On this episode of Fired UP! Chris Wise (General Manager of Designsensory Intelligence & Ignite Fan Insights) utilizes data to decode the brain of a fan.

Can we really understand the mindset of fan? What does it take to keep them engaged? And perhaps the biggest question of all… what does it look like when all the fans return?

Chris Wise & Chris McAdoo explore the findings from Ignite Fan Insight’s exclusive Fan Sentiment Tracking Study, conducted during the sports suspension caused by the pandemic. The study began March 25 and subsequent research will continue every two weeks at least through the end of May – All designed to give you additional data insights to keep your fans engaged and ready to return as soon as action starts.

Chris Wise has been digging deeply into the minds of fans and consumers for three decades. Unearthing solid behavior triggers and offering well-informed recommendations to those involved in the sports business.

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Chris McAdoo:

Welcome to Fired Up, an original podcast from Ignite Fan Insights, powered by NASCAR, the National Sports Forum and the Association of Luxury Suite Directors.

Chris McAdoo:

This is a podcast for sports business pros like you. We go behind the gates and beyond the numbers that keep sports fans coming back for more. Our host, Chris Wise is the brains behind Ignite Fan Insights, with a commitment to research and innovation for over 30 years. He knows the right questions to ask and more importantly, what to do with the answers. Get ready for engaging in-depth conversations with sports industry leaders that will inspire you to take action and connect with your fans.

Chris McAdoo:

Now, during this time of empty stadiums and lonely fields, we want to talk about the emotions and the mindsets of your fans. What does it take to keep them engaged now and for the foreseeable future? And what does it look like when they come back?

I’m your host. I’m Chris McAdoo.

And I’m excited that we’re talking with Chris Wise, director of research for Designsensory Intelligence. Who is the man behind all those numbers. Who’s been studying sports and fan engagement for years. And we’re looking at: What are those all clears going to look like? Is it stages? Are sports going to come back with no fans? Everyone is answering questions with, “Maybe.”

Chris McAdoo:

So we wanted to give some further insight to the sentiment of the American sports fan. We began tracking with some pretty big questions for folks, around March 25th of this year, 2020. Today is April 23rd, but this report represents the second wave with data being gathered April 15th through 16th. And the goal is to track the sentiments and observe what impact of suspension of sports activities, in relation to this COVID-19 pandemic has on the current and the future behavior of the fan, who is hungry for live events and wants to support their favorite team, sport or player.

Chris McAdoo:

Chris Wise. Thank you so much for doing this work and thank you so much for, well, for joining Fired Up.

Chris Wise:

Thanks, Chris. I love being here. Thanks. And I like you, I’m hungry for live sports. I’m missing Major League Baseball. I’m missing NASCAR and auto racing. I’m hungry. So I’ll just jump right in.

Chris Wise:

We began the process like Chris said, March 25th, is when we first collected data. And we’re talking with fans all across the country. And we were doing it in waves to see how their emotions, their mindsets change over the course of the next six to eight weeks and understand what it will take to bring them back into the stadium.

Chris Wise:

What’s interesting is we do know that they are definitely staying engaged and fully supportive and even more so than they have been in the past. They miss it. That idea that the heart grows fonder with some absence is certainly true when it comes to live sports and fresh competition.

Chris Wise:

We started out by asking people, what are they feeling that gave them some negative emotions and some positive emotions. And we continue to see that the positive emotions outstrip the negative emotions, but only narrowly. But still, it’s more positive than negative and that’s something to hang on to. What we’re seeing is though, from a positive standpoint, we’re seeing a rising emotion as it relates to blessed, and that looks to feeling positive about what lies ahead.

Chris Wise:

They’re anxious, but not as anxious as they were. What they’re feeling right now is a little bit stuck and that because they’re stuck, they can’t go places. In this case, they can’t engage with sports. So why is that important to know that? That points to the need to communicate with words and images that play to the positive and neutralize the negative feelings in order to stimulate the action that will be needed when it’s timed and we’re able to get back into stadiums and arenas.

Chris Wise:

They do, as I said, express their love of sports. 60% indicated that they continued to support with the same vigor as pre-COVID-19. And 36% believe they will show even greater support than they have before. Again, as I said, the heart does grow fonder when we’re apart. Teams, venues, leagues need to show deep appreciation for the fan support and continue to nurture the love, which drives loyalty.

Chris McAdoo:

Well, Chris, a follow-up to that. Our last series of data, three weeks ago, that people were just fine watching the game and the event replays. We talked about my friend, Charlie, who was about halfway through his 2008 Olympic DVDs. What is happening with fans? Are people growing tired of watching prerecorded stuff? Where are people sitting with that right now?

Chris Wise:

Well, and that’s probably one of the biggest takeaways from this wave is that while we, as I said, we still see continued support in it and a strong desire to engage in sports, we’re seeing is in our baseline, that first set of data, everyone was consuming whatever they could consume on broadcasts, streaming, cable, radio, you name it. They were consuming it, even though they probably experienced before. And they knew the outcome because they were hungry for it. Three weeks later, they are over it. Because now 50% basically have said, “We’re done. We’re not consuming at all. We want it. We want it badly, but we need fresh.” They’re hungry. They want fresh. That relevant competition is offered through sports.

Chris McAdoo:

Well, that fresh content… This is Thursday after The Last Dance premiered on ESPN. Of course, Michael Jordan’s rise. 6.1 million people watched that this past Sunday, which was ESPNs most popular documentary, by far. And it just goes to show you that even that is, I mean, obviously it’s content that has existed before, but presented in a new way and a new way to engage. Because folks are hungry for that engagement with new things.

