Social Analysis Reveals Sports Industry Opportunities

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Summary When the World Cup focused worldwide attention on soccer, we analyzed the market opportunity for bringing international soccer teams to play in the US. Using Crimson Hexagon’s ForSightTM platform to the largest set of unsolicited consumer opinions (i.e. social media data), we studied the social perception of international soccer teams playing in the US. Specifically, we analyzed US conversation about two top soccer teams in the international rankings: AS Roma and Liverpool FC. How would fans respond? How can teams effectively position the game within the US? Where is consumer interest highest in the US?

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Buzz Summary AS Roma Italian Buzz 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

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Buzz Summary AS Roma Italian Buzz 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

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What Resonates AS Roma Italian Buzz 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

For the Italian team, national pride emanates

through Tweets

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Topic Waves AS Roma Italian Buzz 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

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Top Influencers & Hashtags AS Roma Italian Buzz 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

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Tweets

Marketing efforts for memorabilia are highly successful as users promote their swag on social channels.

AS Roma Italian Buzz 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

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@OfficialASRoma

To take a deeper dive into social data directly linked to the AS Roma brand, we analyzed

engagement with the official Twitter handle.

January 1st 2013 – August 8th 2014

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Total Post Volume @OfficialASRoma Twitter Social Account 12.19.13 – 08.08.14

Potential Impressions on March 10th

185,588,587

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Summary @OfficialASRoma Twitter Social Account 12.19.13 – 08.08.14

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Trends @OfficialASRoma Twitter Social Account 12.19.13 – 08.08.14

• As the number of followers increased by 66 percent, the fanbase and total account mentions of @OfficialASRoma and positive engagement sentiment increase together.

• On May 12th, the positive sentiment reaches 62% with AS Roma account mentions peaking at 88%.

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Top Verbatim @OfficialASRoma Twitter Social Account 12.19.13 – 08.08.14

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ITA vs US Conversation

We then compared the Italian conversation with the AS Roma conversation in the US.


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Summary Buzz AS Roma US vs ITA 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

Italy USA

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Topics

Italians are consistently sharing posts about their favorite team. They are strong supporters of the beloved ‘giallorossi’ and topics like ‘Daje Roma’ or ‘Forza Roma’ are unique cheers proprietary for Romans and their untouchable ‘squadra’.

US conversations is more sporadic; themes are concentrated around isolated events. We can see islands of scattered discussions usually on a day of a game, with some commenting on individual duels or players.

AS Roma US vs ITA 01.01.13 – 08.08.14 Italy USA

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Affinities

The affinities of the US audience are sport-centric, including interests such as US soccer, Landon Donovan, FIFA World Cup, hockey, and NHL. On the other hand, interests among people talking in Italy almost perfectly depict the stereotype of Italian lifestyle: ‘luxury goods’, Ferrari, politico, governo, ‘haute couture’, and Coco Chanel. And sport segments trickle into the conversation with ‘la liga’, Wimbledon, championships.

AS Roma US vs ITA 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

Italy USA

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Liverpool FC Buzz Monitors

We created comparable analysis for the league team, Liverpool FC.


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Summary Opinion Liverpool FC Buzz 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

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What Resonates Liverpool FC Buzz 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

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Topic Waves Liverpool FC Buzz 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

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Top Influencers & Hashtags Liverpool FC Buzz 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

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Tweets What shines through for Liverpool? Their fan base and love of their team.

Liverpool FC Buzz 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

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Affinities AS Roma US vs ITA 01.01.13 – 08.08.14

The Affinities for Liverpool FC tell a clear geo-centric story - gravitating not only towards sport oriented segments, but also corresponding the geo-segments closely to the team with the most devoted fan base and strongest global presence. Liverpool is inseparable from conversation about England. As such, Affinities clearly visualize like-minded messaging through segments such as Steven Gerard, Premier League, Liverpool, England, Inglaterra, BBC and many more.

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@LFCUSA Twitter Social Account Monitor

We created another Social Account Monitor on ForSight to analyze the brand conversation

directly associated with LFC’s account.

December 19th 2013 – August 8th 2014

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Total Post Volume @LFCUSA Twitter Social Account 12.19.13 – 08.08.14

Potential Impressions on July 21st 76,136,297

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Summary @LFCUSA Twitter Social Account 12.19.13 – 08.08.14

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Growth Trends

Liverpool’s US handle experienced a boom right before their US Tour and the fan base grew exponentially from July 20th onwards. Social fans grew by more than 7.5 times overnight (i.e. 738%). The boom directly impacted the overall volume of engagement, positive engagement and sentiment, which averaged around 40% on daily basis.

