Road Runners to Attempt Sports Social Media Milestone at NYC Marathon

A massive sports social media blitz is in the works for the New York City Marathon, according to a New York Times report.

The New York Road Runners, organizers of the Nov. 6 race,  and MapMyRun expect greater than 100,000 people to download the Official ING New York City Marathon Mobile Spectator App, which will be released on Oct. 24 for iPhones, iPads at iTunes App Store and Android Market for Andoid devices at a price of $2.99. (A limited free version is also being released.)

If successful in reaching its six-digit download goal, the New York City Roadrunners will acheive the broadest use of an event-specific sports social media application to date, according to Mobile Sports Report.

The NYC Marathon application is also innovative. It enables double opt-in marketing that permits sponsors, including Subway, Dunkin Donuts and five others, to use GPS to deliver user-specific offers depending on their location.

Location-specific direct marketing is key to the success of event-oriented sports mobile application developers because it moves beyond a cost-per-measure advertising model into a customer acquisition model. And marketing within the application is not just tied to those watching the event live. Consumers will receive offers from Subway, Dunkin Donuts and others regardless of their location in the United States.

New York Road Runners executive vice president for business development Ann Well Crandall told the Times:

“We’re providing (sponsors) with direct access to consumers. We’re just scratching the surface on this.”

The 2011 application is an upgrade from last year’s version, which was used by about 50,000 people during the NYC Marathon. Runners can be searched by name, number or team, and locations will be shown. There’s also a Friend Finder function, which allows runners to be tracked throughout the race if they carry their own mobile device in their pocket during the event.

PlayUp Brings Broad Strategy, $73 Million Warchest to Sports Social Media

An interloper from Australia, backed with a warchest of $73 million, entered the sports social networking arena this week.

PlayUp, released to U.S. markets on Oct. 20, is an iPhone and iPad application that allows people to get scores and stats for NFL, college football, NHL, NBA, MLB, and MLS games, and create private and public discussions by contacting Facebook friends or other directories.

“There is no better platform for social interactivity than sports, but until now the industry has been unable to marry live sports and social,” said Jonathan Press, CEO of PlayUp USA.

Greater than 56,000 free PlayUp applications have already been downloaded through Apple Inc.’s App Store since release, making it one of the five most downloaded sports social media applications downloaded to date. PlayUp plans to release a second version of the application in December, which will include the ability to buy premium content.  

Company backers include George Tomeski, a former managing partner at the advertising agency George Sydney, and Luke Bunbury, former head of strategy for the whole finance group of Austalia-based Challenger Financial Services Group, Ltd.

The company used three different investments rounds to raise more than $73 million, according to a report published by the Melbourne, Australia-based small business news website StartUpSmall.

The PlayUp slogan is “where sports gets social.”

Release of PlayUp changes the competition among developers of sports social media applications. First, PlayUp is looking to provide comprehensives sports scores and statistics to its users, as opposed to an interface that tightens the consumer’s social media focus on a single game. Second, it is most interested in an electronic-commerce strategy, as opposed to an advertising- or sponsor-driven model, which will force other developers to consider whether that’s the best way to make money through sports social media. And third, its tight intergration of Facebook as a means to invite interaction forces other application to developers to consider similar connectivity with the social media behemoth or face being left in the dust.

 

 

 

 

How To Use Twitter For Sports Promotion

Make no mistake, Twitter recognizes that sports social media is an integral part of its appeal, and it has published a guide for college and professional sports promoters on best practices for keeping fans engaged.

The guide is aimed at employees of teams with large numbers of sports fans, but it is a useful resource for anyone interested in using Twitter to build interest in a team. Here’s the case Twitter makes for using its service to get the word out:

Twitter and sports fit together because sports are live, immediate, suspenseful, and fun—and these are qualities Twitter mirrors and enhances in real-time. People use Twitter to follow their favorite players, sports writers, and teams, but most importantly: they use Twitter to talk about games as they happen…With every touchdown, goal, or home run, you can literally see the spikes in Twitter activity.

Statistics Show Sport Fans Interaction

To build its case, Twitter highlighted the 2010 Major League Baseball World Champion San Francisco Giants. It showed that on Nov. 1, 2010, Tweets per minute spiked twice during the game. Once when Giants’ Edgar Renteria hit his three-run homer to give the Giants the lead, and again after the Giants clinched the championship. Here’s Twitter’s graph:

 

 Best Practices in Sports Social Media Promotion

 Twitter outlined several techniques that the Giants and other teams use to engage audiences, and several of them are easily adaptable to any sports social media promoter. Here are four things anyone can do to build interest in a sports team:

  1. Live-Tweet Events: use color commentary and live play-by-play
  2. Share pictures: show the team in transit to a game, pictures of the players, practices – anything to keep people in engaged. It is one thing to build excitement with words, another to build excitement with images: Twitter claims photos are the best way to promote an event.
  3. Break news: Even a little league team has news. Keep it appropriate, and don’t get your team disqualified like a mother did on Facebook, according to The Nashville Tennessean. Once you do that, it is OK to send out newsworthy information that will help fans engage with the game.
  4. Interact: talk directly to followers, and ask questions

