“European Sports Fans More Receptive to Online Ads”

Casey Thomas
Internet Marketing
Extra Credit
June 6, 2008

“European Sports Fans More Receptive to Online Ads”

According to the European Interactive Advertising Association, online advertising has quickly become the most popular way to reach European sports fans. They reported over 35 percent of Europeans use the internet for sports related content on a regular basis. Users of these sports sites spend on average 13 hours a week browsing the sites.

A report titled, “Sport and the Shift to Interactive Media” implies that sports users are a “particularly engaged and receptive audience for online advertisers.” The report also states that 57 percent of sports site users thought online advertising helps to enhance the brand’s image. 53 percent of these users also found web advertising to be “informative.” Sports fans also found the ads to be more creative than regular users did. Alison Fennah, executive director of the European Interactive Advertising Association, says that this shows how appreciative sport site users are of online advertising and how much more receptive they are than regular users.

This could mean big things for summer sporting events like the Beijing Olympics and the European Soccer Championship. Advertising on sports fan sites this summer could pay out big, especially when advertising the brand names that will likely be sponsoring these events.

Video was also a major component in online advertising because 40 percent of sport site users watched television or video clips online, which was more than regular internet users. They also found that sports enthusiast were, “twice as likely to watch video on their mobile phones or visit websites while on the go.”

I think this could have a large impact on the sports and sporting goods industry. While European Soccer and events like the Olympics are generally more popular in Europe, I believe the United States could learn from this study and should have one of their own. The popular sports in the States have an audience that spans more than one sport. Baseball fans in one city or state are likely fans of the same city or states football and basketball team. I think this is a great advantage and something online marketers should look into and definitely tap into in the future.