The blog posts here at Loyalsticity traditionally focus on relationships (building) between fans and clubs or fans and sports. A very interesting area, however, when it comes to fan engagement is how short term events engage with fans – in particular before and after the event actually takes place? Today I had the opportunity to sit in on a session at the Global Sports Forum where Dmitry Chernyshenko (President of the Organizing Committee Sochi 2014) presented the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Games.

The Sochi 2014 is an impressive story with new standards for facilities, volunteer engagement, sponsorship revenue and active participation in sports. An area, where Sochi 2014 is also unique, is in the way it engages with fans. Contrary to clubs and sports overall, an event such as Sochi 2014 is a short term happening (lasting approximately 2 weeks) but that doesn’t stop Sochi 2014 from reaching out and engaging with fans beyond the actual event.

Following the presentation I sat down with Dmitry to ask him some specific questions in relation to this matter.

A deliberate strategy by Sochi 2014 is to embrace new media and having defined the youth of today as the target audience for the event, this certainly seems like a good fit. As Dmitry himself puts it: “Our key target audience is youth and new media is the most powerful channel to reach the youth”. Besides communicating to people via new media Dmitry also sees great benefits in the discussions happening online. He is here not only referring to the hype about the event or positive stories but also referring to any criticism that may be expressed. “Social media is fantastic for all of this and we would rather hear what people have to say up front than to realize it afterwards”.

The recent voting by the public for the official mascots for the games is a good example of how Sochi2014 already now reaches out and engages with people– 3 years before the event! The nationwide voting in February held during a live television broadcast involved people in the event and gave everyone a chance to vote for their favorite mascot. The rest of the world could follow the event online and discuss the various candidates.

As already mentioned, Sochi 2014 is still 3 years away, but there is no doubt that the organizing committee – and Dmitry Chernyshenko himself (@DChernyshenko) – are setting new standards when it comes to Olympic Games organization and embracing new media to engange with fans.

From a CRM and fan engagement perspective, I’ll in the future take a closer look at how different events (e.g. World Championships and other big events) engage – or have engaged – with fans before, during and after the event. My question to you is; which events have been successful in this? Which have not? What does it take to be successful?

The Global Sports Forum in Barcelona is wrapping up its first day. On the official event blog updates and news have been posted which cover the event overall. Here at Loyalsticity, it is now time to take a moment and ask the question: Sport: What’s Next [from a fan relationship perspective]?

Although no presentation today specifically focused on this topic, it was clear that fans and the relationship between sports and fans as well as clubs and fans are fundamental elements to success in sports. Even when it comes to participation in sports, one of the key challenges is to drive up consumption of sports content, which will enhance enthusiasm and lead to increased participation.

Based on today’s presentations by a very impressive list of presentors, two things in particular caught my attention in relation to fan relationships:

The first one is that technology will play an even bigger role in enhancing the sport experience. The growth we are seeing at the moment in new media and engagement possibilities are just the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, a lot of the focus these days is on the big sports and the big clubs, but technology also offers a unique opportunity for smaller sports to promote themselves, reach new audiences and engage with fans like never before. The opportunities are endless but one thing comes with it; sports, clubs, media institutions and brands will face tougher competition in the future as the fan will have more choice and also be more in control of what he/she wishes to consume.

The above mentioned trend may not come as a surprise, but based on today’s presentations it was certainly confirmed how widespread an impact technology will have on the sport experience in the future.

The second point is one that I find opens up room for discussion. The claim is that sports fans getting exposed to more content than ever including that from different clubs and different sports, could actually mean that the focus of the fan will end up being more narrow!

What is meant by that, is that the enourmous amount of content a club now brings out could “suck” the fan into only consuming the content from a particular club or a particular sport. It is already today possible to fill one’s day with for example Arsenal or FC Bayern content only. News, TV, internet, blogs, forums, social media etc are full of content about each club and some fans swap their general interest in football – or sport overall – in for interest in just one club.

In an earlier blog post I mentioned the “glocal” fan and I must admit that I don’t see the scenario mentioned above as a general one. There will definitely be some fans who will consume “everything” from and about their club, but I think the trend will be more towards that interest and thus fanship will develop from a one-club perspective to involve more clubs (or even more sports). This is not to say that a Liverpool fan will be less of a Liverpool fan, but rather that he/she is likely to also consume content from for example the Spanish league or the NBA.

Do you agree? Do you see the increased amount of content and possibilities drive the focus towards one club or will technology and increased exposure to other content increase fanships to include other clubs and sports?

The third edition of the Global Sports Forum is about to start in Barcelona. The theme is “Sport: What’s Next” and looking at the line up of speakers and attendees, it looks like a great forum where people with different ideas, backgrounds and interests will get an opportunity to present, share and discuss their ideas about the future of sports.

I am personally very excited to have been selected to be part of the event, which I’ll be blogging about together with fellow bloggers; Russel Scibetti (@rscibetti), Cédric Gründler (@CedGrun), Lourdes Turconi (@lourdes_turconi) and Jonathan Müller (@dersportmanager).

Where will sports be in 10 years? What impact will technology have on sports in the future? etc …..there are hundreds if not thousands of questions of these types of questions that will be addressed at the event.

Before the event gets started, however, I think it has already illustrated one clear trend in sports, namely globalization. People from all over the world will attend the event and just looking at us bloggers, there is no way we would have been given this opportunity if it hadn’t been for technology and globalization. What is interesting about those two reasons, is that they are not limited to the world of sport but apply to society in general. After having given that some thought it became clear to me, that the biggest changes to sports in the future will not happen because of sport itself but rather because of changes in the greater world, in which sport is a part of. The interesting question is which elements and how these will impact sports – and vice versa, how will/could sport influence society as a whole?

For this blog in particular, the big questions will be; what will these new trends and developments mean to the fan and how will it influence the relationship between a fan and a club? I look forward to explore and discuss these topics next week and to blog about it here at Loyalsticity as well as the GSFB blog.

For anyone else with an interest in the future of sports, there is a section on the GSFB website which provides articles about a range of sports related matters (e.g. Sports and Politics, Sports and Media), which I would highly recommend – check it out HERE