Consumer engagement, in a nutshell, is the manner in which marketers captivate an audience by utilizing associations with a product and drive interaction with the brand. Living in the digitized world that we do, this interaction may be no more than the tap of a smartphone away from not only understanding the individuals thought process, but also generating more participation from the consumer. This has become the butter to social media’s bread when companies are looking to boost traffic and product recognition. However, it has been a painstaking process utilizing significant man-hours and a fair amount of trial and error over the years. So why did consumer engagement from a fantasy sports perspective take off like wildfire? Look no further than your basic economic factors.
Demand has grown at an average annual rate of 12% over the past six years because there isn’t a limit on supply, per se, and barriers to entry are relatively low. If you think about it, all of our major sports (football, baseball, basketball, hockey, golf, etc.) all have some variation of a fantasy sports league; many of which are mainstream and can be found on sites like ESPN, CBS Sports, and Yahoo! Sports. But don’t worry, the fun doesn’t end there because you can delve a little deeper in to the more obscure sports if bull riding, Iditarod and even darts are your thing. I’m curious as to why fantasy lawnmower racing hasn’t been given more love if lumberjacking makes the list. Back to my original point though; assuming there is a slight decline in anticipated growth of only 8.8% over the next five years, it is still safe to say revenues could increase by as much as 50% because mobile apps have significantly boosted accessibility and there is substantial room for growth with expenditures by the female audience. If this increase plays out, we are talking about a $1.7 billion industry come 2017.
Technology also plays an essential role as far as increasing revenue opportunities and their return on investment when we look at how the games are played. Selecting a group of players and winning or losing based on the cumulative end result seems almost obsolete because that’s how everyone does it. Sure it’s easy because results are measureable, but this is a world that is all about progression. Twitter and SnappyTV connect an audience in real time, so why not take a cue from them and reevaluate our participation in fantasy games. After all, they allow users to interact in a live format and could redefine our perspective of fantasy sports; once again exponentially boosting consumer engagement.
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- How Fantasy Sports Have Changed the Game (urbantimes.co)Google Glasses and Other Prescriptions for Consumer Engagement
- CBS opens sports site to fantasy app makers (nextlevelofnews.com)
- Division of Gaming Enforcement Announces Temporary Adoption of Regulations for Fantasy Sports Tournaments (gloucestercitynews.net)
- Google Glasses and Other Prescriptions for Consumer Engagement (Forbes.com)
- The Rich Reality Of Fantasy Sports: A $1.7B Industry By 2017 (Forbes.com)
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