@LFCUSA Twitter Social Account 12.19.13 – 08.08.14

Total Engagement Engagement Sentiment

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Sentiment Trends @LFCUSA Twitter Social Account 12.19.13 – 08.08.14

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Top Verbatim Most Popular RT

@LFCUSA Twitter Social Account 12.19.13 – 08.08.14

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Liverpool FC vs. AS ROMA at Fenway

So what does this mean for competition in the US? We analyzed the two teams together and their games played in the US over this past summer.

July 11th 2014 – August 1st 2014

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Summary Opinion Liverpool FC & AS Roma Game at Fenway 07.11.14 – 08.01.14

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Positive Conversation Positive statements about the game itself were the largest category with 46% of the overall conversation. ‘Fútbol’ enthusiasts rejoiced in this game. Within the category, 24% of the tweets discussed the game as a great event at Fenway. The second largest sub-category was intent to purchase at 13%. Partaking in that discussion were people seeking tickets or sharing their excitement about recent ticket purchases.

Liverpool FC & AS Roma Game at Fenway 07.11.14 – 08.01.14

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Team Mentions Looking at discussion about the teams, the chatter was six times greater for Liverpool FC at 44% than for AS Roma at 7%. Fans, particularly Bostonians, were extremely excited about the LFC team being in the US and in Boston, posting tweets that this is their “dream come true” moment.

The AS Roma conversation was minute compared to LFC. When the AS Roma team was discussed, the conversation wasn’t about specific players, it was mostly regarding the team coming to in Boston at Fenway.


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Opinion Proportions

Our monitor’s structure captures the proportional responses and trends of individual topics. First, the proportions were skewed toward the AS Roma, so we can assume that this was due to an early arrival of the Italian club and their players to Boston. As the US Tour and the game unfolds, the LFC is dominating the pool of conversation. With their strong presence, LFC topics quiet down the other categories and it’s associated conversation expands. Other topics return in presence after initial reaction to LFC, as seen in the last interval of the time frame.


AS Roma trends and dominates the overall conversation

breakdown throughout the first week of the analyzed period.

However, at the precise moment Liverpool FC categories invades

the field, the ASR categories deflate, then basically disappear.

The other categories shrink instantly as Liverpool

categories gain on their proportion of conversation

and consequently, they inflate as the Italian category slowly loses its dominance.

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Global Demographics

Looking at posts per capita on a global scale, Ireland and the UK rank significantly higher than the US, as can be expected.

However, the amount of posts for the US is significantly lower than anticipated, with only three posts per million which matches post rates coming from Australia.


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US Demographics

At the country level, Massachusetts is the clear volume winner with most posts per capita; 38 posts per million. New Hampshire follows closely behind with 17 posts per million and Vermont with 13 posts per million, ranking second and third for the highest engagement in the conversation per capita. Given that New York is near the states with highest engagement, and has similar income level and quality of lifestyle, it is surprising that the volume in New York is quite low - only 4 posts per million.


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Affinities The naturally expected segments populated when we targeted domestic US conversation around the highly anticipated soccer/football event that happened in Boston. Our algorithm organically reveals affinities such as Liverpool, Major League Soccer, Premier League, and also some segments with high geo-proximity characteristics such as New England


The second largest grouping we discerned were personalities and leading athletes, either international or on a national level such as Steven Gerard, Luis Suarez, Landon Donovan, Mamadou Sakho. It is surprising that AS Roma, although being one of the rivals in this game, has not earned any presence in our affinities breakdown and neither has any Italy related segment at all. The American-English connection dominates the majority of affinities associated to the game.

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What does it all mean? With this analysis, we get a full picture of the teams and conversation associated with this soccer event’s US relationship and perception. With this social analysis, future soccer-based opportunities that appear in the US can prove what worked and what can be improved, as well as potential players/spokespeople to garner attention for events in the future.

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About Crimson Hexagon is a leading provider of social media analysis software.

Powered by patented technology and an in-house data library of more than 500

billion posts, Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform delivers the industry’s

deepest and most actionable insights from social media data to hundreds of

brands and agencies. Clients include leading global organizations such as

Microsoft, Paramount Pictures, Starbucks, Simon & Schuster, and Twitter, and

leading agencies such as Droga 5, CP+B, HUGE, and We Are Social.

http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/social-media-intelligence/forsight-platform/monitoring