Football season is almost here.
Stadiums will soon be packed.
Parking lots will fill with tailgaters.
Bars and restaurants will be crowded.
And tens of thousands of fans will gather in one place for several hours at a time.
For businesses, that creates a marketing opportunity that goes far beyond buying a traditional stadium sponsorship.
Whether you sell a product, provide a service, want to drive people to a nearby location, or simply want to introduce your brand to a large regional audience, live football games give you something incredibly valuable:
A large, engaged audience gathered in a predictable location at a predictable time.
At Enradius, we help businesses take advantage of that opportunity through sports event marketing strategies that reach fans before, during and after the game.
And there are more ways to do it than you might think.
The Stadium Is Only One Part of Game Day
Think about what happens when someone attends a football game.
They don’t simply walk into the stadium, watch the game and disappear.
They drive into the area.
They park.
They tailgate.
They visit nearby restaurants and bars.
They walk through surrounding entertainment districts.
They use their phones.
They search for places to eat, things to do and businesses nearby.
And after the game, they head back into those same surrounding areas or travel home.
That movement creates multiple opportunities for businesses to reach fans throughout the game-day experience.
Instead of thinking about the stadium as a single advertising location, think about the entire area surrounding it as a connected marketing environment.
What Is Stadium Geo-Targeting?
Stadium geo-targeting uses location-based technology to deliver digital advertising to people within a defined geographic area, such as a football stadium and its surrounding game-day footprint.
At Enradius, we can build geofences around stadiums and other areas where fans gather. Campaigns can also expand into parking lots, tailgating areas and nearby entertainment districts.
That means a business doesn’t have to advertise to an entire city or region hoping to reach football fans.
You can build a campaign specifically around the people who are actually at the event.
For example, Enradius has experience targeting audiences at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, where thousands of fans gather for football games throughout the season.
But the strategy isn’t limited to Baltimore.
The same approach can be used around football stadiums and live sporting events in markets across the country.
Go Beyond the Phone
Geo-targeted digital advertising is only one way to reach fans.
A strong sports event marketing campaign can combine multiple channels to create repeated exposure throughout game day.
That can include:
- Geofencing: Reach fans on their mobile devices while they’re at the stadium, in parking areas, at tailgates or in surrounding entertainment districts.
- Digital video: Deliver video advertising that introduces your product, service or offer to your target audience.
- Digital out-of-home advertising: Use digital billboards, transit advertising and other high-visibility placements around stadiums and game-day corridors.
- Game-day advertising: Reinforce your message while fans are engaged with the event and surrounding activities.
- Mobile retargeting: Continue reaching the audience after the game is over, extending the campaign for weeks after they leave the stadium.
The goal isn’t simply to show someone one ad during a football game.
It’s to create multiple opportunities for them to see and remember your business.
The Marketing Opportunity Doesn’t End at the Final Whistle
This is one of the biggest advantages of combining live event marketing with digital advertising.
The game ends.
The stadium empties.
But your marketing doesn’t necessarily have to stop.
With mobile retargeting, businesses can continue advertising to audiences reached through a game-day campaign for 45–90 days.
That changes the value of the event considerably.
A football game is no longer just a three-hour advertising window.
It can become the starting point for a much longer campaign.
Someone might first see your business while attending the game.
Then they see your message again several days later.
And again when they’re back home.
That repeated visibility can help move someone from simply recognizing your brand to considering your product or service.
Sports Event Marketing Isn’t Just for Businesses Near the Stadium
One common misconception about stadium advertising is that it only makes sense for businesses located nearby.
That’s not necessarily the case.
Football fans often travel from across a region to attend games. A stadium audience may include people from multiple cities, counties and even neighboring states.
That creates opportunities for many different types of organizations.
Healthcare providers.
Financial services.
Automotive businesses.
Retailers.
Hospitality and tourism organizations.
Recruiters.
Regional brands.
Restaurants and entertainment businesses.
The better question isn’t necessarily:
“Is my business close to the stadium?”
It’s:
“Are the people attending this game people we want to reach?”
If the answer is yes, the stadium may represent a valuable audience opportunity.
One Game or an Entire Season?
Football also offers something many other live events don’t:
Consistency.
A conference may happen once a year.
A football team brings fans back to the same venue repeatedly throughout the season.
That creates flexibility.
A business could build a campaign around one major game, several games, a rivalry weekend or a larger portion of the football season.
And because fans often follow predictable game-day patterns, businesses can think beyond individual ad placements and build a broader strategy around where those audiences will be and when they will be there.
Think Beyond Traditional Stadium Advertising
Traditional sports advertising can be powerful.
But it isn’t the only way to reach football fans.
Location-based advertising, digital video, digital out-of-home, game-day advertising and post-event retargeting give businesses additional ways to participate in the excitement surrounding live sports.
And you don’t necessarily need to be a national brand or major stadium sponsor to do it.
At Enradius, we help businesses identify where their audiences gather and build advertising strategies around those real-world behaviors.
Football games are a perfect example.
Thousands of people.
One location.
A predictable schedule.
A highly engaged audience.
And a marketing opportunity that can continue long after everyone heads home.
Want to Reach Football Fans This Season?
Football season is almost here, which means stadiums across the country will soon be filling with fans again.
If those fans match the audience your business wants to reach, now is the time to start thinking about how your brand can become part of their game-day experience.
At Enradius, we can help you develop a sports event marketing campaign using geofencing, digital video, digital out-of-home advertising, game-day advertising and mobile retargeting to reach audiences before, during and after live sporting events.
The game may only last a few hours.
Your opportunity to reach the audience can last much longer.
