Driving Fan Engagement: Metaverse, NFT’s and the Need to Be Genuine | Industry trends

The recent IBC webinar, Fan Engagement Strategies to Keep Audiences Coming Back, saw a panel of experts address some of the most important questions in the media industry around audience perception, how it can be quantified and refined, and what this really means for engagement.

Fabian Birgfeld, CEO, W12 Studios set the tone by stating the differences that have developed since the traditional ‘broadcast audience’ was the only game in town, and the enhanced opportunities when considering a modern digital audience.

“The broadcasting world was very much – by definition – broadcast. You had to make sure you captured as many people as possible with one game or event, and [target audience] has been someone who really cares about this event.

Now in the digital world, or the way we can think about fans and where the opportunity lies, we can expand that significantly. You can think about before, during and after the events and all these stages. I think the way we think [events] shifts the entire conversation towards essentially creating a one-on-one experience between the creators and the audience.

“I think in the broadcast world you’re used to linear storytelling, but in the world of online or digital you have the idea of ​​non-linear storytelling. You can completely redefine what storytelling means in terms of who is the actor who is the audience. You can bring in completely new interactive components. You can create a very rich experience…”

Hyperpersonalization – more than just hype

Of course, the overall trend in media as a whole is to identify and then refine specific strands of content to appeal directly to specific elements of the broader audience, or in other words, personalization. However, this tactic has been increasingly refined into what many now call “hyper personalization,” where fans can feel that sense of direct connection that Birgfeld mentioned.

Stephen Sidlo, Media Manager, Airspeeder addressed the topic with incisiveness: “I think we need to understand where the fans are going to be and where they are going to find the information they want, if they want to follow the athletes, rather than the sport itself, for example. .. I would say the future of fan engagement is hyper-customized content, which would probably scare me if I were a social media manager right now! They now have to create 1,000 pieces of content, all saying the same thing, but curated and tailored to a specific audience segment, but you know you’re getting high engagement off the back of that!”

Tom Roberts, Content Lead for World Sailing agreed: “I think there are challenges in preparing content for wider institutional silos, and we’re looking at how we solve that challenge: Giving everyone everything they want, but also having some editorial and narrative control over these aspects.

read more Build audiences through better discovery, personalization and engagement

“We work with quite a wide range of ages [demographic] also, so varying technical expertise as well as different expectations as well. So how we present all that information is going to be very tailored in the future, a tailored experience so that we can then provide [our audience] exactly what they want.”

The Metaverse of Possibility

Birgfeld was keen to talk about the possibilities of the metaverse as well: “The opportunity here is to expand your audience. And because of the democratization of access to digital experiences, there is a huge opportunity here to reach a wider audience. Now, for some people that might mean going deeper into AR or VR experiences, but I think for some other people it might just be an entry point to the bigger journey.

“I think the most important challenge that everyone will face in terms of what the metaverse means is, is this going to be a one-off that can be integrated into the existing ecosystem, to create a platform where they can essentially continue development? The most important challenge that everyone will meeting is to make sure they can translate that, they can transform how they go about doing business using all the new tools, and the ever-changing tools to master the metaverse, or any other virtual environment.”

“I think there are no more excuses now – the technology is there. The limitation is your ability to execute…”

NFT asks the big questions

The subject of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) was inevitably not far behind the mention of the metaverse, but from a pragmatic perspective far removed from the hype of recent years.

Birgfeld: “It is a possibility, but it is only a possibility if it is adopted. If there is no adoption, it will not amount to much. I think we need to distinguish between the value of the creation itself and the value of ownership, and the value of the circulation of the idea versus the monetization of that ownership.

“I think the idea of ​​how we redefine what copyright is, and redefine what ownership means — I think those are very important topics. And I think we’ve come a long way in the last two years, but we’ve probably gone too fast in one certain direction…”

Sidlo agreed: “We’ve had a good partnership with Saltwater Games, who create almost the metaverse of merchant opportunities, and their angle is that it comes back to ownership. Back to the hyper tailored approach, when we talk about fan engagement, giving ownership back to fans around what they want is a growing market.

“It’s about owning the pieces, whether speeders or any other elements of the game that you can get. We call it ‘play to impact’, so you own a piece and then the money is used in the real world to plant trees or do something physical. I think if there’s a direct link between you have a stronger connection, a stronger bond with the real world as opposed to just baseball cards [to collect]…”

A final call for a top tip from each of the panelists yielded some quick-fire gems, from Sidlo’s first snapshot; “Be real. Being real is going to build fan engagement and trust,” as Roberts wholeheartedly echoed, to Birgfeld’s warning:

“People create experiences, campaigns, whatever, which are more or less one-off effects. Even though it’s the most amazing thing on the planet, it has a very short memory of whatever you’re doing in space. So if you really want to make a difference, it is very important that you build a platform [for future growth].”

Watch the full webinar, fan engagement strategies to keep your audience coming back on demand now, and get the full range of insights from the expert panel. Alternatively, you can check out the full IBC webinar catalog on demand and/or register for any upcoming IBC 2023 webinar topics that appeal.

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