Dec 18, 2023 • 7 min read
This year has been nothing short of extraordinary, marked by the changing media landscape of 2023, and monumental brands getting involved with youth sports.
To cap off an incredible year, TeamSnap has acquired MOJO Sports, a youth sports technology and media platform that provides coaching instruction, team management tools and multimedia sharing to coaches, athletes and families. Read more about the acquisition on CNBC.
Through the acquisition of MOJO, TeamSnap is continuing to redefine the relationship between youth sports and technology. TeamSnap will now be offering additional support for coaches, who play a pivotal role in an athlete’s life, as well as interactive multimedia capabilities for families and fans to engage on and off the field.
Fewer than half of brands are seen as trustworthy (Havas) but 80% of shoppers consider trust to be a deciding factor when making purchases (Harvard Business Review). Brands that lead with trust will be those that stand out and win customers in 2023 and beyond.
TeamSnap hosted an expert panel discussion of strategies for winning lifelong customers through brand trust with Justin Breton, Director of Brand Experiences and Strategic Partnerships at Walmart and David Corns, CMO at Opendoor.
“Everything that we do is to hopefully drive brand trust and increase brand favorability. That is achieved through a wide range of initiatives. It’s not just brand marketing. “ – Justin Breton, Walmart
Get the Guide: Building Brand Trust, Strategies for Marketers Download here.
We dug into the spending habits of the consumers we know best here at TeamSnap–parents. Parents are dynamic and busy decision-makers, and by providing the right messaging your brand can crack the $2T+ in purchasing power they represent. TeamSnap surveyed over 1,000 parents to find out what matters most to them when making a purchase.
Here’s what we learned:
To dig in further, we had a conversation with Tia Wolfe from MOD Pizza and Amy Andrews from AAA Northeast on how brands can better connect with today’s family buyer, the Chief Household Officer.
Watch the playback: Meet The Chief Household Officer: What Today’s Family Consumer Wants From Your Brand.
“Parents are engaged consumers who are responsible for much more beyond their own needs and interests – they shop, travel, and spend on behalf of entire households,” said Nicole McCormack, SVP & GM of Brand Solutions at TeamSnap. “Sports parents, specifically, have an added layer of complexity and necessity to their spending, however youth sports is an extremely fragmented industry that many brands have yet to take advantage of.”
Women’s sports captivated audiences like never before in 2023, setting new benchmarks in viewership and engagement. The FIFA Women’s World Cup saw a 54% increase in ticket sales, with 1.5 million tickets sold, and the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team’s match against the Netherlands attracted a record 6.4 million viewers. Similarly, the WNBA draft witnessed a significant 42% rise in viewership, particularly among female audiences. This surge in popularity has not gone unnoticed by brands, with women’s sports sponsorships growing by 20% in 2022.
Women’s sports start with girls’ sports. This year we encouraged brands to recognize the untapped potential in both women and girls in sports.
Danette Leighton, CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation said it best in a webinar hosted by TeamSnap on SBJLive: “Brand investment is a key part of keeping the entire women’s sports ecosystem healthy and is critical to ensuring girls and women get equal opportunities elsewhere in school, their careers, and beyond.”
Experts from TeamSnap, AT&T, and e.l.f. SKIN joined Leighton to discuss how brands can meaningfully support girls in sports. Watch the playback.
As the marketing and sports worlds gear up for Super Bowl XLVIII and the 2024 Olympics, one thing is abundantly clear…Sponsoring pro sports is really expensive. This year we saw brands get creative in the world of sports sponsorships, from the massively increased interest in women’s leagues, unique sports on the rise (drone racing, anyone?), NIL deals, and of course – youth sports.
Read more with Brands Are Getting Creative with Their Sports Sponsorships, written by TeamSnap’s SVP/GM of Brand Solutions Nicole McCormack and published in ANA’s Forward Magazine.
Thanks for being a part of the TeamSnap community in 2023, we can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2024!