The power of a mascot
Western Kentucky’s Big Red is a social media superstar.
The first rule of increasing sports fan engagement on social media, is there are no rules.
Earlier this year the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers were in the SirusXM mascot challenge (as a replacement for the cancelled NCAA tournament). Their marketing team decided to implement a unique social media strategy , and started writing from the first person view of the mascot.
“Particularly from the Big Red account on Twitter we decided to really focus everything from a first person point of view,” Greenwell recalled. “The Big Red account produced two million impressions during that time and the account added 1,200 new followers. The reach of everything that we had with that was just incredible.”
It didn’t take their team long to realize this creative sports marketing idea was engaging their fans online. (Funnily enough, this idea of adding personality to a brand is very consistent with the current trend of elite-TikTok, where users make fake personalities of brands.)
“Mascots are a huge representation of your brand in general. Big Red is the spirit of our university and Big Red is something that we love to represent. The exposure for him and the joy that Big Red gives people is on another planet. That’s one of the main things that makes us so unique.”
GEN-Z values authenticity, so the best fan engagement campaigns will involve creating unique and authentic experiences with fans. If you don’t have a mascot, you can also use AR (Augmented Reality) filters or clipart on your logo or home court. Authenticity doesn’t require high production value, it just requires getting creative.
Sports clubs that can increase fan engagement online have the potential to experience exponential growth since there is no limit to the number of fans online. This is why we help clubs turn their games into personalized short-form content that shows best on the small screen.
This article originally ran on Front Office Sports: How a Mascot can be a Digital Key Component of Fan Engagement.