From every challenge comes opportunity, and that’s the way we need to view the new normal for now around Coronavirus. While people search for things to fill their time when they would have been watching and attending sporting events, and channel surfing consists of old dog shows, poker shows and game replays, and lots of talking heads…and come the middle of next week that is going to get old.
For the major networks the ability to be nimble remains a challenge. Quality of broadcast even in a time of high speed digital connections is still a challenge, and the biggest names are used to talking about the events and the biggest athletes, so finding time to talk about second tier events or with new unknown faces may not work that well. It’s a lot easier to have a legal expert on then to learn more about a pilot for drone racing or NBA 2K and make that interesting to the audience. Staying in the box is safe.
The only issue is that the box is almost empty. So, what happens then?
Enter the world of content creation and the search for new voices with an audience. March is a very unique month with almost any sport either in season or preparing for a season. Even the NFL is readying for the Draft. And now with everyone on the sidelines you have names big and small; coaches, trainers, executives, with time on their hands and the ability to storytell to literally millions of anxious and idle fans by using the advances of the digital space.
We have seen some early attempts at engagement; the Phoenix Suns have had some of their players play NBA2K against each other as a live stream; but wouldn’t it be great to expand that and include fans with live commentary. You have athletes who are quarantine, sitting around with laptops; how great would it be if Juventus had Cristiano Renaldo do a live global chat from his room with fans, or if we had a livestream with the quarantined Toronto Raptors talking hoops, or a stream of Pete Alonso taking swings in a batting cage by himself?
How about as players who are healthy and keep working out, they do a live stream for thousands of kids sitting home without anything to do? Alex Morgan, host a twenty-minute master class and q and a for NWSL. Kids are bringing home homework and will be doing work from home. Why not find an athlete, the Bucks Brooke Lopez, to talk about his love for drawing, or the Nets Jarrett Allen about his love for science and how it applies to what some young people are doing in school.
We can’t do real time school events…and at this time teams in the NBA and NHL are curtailing events normally as they prepare for playoffs…so how about a virtual school visit with kids in that city, not to just talk about schools but to showcase personalities on both sides?
When we have had events like 9/11, or Sandy, or even other natural disasters, we did not have the ability to engage on streaming platforms like Twitch. Heck we didn’t even have Twitter for some of these. Now we have all these ways to connect in a virtual world for a common good. We have seen how mightily gaming has used the space to engage and interact; and all the talk is that “you can’t connect online with LeBron James, but you can with Ninja, and that connection is what makes gaming special.” Well…now LeBron has downtime, so why not do it?
While there needs to be an inflection point and a time in the coming weeks when this doesn’t seem tone deaf to the concerns going on, this window will be coming, and it will come sooner rather than later. It is a time where the disruptive and nimble will build following, connect with communities and build brand, and the latent properties will lose relevance. Some of that will naturally come back when events resume and normalcy returns, but wouldn’t it be great, and smart business, to find new best practice connections through the social tools that exist to keep people engaged and interested in fun and new ways?
We need to look for opportunity in despair and use lessons to learn and grow. You have idle hands, idle times, idle minds and idle bodies who will want, and appreciate the interaction.
While Pat Evans on Front Office Sports had a piece on digital marketing opportunities during this time for athletes this is actually a bigger opportunity. We keep hearing about athletes wanting to be “content creators.” Well here ya go. Lets all work to create major engagement opportunities for a community that is active and now idle.
It’s outside the box and can be a bit cumbersome and not for all? Yes. But sitting back and waiting is awful. Let’s see who moves and builds the new box with lessons learned and chances created.
Athletes, teams, leagues, get started. A new normal in some ways may not be a bad thing.
