How to Reach Football Fans Online – An Advertising Play-by-Play

Fans on a couch watching football on TV and tablet Football season has officially kicked off, bringing with it the high ratings that excite networks and advertisers alike. Football advertising is an obvious win for many large national advertisers, but how can a smaller regional advertiser get in the game? We’re calling an audible and showing you how to reach football’s fans online.

TV Sync Could Be Your Breakout Player This Season

For audiences who don’t want to miss a single play, they’ll likely be multitasking online during TV commercials to find out who else is in the red zone. This is the perfect opportunity to use TV-sync tactics that use commercial triggers, like when a competitor’s brand airs on traditional TV, to provide consumers with your ads online at the same time. You can also target sports triggers and reach viewers at specific points in the game, like halftime, or after game events, like a touchdown.

Make Mobile Your Game day Go-To

Today’s on-the-go tech offers several opportunities to reach football fans checking stats from the road, the tailgate party, or the couch. You can pick up inventory within specific sports apps, like ESPN or NFL Sunday Ticket, to hit general score followers. Or you can target users by which mix of apps they have downloaded onto their phone and show them personalized ads across all their apps. For example, a competitive fanatic who has downloaded DraftKings, ESPN Fantasy Sports, and NFL Stats Lab will likely be more interested in a “chance to win” ad over a “free shipping” incentive. Finally, if you are advertising in an NFL or college football market, you can use hyperlocal mobile targeting to reach season ticket holders at the stadium on game days.

Recruit Free Agents Signing on to Social Media

With paid social advertising, you can reach users who have self-declared that they are football enthusiasts. On Facebook, you can land a pass with users who have liked their alma mater’s team page or a player fan page. Twitter allows you to advertise to users based on keywords they post like “touchdown” or “#SNF.” Snapchat is another channel to add to the playbook by targeting users bucketed into the lifestyle category “American Football Fans.”

Go for Two-point Conversion with Video Highlights and Analysis Clips

Perhaps the most exciting option, you can buy video ads against football-related content, whether it’s post-game analysis or highlight reels. Sure, it’s not the same as your ad playing at game time, but you’re still reaching users interested in rich-media football content. On YouTube, you can pick specific channels to advertise on, such as NFL’s channel, or you can target users watching videos categorized as football content. However you choose to advertise, there are plenty of play calls that will reach your ideal football audience online and make your clients want to do a touchdown dance, at a fraction of what a TV spot costs.