By Adam Wakefield
South African professional sports franchises have some of the
largest followings on social media across the country, with sport in particular well suited for the engagements generated by social media. How do the franchises themselves use it for their own purposes?
Shanil Mangaroo, marketing, communications and media manager at the
Blue Bulls Company, says for the Vodacom Bulls and its other teams, social media is their primary marketing and communication tool, with other conventional platforms following.
“The advantages are endless – the biggest advantage is that it is a media platform that we can control and utilise as we see fit, especially in a world with so many different media platforms, which often misrepresent or publish skew opinions,” Mangaroo explains.
Social media’s importance to a brand with regional origins but a national footprint like the Blue Bulls is apparent, and for a national brand like
Cricket South Africa and the Proteas it is even more valuable.
“Social media has proven to be a very favourable marketing platform for Cricket South Africa (CSA). In terms of the Proteas, social media is the channel that drives the marketing of our national team,” CSA head of communications and media, Altaaf Kazi, says.
“The #ProteaFire campaign lives on social media and we use this channel effectively to get the team culture, team messaging, and team ethos out in public. Fans are brought closer to the Proteas via social media.”
A direct way to interact with fans
An important aspect about social media both Kazi and Mangaroo appreciate is how social media allows their organisations to directly interact with their core customers.
Kazi says social media helps CSA keep its finger on the pulse of “fan emotion and sentiment”, with the governing body priding itself on how it connects and engages with their fans.
“While our players do have their own personal accounts with huge followings, we also keep our players in touch with what’s happening and how fans are reacting to wins and losses,” he says. “The #ProteaFire campaign has become a vital tool in bringing fans and players closer to each other.”
The Blue Bulls Company, like CSA and other sports organisations around the world, also use social media to keep fans up-to-date through posts and different content.
Mangaroo notes how social media has led to the Blue Bulls Company’s use of broad-based communications becoming idiosyncratic of the past. The Pretoria-based organisation are now able to interact directly with their stakeholders, better understanding their needs and wants.
Sports’ inbuilt market advantage
Sport occupies a unique place in the branding world. The biggest fans are so deeply connected to their favourite teams that fellow supporters constitute a family of their own.
Mangaroo says how that loyalty plays out on social media is in equilibrium with results on the field.
"This affinity and loyalty works to your favour when the teams are performing well and things are going your way. But that also backfires a little when things on the field are not going well," he suggests.
Kazi agrees that as a sporting organisation, CSA and the Proteas enjoy a branding advantage most non-sports markets do not receive.
"CSA, like other major sporting codes, have an opportunity to leverage effectively because players are connected to fans or consumers via passion and emotion and are instantly recognisable," Kazi states.
"Sport brings out varied emotions in people and people connect to these emotional moments created on and off the field by our cricket heroes. From a sponsor’s perspective, player appearances as part of the rights package is a vital component for commercial partners."
Listening to their customers
The rise of professional sports has muddied the more noble aspects of why sports were invented in the first place, but as shown by the likes of Cricket South Africa and the Blue Bulls Company, their rounded approach to social media is helping to close the gap between those on the field and those in the stands.
Ultimately, it is the fans who benefit. If their fans benefit, they benefit.
Do you engage with your favourite sports teams on social media? tell us in the comments below.