Viral Dances, Makeup Tutorials and Now … Sports Tickets

Despite pandemic-era fears, live event attendance is booming again. Leagues are seeing visitor records, prices are up and younger generations—rather than settling for community online—have been among the most eager to show up in person. 

Full-again stands, however, have come with a behavioral sea change.

Fans increasingly buy tickets within 72 hours of events—if not day of—despite the additional headaches that causes team. People are more comfortable making significant purchases on their phones, more trusting of ticket transfer apps and more trained to expect instant gratification, including grabbing seats at the end of a tailgate party.

“It really stresses me out,” Nashville Predators VP of marketing Brittany Austin said, even though the Preds are among the NHL teams currently boasting 100% attendance at home games. “Five years ago, you were looking at purchasing decisions that were made 10 days out, and it has continued to get shorter.” 

On the other hand, it now only takes one good piece of marketing creative to drive impulse buys.

Teams are selling themselves in new ways—focusing on the experience of attending, reaching users of video-first platforms like Snapchat and TikTok, and tailoring ads for specific, sports-adjacent demos like fashion lovers and pet people.

“We send out emails like ‘Know before you go’—that’s the old version of it,” Big 12 CMO Tyrel Kirkham said. “Now, in a paid front, it’s, Hey, you’re going to get the best bands. You’re going to get an amazing halftime performer. You’re going to get an elevated culinary experience.”

The return to live experiences hasn’t been uniform. Movies, museums and musical theater have seen much more mixed figures. So why have sports recovered so impressively, despite all the great entertainment now available at home, or wherever one might find themselves with their phone?

The answer, at least partially, starts back on that mobile device, where teams have managed to turn distraction machines into tools for persuasion.

Marketing spend continues moving from traditional radio, print and TV placements to digital platforms, led by Google and Meta but now also including newer channels too. Teams are experimenting with connected TV spots, Reddit, Snap, TikTok, X—even Linkedin.

Online offerings give teams more options for targeting and more data about audiences and ad performance. They also represent the best real estate for reaching young people. 

“These are where these people are spending their time, they’re primarily on their phones,” Anmol Malhotra, Snap head of sports partnerships, said. “You see all the discourse around [sports there], all the hype, and then boom, ads to buy tickets. It’s the perfect place.”

The Houston Texans are among the teams focusing on Snapchat leading up to game day. “That seems to be a place where people are willing to make their last-minute decisions,” team director of digital media Adam Cann said.

Looming over the shifts is a potential TikTok ban. The Chinese-owned company and a group of users are currently suing to overturn a law that could see the platform sold or shut down in the U.S. by January 19. The case could reach the Supreme Court. At the same time, numerous states have prevented employees—including large university athletic departments—from using TikTok in official capacities.

But for now, teams are continuing to invest, eager for a new generation’s attention.

“We’ve noticed across both the pro level and college, all of the partners we’re working with are consistently increasing the amount of uploads they put on TikTok,” TikTok global head of sports partnerships Rollo Goldstaub said.

One Message

Accelerating the change? Employees responsible for marketing decisions are increasingly exactly the type of young professional spending hours each day on digital platforms themselves.

Sports marketing’s evolution has also brought a merging of team’s social, video and marketing staffers.

“A lot of our strategy is driven on the great content that’s already being produced,” Los Angeles Rams VP for fan marketing and insights Marty Turman said. “Then we are working from a market insights standpoint of saying, ‘Here’s what we’re hearing from the market that people are interested in. Can we produce more stuff like this?’”

For example, word from the sales department that fan experience-focused content is converting individuals to buy tickets would be passed along to the video team in charge of making the stuff. The same might go for data showing the effectiveness of clips highlighting star receiver Puka Nacua.

There is sometimes pushback from the team side against prioritizing singular athletes in marketing messages, but experts insist that leading with personality is a necessity these days. According to a 2023 TikTok survey, the top type of sports-related ads and content that users wanted to see was videos featuring their favorite athlete or team.

“We’re done with being kind of schizophrenic, and what you’re seeing from a sales perspective is different from what you’re seeing from a brand’s perspective is different from what you’re seeing from a content perspective,” Turman said. “We’re making sure that we’re trying to align that as best as possible.”

Flipping the Paradigm

Some teams increasingly use fan-created content to sell their in-venue experience, while many turn to influencers or dedicated agencies to create bespoke ads as well. 

Historically, teams would build a marketing campaign by thinking about a specific audience they want to speak to and the type of message they want to get across, says Jesse Lawrence, founder of live event marketing platform FanIQ, which works with the Texans and Predators among other teams. “The last thing you do is you add your creative,” he said. But now, FanIQ advises teams to go the other direction, starting with whatever their most popular videos are and finding the right audiences and channels to further promote them. 

“We’re trying to flip the paradigm a little bit in terms of starting with content as opposed to ending with content,” Lawrence said.

Algorithmic platforms also come with the possibility of reaching audiences far beyond the diehard. 

“The algorithm is testing things out for you,” Cann said. “So instead of serving Texans content, you’re trying to serve them really quality content with a Texans twist on it.”

For most teams—especially those without yearlong season-ticket waiting lists—the goal is to sell tickets. But while fans have come to expect what they want on-demand, franchises have had to learn patience. Oftentimes, their strategies include clips that generate followers first, who can then be converted with more targeted sales videos.

Inter Miami recently put an entire match on TikTok in the form of a Messi-focused view, adding close to one million followers in the process this October.

“You have to sort of wine and dine these days and get someone to be interested before you come in for the ask on the sale,” Lawrence said.

Almost every team has an official ticketing partner contributing to the effort. Ideally fans would use that specific service, but getting them to attend regardless is better than nothing, marketers say. Even if they buy on the secondary market, as Turman explained, that benefits the team by making it easier for season ticket-holders to recoup value, by generating incremental revenue at the venue, by potentially creating a fan for life, and—maybe most importantly to those in charge of on-field operations—by keeping the ticket out of the hands of an out-of-town fan ready to root for the opponent.