CFL turns to social media to convert casual viewers into hardcore fans
Morgan Campbell Sports Reporter The Star.com June 13, 2018
On Monday the CFL announced
a new partnership with Facebook that makes the social network the home of a new CFL pre-game show that will air on Thursday nights this summer. The move doesn’t settle the revenue question, but Litz says social media initiatives are a key element of the league’s long-term strategy to engage casual fans, who she says are typically younger and more diverse than hardcore CFL followers.
For this season, Litz says the 30-minute weekly Facebook broadcast, which aims to showcase each market’s local fan culture, will lead in to TSN’s pre-game show. It’s loosely modeled on ESPN’s College Gameday morning show, which visits a different campus each week, and places hosts on set amid frenzied spectators.
The goal, Litz says, is to use Facebook to expose casual fans to an in-stadium entertainment experience the league thinks they’ll enjoy. She says casual fans usually parachute in during the playoffs, accounting for the uptick in post-season TV viewership. Reaching part-time fans earlier in the season could help nudge them into the habit of watching CFL games, and inch them toward becoming ticket-buying customers.
Facebook doesn’t offer the CFL an all-access pass to younger audiences. A 2017 study by the analytics firm Forrester Research found that 34 percent of U.S. teenagers surveyed found that Facebook was “for old people.” But the same study found that three quarters of those teens had Facebook accounts, even if they used them sparingly.
Sports marketing professor Peter Widdis says a solid Facebook strategy could pay off for the CFL, even if the platform has flaws.
“Facebook matters because it’s a proven platform,” Widdis said. “You’re seeing Instagram and Snapchat grow with the younger audience, but Facebook is foundational.”
Last season CFL broadcasts averaged 610,666 viewers, according to CFLdb.ca. And while a Facebook pre-game show will likely draw an audience a fraction that size, Ryerson University sports marketing professor Cheri Bradish points out that streaming via Facebook gives the CFL and its sponsors valuable data about each viewer. So even if pregame show audience is composed of casual fans, the CFL quickly learns their other interests, and can leverage that information to enrich sponsorships or target potential hardcore fans.
“Christina Litz has always tried to push the boundaries with technology and try new things,” said Bradish, the sports marketing chair at the Ted Rogers School of Management. “(This partnership) allows you to go global and reach consumers in different markets. They’re starting to reach fans in other markets who might be a fan of a player in Toronto.”
This year Facebook will pay Major League Baseball up to $35 million to broadcast 25 games exclusively on its platforms. A Blue Jays-Royals game that streamed directly to Facebook drew a reported 6.8 million views worldwide, but that figure counts any user who spent at least three seconds watching the game. According to the Philadephia Inquirer, a Phillies game streamed on Facebook averaged between 65,000 and 85,000 concurrent viewers, a significant drop from the number who would typically watch on TV.
While the CFL has streamed preseason games on Facebook, Litz said the league has no plans to move regular season contests there. But she did say the CFL would consider using the social network to reach overseas markets its current broadcast deals don’t cover.
Prev
Linear Mode
