6 sports marketing trends you should know and use

Hyperpersonalization relies on the combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to achieve even more targeted marketing strategies. While traditional methods such as psychographic targeting identify values and motives based on digital behavior, AI tools enable more efficient processing of large volumes of data. Behavioral, contextual and real-time data as well as psychographic characteristics are included in order to create tailored user experiences. AI-supported recommendation systems and chatbots enable e-commerce customers to experience a personalized shopping experience and sports club supporters - whether they are young fans or older family men - to be addressed individually.

Social commerce, also known as social shopping, refers to online retail via social media platforms and is particularly popular with Generation Z, as customers can shop directly on the platforms. This makes TikTok, Instagram and co. attractive sales channels for retailers. A survey by Capterra found that more than 50 percent of respondents have purchased at least one product via social media in the last six months. Social commerce therefore offers great potential for sports brands and retailers, as many users share content and recommendations there.

Social commerce has already been widespread in Asia for several years. The social networks WeChat and KakaoTalk there have sophisticated e-commerce functions including live stream shopping. With WeChat, users can call cabs, book doctor's appointments, pay for restaurant visits or send money to friends.

UX (user experience) and CX(customer experience) are not only important for increasing immediate sales success, but also for building and maintaining long-term relationships with customers, which are crucial for sustainable success in sports marketing. EX (employee experience) or workforce engagement management also remains in focus. Essentially, it is about not only training employees - for example in customer service - but also optimizing their working environment. Sportscheck already had good experiences with the use of tablets a few years ago. So far, so familiar.

But hyper-personalization now enables completely new experiences and customer journeys. Sebastian Küpers, CTO of the Plan.Net Group, describes a practical use case for UX in the industry medium Absatzwirtschaft for a car purchase via chatbot. "The AI knows that the prospective buyers are a well-off, young couple who like to travel by car and love luxury, comfort and shades of blue," explains the expert. "This gives customers the feeling that they will receive the same competent and individual advice as in a dealership."

Fake out-of-home (FOOH) campaigns also make use of the mix of real and digital, taking classic out-of-home (OOH) and digital out-of-home (DOOH) to a new level. Digital artists play with reality and create imaginative graphic animations for brands' social media channels. There, the FOOH campaigns attract a high level of attention, ideally go viral and make the leap into the coverage of traditional media. The new, quirky genre usually takes a playful approach by mixing real footage with 3D assets. A best-practice example of a successful FOOH campaign comes from the cosmetics brand Maybelline. In the film , giant eyelashes from London subways and buses are painted by oversized mascara brushes.

AI videos could be a revolution for FOOH in 2024: OpenAI, the developers of ChatGPT, unveiled their text-to-video generator Sora in mid-February. The AI model can generate amazingly realistic films from a simple prompt. Sora will therefore initially only be available to selected creatives in order to assess potential security risks.

Just when you thought the differentiation of influencer marketing was complete, a new form is adding virtual sugar to the hype: AI model influencers. These characters created using generative AI are set to revolutionize the influencer business. As flexible, fast and cost-effective as virtual creators are, it is hardly surprising that more and more brands want to work with them. 

Virtual models have been around for some time, and access to AI image tools such as Midjourney has made it possible for non-professionals to create virtual characters, which has led to a sharp rise in AI creators. AI technologies are also helping to improve interaction with fans, for example through a chat function. And the virtual characters are in no way inferior to real influencers. The agencies behind the AI models create entire life stories around them - including hobbies and rendezvous. Aitana Lopez, a character from The Clueless agency in Barcelona, for example, is an urban, sporty Spaniard who loves fitness and eSports.

Until now, third-party cookies have been used for user tracking across different websites, for example to track user behavior and interests and to display personalized advertising. But now the "cookieocalypse" has finally begun: Following Safari and Firefox, Google Chrome has also been doing away with third-party cookies since the start of 2024. Initially, this will only affect a few users of the browser, but from the middle of the year, the automatic blocking of third-party cookies will be the default setting for all Chrome users.

Fortunately, artificial intelligence also offers new possibilities for intelligent, data protection-compliant targeting in this area, without which hyper-personalization would not be possible. The trend is moving towards technologies that classify users into interest groups rather than tracking them as individuals, which should better protect their privacy.