Additional Steps for Pros

Of course, not everything in Twitter’s guide applies to every sports social media practitioner. Twitter also provided some tips that only apply to professionals responsible for getting butts in the seats. Here are three tactics Twitter identified:

  1. Connect to the larger conversation: It is just fine to mention other teams, athletes and high-profile sports figures, Twitter says. It gives your channel authenticity, and provides opportunities to promote
  2. Run a contest: As evidenced by the Fanatic Fans mobile application currently rolling out at Arizona State University, University of Denver and University of Grand Canyon home games, scoreboard contests tied to branded social media applications are the wave of the future. But that’s not to say you can’t run your own contest on Twitter. There are guidelines for running a contest on Twitter, but it is one heck of a way to engage your audience.   
  3. Make Twitter Actionable: Twitter says sports promoters can drive fans to buy seats, especially if a television blackout will occur if they aren’t gobbled up. Tweet on the day of the game and provide a link for buying seats, Twitter says. 

yap.tv to bring immersive television experience to USA Network

In a deal that could bump up the social media for US Open Tennis and WWE Raw, start-up yap.tv will deliver a branded social TV guide application for NBCUniversal’s USA Network.  

Initially, the deal will focus on such USA Network television shows as “Burn Notice,” “White Collar,” “Suits” and other original programming, but US Open Tennis and WWE Raw are among USA Network’s sports offerings, and could be part of the mix.

yap.tv will deliver to USA Network a branded app for Apple iOS devices that allows people with iPhones, iTouch devices or iPads to interact with a visual TV guide, including seamless integration with Twitter and Facebook. The application could create for USA Network a significant captured audience, who would create buzz for programming and enhance audience, according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter.  The deal follows a report by Nielsen that confirmed a 10 percent lift in social media activity lead to an increase in ratings of roughly 1 percent increase.

By landing USA Network, yap.tv establishes itself as a major player in the market for social TV guide apps for mobile devices. The deal with USA is one of the first times a major television network has tapped an independent company to develop a custom-branded social media application, as most networks prefer to rely on in-house development — a tactic that usually leads to less-than-leading-edge functionality. 

Social media television guides hold huge potential for sports marketers. Simply, if a user base considers any one application the go-to resource for the viewing experience, it unlocks the potential for advertisers and sponsors to present that captured audience with advertising and direct marketing tailored to their current activities and location.

yap.TV is less than two years old, has venture capital backing from Javelin Venture Partners and Bloomberg Capital, and is advised by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.  It competes with such companies as AdaptiveBlue, Inc., which developed GetGlue.

Pew Research says sports viewing on smartphones, iPads has room to grow

Nonpartisan fact tank Pew Research issued Tuesday Oct. 4 a report that said 20 percent of U.S. adults get sports scores and updates on smartphones or iPads, but only a small percent of Americans use social networks as their primary source of information, sports or otherwise. The research indicates that sports viewing on mobile devices and sports social media is a market primed for growth, but that it is also early enough for new competitors to get into the fray.

Sports information trailed weather (36%), locating restaurants or local business (31%) and news (25%) as a smartphone activity, but outpaced community news alerts (13%) and news via smartphone applications (11%) in the Pew Research study. A total of 16 activities were measured, and 2,251 adults age 18 or older responded.

The report dovetails with research from eMarketer Inc., which reported Sept. 15 that the sports audience must grow in order for sports content providers to expand the number of mobile subscription and ad-supported online offerings to viewers. eMarketer said the sports audience is perfect for mobile applications because they are loyal, passionate and large in number.

“The situation will change dramatically as more fans assimilate streaming into their media consumption routines, which, in turn, will compel leagues, broadcasters and marketers to make better use of digital platforms to reach their target audiences,” said eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna.

EMarketer said 2010 digital revenues for the top U.S. Sports leagues was $1.295 billion. Courtesy of eMarketer, here is how the NFL, NBA, MLB and the NHL measured up: 

Source eMarketer.com, by permission

 

Social media blunder costs Tennessee high school football team three wins

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MobileSportsReport.com identifies first sports social media blunder to costs a team victories

The Nashville Tennessean reported Wednesday that Perry County High has been forced to vacate three wins because of a parent’s Facebook blunder.

Although the incident does not involve a professional sports franchise or major college athletic program, it is significant. MobileSportsReport.com identifies this as the first known incident that information posted on a social media service cost a team victories. It underscores the increased scrutiny families of athletes are under, and how shared sports information is becoming an actionable part of the sports experience.

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) ruled that the Perry County High football team violated rules that call for the family of players to reside in the county where they attend school and play. Offensive linemen Rodney and Ryan Belasic transferred to Perry County High before the 2011 season, but their mother’s Facebook posts revealed that they are not full-time residents.

The mother wrote: ”How can two boys mess up their room as badly as they do when they’re only here on Saturday and Sunday?” That was enough to prove that rules were being broken in order to allow the two boys to play for a more competitive football program.

According to TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress, the Belasics’ mother provided enough information to prove that they were not in compliance with league rules, according to a Yahoo.com report. The Perry County High football team was 5-0 and on its way to a top seed in Tennessee’s smallest division, Class 1A, before the decision to take down the three victories was handed down.