Multiple SLRG studies on the consumer purchase journey across our verticals of concentration, have revealed that the adoption of social and digital marketing platforms are in many ways additive, rather than disruptive of traditional media. One implication for sports and leisure marketers is that this messaging fragmentation calls for broader and more targeted communications and activation. It’s still fascinating to see where our clients’ marketing plans have gone during just the past ten years. From a more finite and linear reliance on the former “Big Four” of print, broadcast, direct and venue based promotion, to a litany of digital, social, WOM and interactive platforms. Indeed, advertising through mass media has transitioned into a fragmented space. This wider playing field means that traditional brand tracking research approaches have likewise needed to evolve, otherwise the client may miss important yet subtle impacts of these channels on target customers’ perceptions.
At SLRG, when we design a brand tracking or efficacy measurement program for a property or brand, this expanded landscape has necessitated a similarly nuanced effort to frame both methodological approach and data collection structures (Be they survey questions, observational techniques, qualitative guides, integration of behavioral and attitudinal data, or any combination of these). It’s now imperative to not only examine shifting media consumption patterns at varying junctures of the customer journey, but to also factor in how communications messaging is articulated across different means of content curation. In practice this means that brand tracking programs and activation efficacy testing ideally need to account for different levels of message emphasis as deployed in digital campaigns directed at specific target audiences. In doing so, we are able to conduct research that can inform our client on the impact and breakthrough of their social campaigns, driven by conversation and influencer content, the importance of how things are said and by whom. To learn more about how we can conduct research like this for you, click here.