Create Share Engage: Authenticity, Creative Storytelling and Targeted Content Dominate the Discussions

Create Share Engage: Authenticity, creative storytelling and targeted content dominate the discussions By Jo Ruddock

Thursday, May 4, 2023 - 11:05

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Melissa Lawton, chief content officer at SailGP, speaks to SVG Europe's George Bevir

Bringing together those at the forefront of creating and monetising new and engaging viewing opportunities and experiences within sports, SVG Europe's Create Share Engage event (Wednesday 3 May, London) delivered a whole host of insight into everything from content authenticity and ad etch in live sport to best practice when creating digital content for multiple platforms.

After an introduction from Steve Wind-Mozley, CMO at title sponsor LiveU, the inaugural event began with an opening keynote featuring FIBA Media managing director Andrew Ryan and Gauthier Rakotonirina, head of third-party marketing. The pair revealed how the international basketball federation captures and shares content to drive engagement among viewers and create commercial opportunities.

Delivering relevant and local content is central to the success of FIBA's approach. We really do try to invest in the creation and development of content assets for each specific country, so you'll have high-quality content assets made available to our broadcaster in the US just as much as you will our broadcaster in smaller countries such as South Sudan, and it'll be content that is useful to them, not just generic content which won't gain a huge amount of traction in their market, said Ryan.

Our production philosophy is to put the viewer not just in the best seat in the house, but the best seat anywhere, he added.

This will be helped at the upcoming Men's Basketball World Cup, which starts in August, by the potential addition of a vertical drop camera, which is currently being trialled. The plan is to drop it down just before tip off to make viewers feel like they're almost in the circle. The camera will then rise so you get the feel of the athletes jumping, Ryan revealed.

Rakotonirina went on to explain how utilising athletes' social media reach is also helping FIBA to expand its appeal. We have to think about what athletes want on their channels while also giving value to rightsholders. Within a game we produce a huge amount of content that we share with athletes.

The priority is to get those viewers to the live broadcasts. Seeing moments is one thing, but seeing the entire game is the full experience, he added.

Continuing with the content creation theme, Sunset+Vine head of digital Raj Mannick shared his thoughts on how to produce effective sports content for digital platforms.

He said: The best sports content is anything that reminds fans why they love sport. Any content that can capture that hairs on the back of the neck' feeling will be popular, along with content that shows the dedication and sacrifice of athletes. But that's the extreme and there's everything in between so there's lots of opportunities.

Sunset+Vine head of digital Raj Mannick

The key, he said, is not just to deliver content that is authentic, but that is also relevant to the platform, as what works on Facebook won't perform so well on TikTok, for example. An added challenge is that measures of success are often changeable.

Success is constantly evolving because this is a space that moves quickly. Revenue is obviously a key one, but engagement rate, for us, is a big, big measure of success. I think previously lots of people looked at views or reach, but the way that's measured isn't consistent across platforms, whereas with engagement rate someone has to physically interact with your content and that means you're communicating with them.

While the sheer number of platforms and the frequent changes they implement may seem daunting, Mannick concluded by saying: As long as you're not putting all your eggs in one basket - I think that's a sensible approach to take. I also think if at the core you have your own values and principles and follow them, that's the only way you're going to build long-term trust with your audience.

Melissa Lawton, chief content officer at SailGP, picked up on the issue of authenticity in a session entitled Racing Ahead with SailGP. You've got to be yourself on each platform and each one of those platforms is looking for a slightly different version of you, she expanded.

SailGP has a seven-platform strategy encompassing broadcast, OTT and social media. We deliver content to the Facebook audience in a way that makes sense on Facebook. We have a YouTube channel, but within YouTube now there's also those different levels - so the subscribers or core fans, the casual fans who are discovering us for the first time, and then there's curious fans who come to us through new initiatives like shorts. TikTok is key for us to engage an audience that probably wouldn't turn on the TV to watch us.

The main aim of SailGP's digital content strategy is to raise awareness. We're a start-up league, we're in our third season and we want to be on as many platforms in as many formats as possible and in front of the largest audience possible.

Data is already providing key information on the type of content that works, how much viewers are engaging, when they drop off and what doesn't work, and this has led to changes in SailGP's strategy. While initially broadcasts focused on in-depth informative content, now we know people like to see boats on water, so we get to that action as quickly as possible . For season 4, expect more content focused around the technology on board as this has proved popular. It'll be used in different formats across all platforms, she revealed.

After a networking break, the audience at Kings Place in London were treated t

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