Welcome to the ESPN Sports Poll
Capturing the Pulse of Sports Fans Nationwide
Sports Marketing professionals understand that market research plays an essential role in providing direction for strategic decision making. The industry has come a long way in the last ten years. Yet, even those who appreciate the value of insightful data are often unclear on how to measure the ROI of sponsorships given their multi-dimensionality. Meanwhile, marketers are challenged to find ways to evaluate an ever increasing number of sponsorship opportunities among sports and events competing for a finite amount of consumer attention. The ESPN Sports Poll is the first step that sponsors take to cut through the clutter.
The ESPN Sports Poll is a syndicated continuous tracking survey of U.S. teenagers and adults that runs continuously, 360 days/year. In fact, since 1994, the ESPN Sports Poll has become the “industry standard” for monitoring the overall “health” of sports. There are four key components to the power of the Poll. Its validity is based on covering:
- All the Sports
- All the Fans
- All the Ways
- All the Time
OLD THINKING: Maybe we will sponsor a sports league or local team? What is the CEO’s favorite sport?
NOW: The dollars involved demand accountability. Companies need to consider the right sport or combination of sports that effectively ties their company to their target market. The full menu of opportunities should be considered.
OLD THINKING: Television ratings will tell us where in sports to invest.
NOW: Sports fans do more than watch. They attend, they read, they listen, they play, they argue, they buy products to express their passion. Being a sports fan is more than a leisure activity. It is an emotional, sociological phenomenon that cannot be measured two-dimensionally.
OLD THINKING: Let’s survey fans who attend the games to find out what they think of our involvement in this sport.
NOW: On-site surveys can be a valuable component of understanding sponsorship, but it is only the tip of the iceberg. How are you doing with the fans who do not attend events? Does your association with the team or event evoke a positive and powerful imagery in the community? To understand the strength of a sport or its fans or your promotion, a valid source must consider a representative sample of the entire population – fans and non-fans.
OLD THINKING: Sports marketers looking for strategic data were forced to rely on occasional studies of sports fan interests and behaviors.
NOW: By collecting data continuously, 360 days/year, the ESPN Sports Poll captures shifts in interest and activities that are closely tied to the sports seasons. This allows for comparison across sports over a calendar year. This continuous dally tracking is what sets the ESPN Sports Poll apart from point-in-time surveys that examine the industry periodically throughout the year.
Leagues and sponsors need a tool that addresses these issues.
Every month, The ESPN Sports Poll releases an updated “stock page” of fan interest in the US. Contact the ESPN Sports Poll for fan base data among your key target market.
