TribalWorks

It is good to see that Toronto motor sports fans will once again be able to see an open-wheeled race in the city.  After a year absence due to the folding of CART, the IRL added Toronto as stop on the tour.

Honda has just announced that it will be the title sponsor for the event.  This is very good news for Toronto racing fans, but it will be odd not calling it The Molson Indy.

Given the very fickle nature of many Toronto sports fans, it will be very interesting to see if the Toronto racing tribe will come back in strong numbers after a one year hiatus.  A strong showing will boost the prospects of other racing leagues making stops in Toronto.  It has been rumored that NASCAR may plan a stop either for its Nationwide or Sprint Cup series.

Electronic Arts has scrapped the hostile take-over bid of Take Two Interactive.  Many suspected that EA’s main interest was in Take Two’s Grand Theft Auto franchise which is one of the most successful gaming series ever. 

Today’s decision to not pursue the bid is good news for fans of the NBA and NHL.  EA Sports (a division of EA) and 2K Sports (a division of Take Two) annually produce an NBA and NHL videogame title.  Previously, both companies produced versions of an NFL and MLB game.  However, EA secured an exclusive NFL license which prompted 2K Sports to secure an exclusive MLB license. 

The biggest losers of these exclusive agreements were the fans of the respective leagues and videogamers in general who witnessed a decline in the perceived quality of the exclusive titles.  Members of the gaming community were not shy at voicing their displeasure of the lack of attention developers were putting towards games.  This decline led many individuals to feel less connected with the league in general - leaving way for these fans to seek alternate forms of entertainment.  If the take-over bid took place, then there would no doubt be only one MLB and one NBA game produced annually.

Sports leagues should consider the impact exclusive agreements have on the tribe.  Long term financial success for the league means more than getting more licensing dollars now.  It means extending the lifetime value of each fan.  Signing exclusive video game contracts may not be consistent with this goal.

Yesterday, I watched the North Carolina Tar Heels football team destroy the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 44-12.  However, what struck me as most surprising is that by mid-way through the 3rd quarter a very large number of fans were starting to file out.  Now it could be that many fans lived in the New York area (Bronx, Brooklyn, etc) and wanted to beat the traffic on a workday evening. 

Just to give you a background, Rutgers was long considered to be among the worst teams in NCAA Division I football.  Coach Greg Schiano did a remarkable job and turned around Rutgers into a team that went to 3 straight bowl games.  On a side note, one of them was last year’s International Bowl; a game Accelteon played a role promoting.  With this change in on-field performance, Rutgers saw an increase in media attention, fan following and a surge in attendance.  (To read more about how on-field performance impacts the sports business download our report the CFL Gravity Index).

In our experience working with different sports leagues & teams and by looking at past research from other firms, there are numerous ways people segment fans.  To simplify things, I’ll classify them as die-hard or casual.  The die-hards, or the tribe, are the ones who saw this team through think and thin.  The casuals are the ones that are more fickle and their participation in team activities wavers depending on the team’s performance.

However, doing some research after last night’s game, I believe there is yet another tribe at Rutgers.  A tribe that is connected with Rutgers University, but would like to see nothing more than the Rutger’s football team fail.  Or at least be mediocre.

Why?

To stop the $102M plan to expand Rutgers Stadium.  Many students, professors and concerned stakeholders are against the plan to expand the stadium (which some called the House Ray Built, in reference to star runningback Ray Rice).  The main reasons given are that it is a poor use of funds and it is against the wishes of students.

How big is this Tribe?

It is hard to say, but one Facebook group Stop the Stadium Expansion has 1,139 members as of the time of this post.  Another blog calling itself the Friends of Rutgers Academics seems very happy with Rutger’s current on-field problems.  On a blog entry following yesterday’s game, they quoted a post made on June 28thwith their season predictions:

We expect the Rutgers losses to start against Fresno State and we anticipate that every tough opponent will throttle Schiano’s Schoolboys. By season’s end we expect Rutgers Stadium to be as empty as a cemetery at midnight in a blizzard — and watch that diminished enthusiasm crush ticket sales for the 2009 campaign. New Jersey fans have no affection for losers and they will show it by not showing up.

Regardless, of its size, this tribe seems to be quite vocal in their opposition and quite content to see their own team fail.  This is quite an interesting tribe dynamic between students who are fans of the Rutgers football team, and those students who are opposed to the stadium being expanded.

These issues are not limited to college sports only.  There are cases where sports fans wish the team playing a different sport from the same city fail.  An example of this are Toronto Argonaut fans in the mid-late 90s wanting the Blue Jays to do poorly so the Argos could get more media attention.

