In my work with corporate clients I am often asked to define engagement - and we’re often left with trying to make up a metric that applies to each case, each campaign.
For my 1000th blog post at WebMetricsGuru - here’s something else to consider about measuring engagement - how to measure engagement for a Sports Fan has been defined by at least one Market Research company, and it’s more involved than you’d have thought. We’re talking about "sports fans" today, but it could just as well apply to "music fans", "artist fans", "political fans"…..and when we start talking about "political fans" and "pop music fans" there’s big money and a lot at stake.
"……studies conducted by sports marketing company Octagon reveal subtle yet significant distinctions in the factors that fuel football fans’ passion for the sport."
It’s with the "distinctions", once you know and understand them that you can them evaluate the engagement of fans and of your campaign, overall. I don’t know how many businesses are "fan" driven - but if your want to generate "fans" of your Sports Event, Art Event, Political Event or person, you’ll probably need to know what motivates your average "fan" to be one. Octagon claims to have done that for Sports Events and Sports Marketing. According to the Octagon Press Release:
"To earn fans’ business sponsors must demonstrate they care as much about the sport as the fans do. Fans will engage with sponsors who contribute to their experience, and meaningful engagement begins with understanding ‘why fans are fans’ and then activating sponsorships that embrace this passion."
The research Octagon has done breaks down fan behavior by motivating factors:
The "why" of fan passion is statistically derived from various motivating factors that contribute in different combinations and degrees to the passion for sport found among distinct fan types.
For many fans, their passion revolves around team devotion and the joy that comes from being totally consumed by the event. Others consider watching sports a personal indulgence. The opportunity sports presents to talk and socialize and the sense of belonging it engenders are often important considerations when developing sponsorship strategies.
The Passion Drivers(R) research also measures the influence of the athletes on fan passion. Other factors that can contribute to fan passion include gloating, the importance of nostalgia, the role of television, the fan’s experience playing or coaching the sport and the fan’s overall love of the sport. "
And for different sports - the passion motivators are different….duh!!!! Correct! It’s also different for audiences of the same sport (who said that measuring engagement was going to be ….easy?).
"The dominant factor driving the passion for football among all college and professional fans is Team Devotion. However, fans of professional football profess a stronger overall Love of the Game. They are more inclined to watch games even when their favorite team isn’t playing."
So with College Student audience of a sport you’d have to find a way to measure Team Devotion while for Professional Football, you’d find a way to measure overall interest in Football as a Sport. In each case, your measuring something different - different audience - different measurement.
What about the role of the athlete in generating Fan Worship? How do we measure that?
"Two Passion Drivers(R) factors measure the relative importance of the athletes in generating fans’ passion for the sport. Player Excitement is defined as pure hero worship and admiration for the skills and athleticism displayed by the players. Player Affinity is a measure of the fans’ interest in the players’ personalities and lives off the field."
So you’d have to measure how much enthusiasm a Fan has for the athlete on the field and then measure how much interest fans have in the personal life of the athlete.
I find Octagon’s research could be extrapolated to cover the Fan Worship of stars such as Jessica Simpson and Clay Aiken. Actually, Clay Aiken would be more a case in point as so many people feel passionately, one way or the other about him, both his singing ability and his life. I know this first hand because my wife is fan of Clay Aiken.
I will say that Clay Aiken generates the kind of Fan Devotion that Elvis did/does - but how do you measure the Devotion of a Fan (not the "Measure of a Man" but the "Measure of a Fan")?
I think the research that Octagon has come up with for Sports Fans is probably the closest thing to what would work to measure engagement and true popularity of a Pop Star or a Political Star.
In any case, it’s crucial to define what motivates a Fan, in any kind of entertainment business - be it Sports, Art, Cinema, Politics - all of these things and others fields I did not name would all fall under the same methodology - only the meaurements would vary for each sport, each art form, even for the artists themselves, and certainly for politicians. I don’t think enough thought has been put into have to measure engagement - but if we look at it as how to "measure" how much a "fan" is a fan - or the Measure of a Fan, I think we get pretty close to what engagement really is ….Passion for something or someone…and that’s what we need to measuare.
