This summer has been a celebration of sport, and with the Paralympics coming up it’s only getting more exciting. Spiro’s Beki Winchel explains why sport and experiential marketing are the perfect combination.
The Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was watched by a record-breaking 34 million viewers. The Games saw a 79% increase in viewership compared to the Tokyo Summer Olympics, breaking both competition and audience records, including the BBC’s sports streaming record.
As we continue to bask in the excitement of the Paris Olympics and prepare for the Paralympics, let’s discuss why our love for competitive sport runs so deep.
At the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the world’s greatest talents compete against each other on the biggest stages, under the brightest lights, and in front of relentless cameras that record their every move for posterity: the successes, the stumbles, the recovery, and even the failures.
So why do we celebrate or commiserate so fervently about these moments?
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The science of spectating
Researchers have the answers. First, they say, it’s something we need. Watching sports aids our own search for purpose. Cheering on your favorite athletes or teams can satisfy our human desires for a sense of belonging, certainty, and even meaning in life.
We feel it too. There is a moment of truth in every sport, a moment when the hype and scheming disappears and preparation, skill and destiny meet. That’s where champions and legends are born. Until that moment, everyone has the potential to be a champion. And we, the spectators, feel it too.
It’s something we can relate to. When we watch a sports event, our brains put ourselves in the players’ shoes. In what psychologists call the “chameleon effect,” our brains mimic the actions and emotions of the athletes, even if we’re sitting on the couch.
We experience the emotional highs and lows, the joy, pain, excitement and maybe even disgust (everyone heard of the triathlon on the Seine?) that Olympic and Paralympic athletes go through at the same time as them.
It’s the closest thing we have to an Olympic gold medal. At each event, we, the fans, jump out of our seats cheering in excitement or screaming in disappointment, and when it’s over, we count down the hours until the next sporting event, where we can relive the joy, sorrow and friendship with those same fans.
Experienced people love sports
For us, being a spectator is fun, but nothing beats being in the arena, and that translates to the brand experience that is our sport.
Experiential is about giving people the opportunity to see, do and feel things for themselves – ideally moving them so deeply that they share that excitement with others.
Our sport is about bringing people into the game through sensory activations that allow consumers to form connections with players, teams and sponsoring brands through emotional experiences that can only be achieved through dynamic, immersive, in-person experiences.
In Experiential, we imagine and design amazing experiences that connect brands and people in live, unpredictable spaces – in ways that are talked about by our audiences, deemed exceptional by our competitors and set the standard in our category for years to come.
Our work is a sport where we train, where we obsess, where we spend countless hours honing our craft, where we strive relentlessly to engage our clients’ core customers throughout every experience and keep their brands prioritized in their minds long after the experience is over.
And because our sport is all about hitting the landing, we know that if the execution isn’t perfect, nothing else matters. And it’s because we’ve worked hard for decades to perfect operational excellence that we give our clients the confidence that we can get them on the podium.
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Brand Fan
When you land it in the experiential realm, the payoff is genuine, raw and powerful emotions – and with them, brand loyalty and advocacy.
Experiential marketing goes beyond traditional marketing because it is something that is experienced personally and felt viscerally.
It’s also something we can trust: our emotions are real, and live experiences that we can see and believe are at the heart of the new truth in today’s world of AI, fake news, and a saturated marketing environment.
The emotions that brand experiences create can turn casual consumers into passionate brand fans. And being a brand fan is a good thing: For 70% of people who identify as fans today, being a fan is a part of their daily life, and 64% consider being a fan a part of defining their identity.
Whether it’s sports, entertainment, tech or brand, fandom pays dividends in the form of increased engagement, brand loyalty and brand advocacy: 85% of brand fans tell others about the brand and its products or services, and 54% want everyone to know they’re a fan.
We may not be breaking the world record in the 200-yard sprint, but we wake up every day and are committed to creating experiences that strengthen the bond between our brand and our customers.
We strive to ensure that every experience is strategically guided, creatively driven, beautifully conceived and flawlessly executed. We live for that moment when the landing hits, when truth and emotion are unlocked and brand fans are formed.
The experience is where our drive and passion is nurtured – we believe in the power of live experiences.
And we love sports.