So not only do sports managers (Athletic Directors at major colleges and Presidents of pro teams) have to figure out how to keep their die-hards happy and how to get enough casual fans in, they now also have to worry about keeping the anti-tribe away.

The launch of the new 90210 series was met with large audiences last week.  However, the show’s second episode which aired on Tuesday dropped 30% of its viewers.

The American viewing audience for the glossy Beverly Hills, 90210remake took a sharp decline with the show’s second episode. According to U.S. Nielsen ratings, Tuesday’s broadcast on The CW saw ratings fall to 3.3 million viewers - an alarming decline of 30 per cent from the show’s 4.7-million viewers one week before.

The ratings drop-off was even more severe in Canada. According to BBM Nielsen numbers, the second broadcast of 90210 registered 664,000 viewers on Global, compared with 1.3 million for the debut. Unlike the first week, Global did not simulcast with The CW and aired it one hour later.

There are several potential reasons for this drop:

• The first episode was hyped up and brought in casual viewers along with the die-hards
  • If this is the case, then we might see the ratings hold steady over the next few weeks
• The show’s formula does not connect with its viewers (i.e. characters, story lines, etc)
  • If this is the case, then we might see the ratings continue to slide
• The new show does not connect with the die-hard tribe of the original series
  • This may mean that the show will lose its previous fans but have an opportunity to create a new tribe

I am certainly not a fan of the show, but it will be interesting to see how this one plays out over the coming weeks.

Of all the categories in which Tribal Marketing makes sense, music comes to the top of the list. Music evokes the emotional response, creates connections and fosters new fan-relationships making it a perfect match for Tribal.

In the latest edition of the Marketing Magazine, the cover story talks about how social media is changing the rules of music marketing. One of the examples cited is that of Valerie Poxleitner - a.k.a. Lights. Instead of taking the traditional route of knocking on the doors of traditional record labels, Lights and her manager, Jian Ghomeshi, used MySpace. 

MySpace allowed Lights to build a huge fan base, which lead to a contract with Old Navy for a marketing campaign and eventually leading to a record deal with Warner Music.

Lessons for tribal - this is a classic David vs. Goliath story - small brand (or in this case, no brand), limited marketing resources trying to make a success. Also, just because you are using social media you cannot expect overnight results - like with every other marketing strategy, it takes time. Finally, you need to define success early on and ensure that you have the right metrics to monitor and measure along the way.

According to Accelteon’s Gravity Index, the 2008 CFL season as of Week 7 is the most exciting over the past 4 seasons. One of the biggest factors is Hamilton’s performance; although they have only won two games, they are more competitive than last year.  Click Here for the results.

 This is certainly good news for CFL’s management, since they are dedicated to keeping and improving the quality of the on-field product.  This will also go a long way in strengthening the resolve of tribal CFL fans who feel threatened by the potential entry of the Bills (discussed here).

Today, the Buffalo Bills will be playing the first of a series of eight games over the next five years at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Although there have been several articles written both in the Canadian and the Western New York press about the potential permanent move of the Buffalo Bills to Toronto, I am more interested in reading what fans have to say about it.

Here are some more colourful examples from the Globe & Mail’s Comments section in response to an article on the Bills preparing for tonight’s game.

CFL Fans

XX from Oakville, Canada writes: Who cares!!
Ticats vs. Bombers….huge game tonight for both teams! Should be a beauty.

Oskee Wee Wee!!!!

XX from Canada writes: Who cares it’s the No Fun League.

Picking Winnipeg (slightly) over Ti-cats tonight.
But then who knows with Freight Train Lumsden running wild.
Lots of Buffalo Burgers from Pete’s Mountain Meats on the BBQ.
Lots of beer on ice and I stole the zapper from my confused sweetie.
Hiding her TV outside in the tent and all hooked up outdoors already.
Now lets ‘Get It On’

NFL Fan

XX from Canada writes: If you don’t care about the NFL, its very simple, even CFL fans will understand, don’t read and comment on this story!

No one is forcing you to read this or go to the game so beat it and find your own story. That is if anyone bothers writing about the CFL.

This is a perfect example of how the ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality exists in many consumer tribes (look at how Apple brings this concept in their messaging). This certainly won’t be the last post about this subject.

One area of Tribal Strategy which requires more serious planning is how you handle members that belong to both tribes? How do you leverage the ‘Us vs. Them’ dynamic without going too far?