Advertising was easier 50 years ago: a catchy jingle, a billboard, and a pretty model was generally enough to make an impact on the market. Today, the consumer environment is cluttered with messages. Aside from tri-media, there’s the Internet, direct mail, point of purchase displays, promo girls handing out flyers in parking lots—you name it, it’s there.

The result is a consumer that is largely desensitized to information, and will ignore the majority of the advertising displays that he sees. That’s why the smart advertiser will not rely on advertising volume, but advertising strategy: where you place the ad, when the consumer gets it, and in what form he receives it. In the end, a few well placed ads can actually be more effective than a multi-million, across-the-board advertising campaign.

Proof of this is the Superbowl. Everyone watches it, and the ads that play during that much-awaited sport event are actually talked about. Those campaigns have actually become part of the show, and gain more mileage than any 30-seconder placed in any other time slot, on any other channel.

Advertising on Sports Sites: The Affordable Alternative to the Superbowl

Unfortunately, advertising on the Superbowl requires an advertising budget larger than most companies can afford. And the slots are very, very limited. Even if you did have that kind of money to spend, you were probably elbowed out of the slot by other companies. What are you supposed to do—wait it out another year?

The Superbowl is not the only way to penetrate the market. In fact, what advertisers often neglect to consider is that the people who watch the Superbowl will also head to the sports websites. That’s where they’ll get the player stats and profiles, the scores, the predictions, and the forums. After all, a sports buff prides himself on the amount of information he can collect. Part of watching the Superbowl is impressing everyone with how much you know about the game, and making a running commentary on each and every player as the event unfolds. You want to look like the “expert”. You want to be the “insider” who tells everyone, “Oh, I expected that.” Information, for a Superbowl fanatic, is bragging rights—and the sports websites are an easy and comprehensive source for that.

What does this mean for advertisers? Through sports sites, you connect to the same market that would watch the Superbowl, and achieve the market reach without the need to make such a hefty advertising investment. With the money required for a 30-second ad during that time slot, you could be a major sponsor in all the Internet sports sites: banner ads, pop ups, a movie on the opening page, the works.

The Unique Advantages of Advertising on Online Sports Sites

Aside from the additional mileage you get for your adspend, the Internet creates a positive environment for your message.  You reach them when they’re in the mood to read, and at a quieter and less chaotic time. They aren’t running to the kitchen to get a beer, or talking excitedly with their friends about the last play. They are at the computers, leisurely browsing, in a relatively peaceful room. Without this “background noise” (as experts call the barrage of information that hits a consumer at any given time) your advertising message has a chance of being heard. And when it’s heard, it can be remembered—the key component to any branding exercise.

Another advantage of online advertising is the fact that you can explore many unique ways of presenting your message, and many of them don’t even look like advertising but valid and impartial editorial content.  For example, links imbedded in a relevant article are more likely to be interpreted as “important information”, and not as a “nuisance ad”. 

Advertorials (editorialized write-ups that push a brand message) are also very effective, since they feed the reader’s need for information while simultaneously promoting a product or service. For example, if your company sells sports attire, a feature on the big advertising contracts that many sports superstars get (with trivia like who the highest paid endorsers are) can subtly promote your product lines.

Don’t neglect, either, the way you can ride on the free newsletters that sports websites send to their subscriber. Sponsor a section and have your logo appear in the email they send, or use this to push promotional material, sale announcements, or limited offers. Once again, this has greater efficiency than a mass media ad (where you can’t even guarantee that your market will see it, or pay any attention to it) or traditional email flyers (which tend to be sent to the Spam folder, or automatically deleted). Because you are disguised as “interesting and relevant content”,  your material is at the very least read. By the time they recognize you as an ad, you’ve made your point, and your brand awareness grows.

The Demographic of an Online Sports Site Reader

What kind of market do you reach when you advertise in an online sports site? The reader demographic is strongly male (60%), at least for the  top 10: ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, FOX Sports on MSN, NFL Internet Network, AOL Sports, MLB.com, Sportsline.com, SI.com, eBay Sports and Nascar.com. What is interesting, however, is that you don’t just reach the “athletic” male. Many of them may not play a sport, but enjoy watching it. This includes corporate executives, retirees, students, teens, twentysomethings, fathers. However, the remaining 40% women readership is not just a bad figure, dispelling any notions that women are not interested in sports.

This is a very broad segment, which makes it equal to the mix one would get by entering mass media like newspapers, radio and television. For some products and services, this is good: Nokia, for example, benefits from promoting itself on a website because it has several sub product categories (different models of the phone) that reach each representative of the market. In this way, advertising in an online sports site promotes the entire brand, rather than a single type of Nokia unit.