Digital marketers salivate at the prospect of the vast online audience which will be consuming online and especially social media on game day. Young metropolitan consumers will be glued to their tablets and smartphones, even if they’re watching the actual game on a big screen TV.
But wait: This big game day audience might actually be a myth, according to insights generated by North Carolina marketing technology company MaxPoint.
“One of the key points we found, based on the online behavior we analysed, is that the consumption tends to peak the day following,” explains Kate Holmes, senior director, insights and global strategy. MaxPoint’s sampling includes data around the NFL draft and divisional playoffs as well as last year’s Super Bowl.
“We did find it interesting that two groups popped up in terms of online consumption,” says Holmes. “Rural areas and adults aged 45 plus.” An older, rural audience goes online the day after the game,” Holmes explains, to look at clips and read game analyses. “It’s a captive online audience for marketers,” she says. “Younger, urban consumers are more constantly connected, and to a wide variety of other topics.” For the older, rural audience, “usage tends to be more specific and for defined purposes.”
That may be disappointing for brands looking to reach millennials, for example, in the online aftermath to an event like Super Bowl LI. For Holmes, the positive takeaway is that advertisers interested in younger segments should take an endemic approach. “They may want to focus on finding the right consumer,” rather than assume they’ll find them on sports websites after a big sports event.
The agency analyses around 60 billion ad impressions daily across the major ad exchanges, whether or not its bidding for the inventory. It catalogs pages by content and keyword, and in its normal course of business, maps the insights back to consumers at the household level to find out “what they’re consuming, what they’re interested in,” Holmes says.
For its clients, MaxPoint ingests first-party CRM and loyalty program data, and matches it to physical addresses, households, online identities, and devices. It buys media and executes campaigns through its managed ad solution, but also sells data insights to agencies and trading desks.
One thing to keep in mind when leveraging these insights, Holmes says, is to be sure to differentiate your messaging: What works on game day may not work on Monday. “Keep messaging up-to-date.”
MaxPoint serves clients across a number of verticals, and has worked with 19 of the top 20 national advertisers, and many top global media agencies, Holmes says. Verticals include CPG, retail, restaurants, and pharma.