Chris Wise:

Absolutely hungry. And that supports what we’re understanding, is that it’s fresh. That was never seen before. And people just, wow, they were right there. And they could live that. And even though it was the past, it was still fresh material. And that’s what did it and it was all sports related.

Chris Wise:

So this tells us… Why is that important? Because they’re so hungry as sports begin to be played or the competition begins, even if there aren’t fans in the stands, they will view the competition in any other means possible. And we’ll get back into the stands as soon as they’re comfortable, but they will. So from the monetization standpoint, it’s going to rely on the advertisers supporting the media that will be providing the sports. So-

Chris McAdoo:

Well, let’s talk about that sort of return. Chris, I think we’ve talked a lot about “caution” being the watchword for fans when it comes to returning to those live events. Three weeks ago, we learned that 31% indicated that they would return just as soon as play resumed. And now that number has fallen to 22%. Why is that important? And what are some steps that folks can take to be proactive about it?

Chris Wise:

Yeah, what’s important is as you even start to unpack those numbers, at first, I think people thought it would be here and gone. That like many things in our lives and in our culture, it’s momentary, bang, gone. And because it’s so different, people are now saying, “Oh, maybe I better rethink that. And I’ll be happy to sit back and consume through electronic means, but I really want to be back.” So the teams, leagues and venues just need to be proactive and very sincere in taking and communicating the measures, which put fan safety in that total experience, first. If they don’t, the folks will be slow to or may never return if these teams or venues can’t honestly ensure safety for the fan, when they’re in a stadium or arena.

Chris Wise:

And we heard words from folks, the biggest sentiment was, “Well, if I’m going to go back, it just needs to be safe. There need to be plenty of hand sanitizers everywhere. Give us face masks and maybe take our temperature as we come into the stadium.” And then they also need to be reassured that no new cases of the Coronavirus exists and that the pandemic is truly over. And then social distancing and everything that we’ve talked about that the now is gravitating, they just need those assurances that it’s safe to go. They want to be there, but they’ve got to be assured. And it’s got to be honest, sincere and real that the [inaudible 00:11:24] and teams truly care about their fans. And they’re going to do anything and everything to make sure those fans are safe, but they want them and they love them. And they’re going to do everything they can to nurture that.

Chris McAdoo:

Well, nurturing that trust, that long time, long term engagement with fans. I mean, I think that we are all… It’s in a weird place because we all want that hero’s journey. We all want the new heroes. Right? I mean, Chris, I watched The Way Back, it’s the movie with Ben Affleck, where he’s a downtrodden basketball hero. This guy comes back, coaches the team, goes through all this kind of stuff, but I got to watch basketball!

Chris Wise:

Oh yeah, yeah.

Chris McAdoo:

But it’s a weird place to be as a sports fan and as somebody who just loves this stuff, to also be thinking, I’m watching that movie but now with the COVID-19 crisis right in the middle of it, watching the stands full. Right. Even in the movie, watching people lifting each other on their shoulders, watching people play. And you’ve just got that safety thing in the back of your mind now. And it’s a sense of loss, a sense of like, “Oh my gosh, I remember that from The Way Back.” But that was six weeks ago, that we were still doing this.

Chris McAdoo:

I mean, one thing I think that we can all kind of keep in mind is that every one is learning about this and how to deal with it, at the same time, including our sports fans, as well as our teams. So is there anything else, Chris, that you want to share for this round of updates?

Chris Wise:

Yeah. Just two things. We went ahead and asked, “When you are ready and the action has begun, what sport is the first one you will most likely attend live?” Now, mostly everyone indicated… because we also find out what is their favorite sport… that’s the sport that they identified. However, it also depends on when things do go live and fans are allowed. So it was either their first sport or then, well, it depends on what sports are available and they’ll just go with what’s available.

Chris Wise:

So, which again, points to, they are so hungry. And why are they hungry? It’s all part of who we are as human beings. We need that comradery with other like-minded fans. We need the competition because sports has been, just like other entertainment offerings, it’s escape from reality. It puts us in a different place and allows us to go wild, to cheer, to have so many emotions that we don’t get to experience every day in our life. So it’s really necessary.

Chris Wise:

So sports aren’t going to go away and everybody believes that it’s not going to go away. So there are a few people that are now concerned that it’ll die and it’s just not going to. It will continue because it’s too important. We just have to understand how we will consume and what that will be, but we will consume. And there will be opportunities to continue on. We’ll just walk the journey together and keep understanding the fans. So teams and venues can do their thing to make sure it works.

Chris Wise:

So that’s about it for now. We are going to ask some additional questions on our next wave, which is in a couple of weeks. And we’ll just continue to share that with everyone and hope they love it. And they’ll be able to get a copy of this report along with this podcast. And I’ll let you tell him about that.

Chris McAdoo:

Well, yeah. To get the full… And I want you guys to, I want you to understand these key data points. We’ve got these reports, which we’re going through the 30,000 feet view on this podcast. But for those of you who really value data and really want to make informed decisions, and maybe you’re just curious about what’s going on, you can go to ignitefaninsights.com, where you can sign up for our email newsletter, which will immediately get you a copy of this report. And you’ll be subscribed to all of the reports that we will be doing during this crisis and hopefully well beyond, when we do get back into those seats.

Chris McAdoo:

So Chris Wise, thank you so much for the work that you do. And for the real boots on the ground intelligence that is provided to folks. I mean, we just want you guys to have the info so you can put it into action, right?

Chris Wise:

That’s it.

Chris McAdoo:

There you go. So anyway, I thank you so much for joining us on Fired Up. Again, this is a podcast from Designsensory Intelligence and Ignite Fan Insights. Again, go to ignitefaninsights.com, subscribe and just get a ton of great information that you can use.