Fanbase Voices is an exciting new initiative powered by Learfield that allows fans to help shape the future of college athletics. Through direct surveys, Fanbase Voices captures fan sentiment on key topics related to college athletics, including content consumption, fan experience, NIL, revenue sharing, sponsorships, and more. Fanbase Voices surveys are emailed to tens of thousands of fans who have opted into Learfield communications each month. This process allows Learfield to gain insights into college sports fans and convert that knowledge into strategic actions for our school and brand partners.
What Benefit does Fanbase Voices Offer?
Fanbase Voices offers unique insights custom curated by Learfield to help athletic departments and brand partners to act and impact their business by:
- Understanding college fans and how they feel about important topics during a time of unprecedented change in college athletics.
- Customizing marketing content to determine how to best align with fan preferences and consumption patterns.
- Elevating game-day experiences, ultimately increasing attendance.
- Enhancing sponsorship strategies by aligning with fan interests and behaviors.
- Defining upcoming trends that drive fan engagement and media coverage.
Highlights from Fanbase Voices First Survey
The Fanbase Voices first survey focused on sports consumption, featuring how fans interact with their favorite team, including fan second-screen behavior, college sports spending habits, and game attendance drivers.
Second Screen Content: College sports fans are highly engaged digital users, often consuming content on second screens to elevate fan and viewing experiences.
Top Fan Activities on Second Screen Devices:
College fans participate in a variety of activities on their second-screen devices while watching college sports on TV. This fall SIDEARM Sports will introduce a new dynamic gameday experience in their app to provide fans with features that elevate game day content and bring the excitement of gameday into their hands.
Opportunity: Schools and brands can leverage second-screen experiences via their official athletics app to deliver deeper engagement with fans on gameday. Brands can embed themselves in these experiences and/or create unique ways to engage with fans, to maximize the excitement of college sports on gameday.
College Sports Spending: College fans are the largest, most affluent group of sports fans who are deeply loyal to their teams, which translates into significant spending on college sports.
Additionally, these fans spend a significant amount of money supporting their teams by attending games and wearing the colors of their favorite schools. In fact, 87% of college fans in the survey spend on team merchandise and 84% spend on tickets yearly.
Opportunity: College sports fans are not only passionate about their teams but also strongly support their schools through spending habits that drive revenue. By better understanding fan preferences, partners can deliver advanced and targeted fan experiences and maximize revenue streams for their organizations.
Game Attendance: College fans value more than just the wins and losses; the full game-day experience plays a vital role in fan loyalty.
Price is ultimately still the primary driver that influences their decision, but several other factors play an important role in making the decision to attend games.
Opportunity: Athletic Departments can benefit from focusing on the important factors that impact a fan’s decision to attend games, including price, atmosphere, and game-day experience. They can aim to build the right atmosphere around their events so that fans view these events as fun ways to spend time with friends and family.
The Future of Fanbase Voices:
Fanbase Voices will explore new and engaging topics each month. Fanbase Voices survey insights are an opportunity for Learfield, partners, and schools to better understand fan preferences, in turn elevating business practices and strategies at a high level.
Fanbase Voices will also complement the comprehensive Fanbase Fan Report, which is updated regularly and shows demographics, trends, and insights into college sports fans.
The Fanbase team invites you to participate in future Fanbase Voices surveys to share your perspective on college sports.