Ellis said. “We all know that they are important, but if we do our job and improve our ability to measure attribution and performance, we will prove what to me is obvious, which is a nonskippable 3-second ad on a 60-inch screen, let’s just say is at least as effective as a four-second ad on a six-inch screen.”
Breakaway speed
To reach evolving audiences, the content of sports marketing holds as much value as its medium. Frederick pointed to the Rams’ beachfront Draft House as an example of how a brand can set itself apart in a crowded, easily distracted market.
“When we think about a market like Los Angeles that has not successfully sustained an NFL team for decades on decades, to build a fandom means you have to break through,” Frederick said. “You’ve got over 17 professional sports teams, then you have the Hollywood Bowl, you have the beach, you have the mountains…so the war for attention is real.”
But not just any campaign breaks through the noise. There has to be some degree of truth behind the message that brands, broadcasters and personalities are delivering through ads and social, otherwise it’ll simply be tuned out.
“There is a lot of performative authenticity,” Acosta-Ruiz said. “Listening to the younger generation, they sniff that out in two seconds—’no, you’re not like this, it’s very obvious, you’re reading that off of the script.’ Even if you are reading it, if you feel it, if you mean it, it cuts through deeper.”
Your kids as your market
As sports marketers attempt to navigate audiences and wonder what Gen Z and Gen Alpha expect from them, Whitworth offered a glimpse of being a 40-year-old left tackle in the NFL who young players went to for advice. When he told Rams players at a recent media day what life was like when he was a rookie in 2006—no iPhone, minimal social media, the third PlayStation, the first Wii—he noted that their access to technology meant they knew more than their predecessors did about the technical aspects of their sport and business.
What they want, Whitworth found, is community: To be part of something, to know someone cares about them, to learn how to handle stressful situations life throws at them.
“Why are athletes good at branding and marketing? Because every single year, we put our bodies on the line with one message that we’re getting from the person who leads us and we try to carry that message through to chase success,” Whitworth said. “Just like every one of you guys, when you start a company say this is the message for this year. that’s what we do for a living—but the difference is we get punched in the face to fight for that message.”