There’s no question that Americans love to kick back, turn on the television, and cheer for their favorite sports team. Whether they’re watching football, baseball, hockey, or any of the other exhilarating matchups on TV, sports fans make for attentive and enthusiastic viewers. After a period of uncertainty that impacted the way sports are both watched and played, audiences are more excited than ever to dive headfirst into the big-ticket championships of 2023.
And speaking of championships, there’s one that’s currently top-of-mind for advertisers and audiences alike: Super Bowl LVII.
Each year, marketers look forward to aligning with the Super Bowl’s extensive reach to diverse audiences. As anticipation for the big game grows, advertisers that didn’t secure airtime may feel like they missed out. But don’t worry: there are still plenty of opportunities to reach NFL fans after the season ends. While it may be too late to invest in a Super Bowl spot, there’s no time limit on reaching highly engaged sports viewers.
Reaching football fans
When their favorite team is enjoying a break, sports fans don’t just unplug the TV and wait patiently for the next season. Instead, they seek out other sports to watch. This means that even after the Super Bowl, reaching NFL fans is still possible, and it’s easier than you think. The Effectv Sports Matrix illustrates where these “Superfan Viewers” (viewers found in the top third percentile of a specific sport’s viewing in 2022) spend their sports-watching hours outside of their favorite sport.
This matrix uses index rankings of the ten sports programs with the highest viewership across all cable and broadcast networks. The table below highlights the sports NFL Superfans are most likely to watch. When the numbers listed for a Superfan Viewer’s additional sports are greater than 100, they over-index for those sports, indicating that advertisers have a great opportunity to reach them.
For example, heavily invested NFL fans are most likely to watch NCAA Football, NBA, and MLB games, as well, meaning that advertisers can still use TV to reach these fans after the NFL season concludes on Sunday, February 12th.
Click here to view more sports indexes.
Superfans can be found in other places
The Effectv Sports Matrix reveals that Superfan Viewers have an appetite for a diverse range of sporting events that extend beyond their favorite to watch. In fact, 55% of Superfans are also heavy viewers of 3 or more sports, with the majority of them falling into more than one category of Superfan-dom.1 This means that no matter what’s on air, advertisers can reach nearly every type of sports fan at any time of year.
Although most advertisers have football on their minds right now, you can use the Effectv Sports Matrix to find your target audience wherever they’re watching. If you missed the boat to advertise during Super Bowl, don’t fret: you can still reach football Superfan Viewers through advertising during the NBA, NCAA Football, and MLB seasons later this year.
Major sporting events may come and go, but the impact of your advertising doesn’t have to.
Source:
1. The TV Viewership Report, Effectv, 2020
