M&C Saatchi S&E panel discussion examines how brands can connect with consumers via their passions

To delve into how Australians are engaging with their passions, leading passion marketing agency M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, yesterday welcomed three industry leaders, to discuss how fan communities are changing and how brands can play a more meaningful role within them.

M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment will be releasing its 2023 Passion Pulse report on how Australians are engaging with their passions on Friday, 28 July.  The report is based on proprietary research of more than 3,000 Australians to examine what’s capturing their hearts, minds and wallets of Australians.

Leading the panel discussion was M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, managing director Krystyna Frassatto, who was joined by panelists Natalie Fagg, executive general manager – customer at the Sydney Swans; Mark Muggeridge, head of touring at Chugg Music and Jon Satterly, CEO and founder of Fortress.

At the Sydney Swans, the profile of the nearly two million fans is changing particularly with the growth of the AFL women’s league.

Says Fagg: “We are very conscious of our fan community, they’re incredibly passionate. AFLW is our big change, and what we are seeing is a tighter gender skew. It changes the dynamic of who can come to the game. Women’s games are mostly in the afternoon, it’s shorter, more free range.

And while the club has 150 years of history to draw on, Fagg said that they consider themselves a challenger brand: “It changes the behaviour of how we operate and what we put out into the community.”

Increasingly, the club is using the players to extend the conversation with fans beyond game day.

Says Fagg: “From a fan perspective, they want them to see themselves in these athletes. What we are learning more and more is that the athletes are multi-dimensional. They are fans of other things themselves.”

Frassetto commented that in the agency’s experience, it is increasingly important to co-create experiences for fans: “Rather than a brand coming in and prescribing a message or solution that is not interactive or authentic to how fans experience their passion.”

Muggeridge added that fans, in his experience, do not mind being sold to and so brands should not be hesitant: “Artists are already selling. If you think about it, merch offerings are an e-comm store. The artists that we have a lot of success with, treat their merch brands like fashion.

“That is where opportunities are for brands. If you come to us early, and talk to us about the artists, we can work out which brands work synergistically with the artist.”

For example, he recalled a story of when Beyonce had an offer from a fast food chain, and a perfume brand. Her advisors said that the perfume made sense, because a fan could believe Beyonce using that product, whereas the fast food was not believable.

For Fortress founder & CEO Slatterly, the challenge is to get brands on board and targeting a particular game’s fan base and community, rather than gaming as a whole: “We would wager that there are exponentially more people playing Call of Duty on any given night, then watching the latest hyped reality show. But the ‘winds of change’ have not hit the gatekeepers.”

Slatterly told the audience that Fortress markets itself as a convener of experiences that are talked about: “We work with third parties and our own team to create really compelling events. We set our venues up to be decidedly adult venues. We don’t market to kids.”

Fagg concluded the discussion by saying that there are lots of ways brands can add value to fan experiences, but to first think about how the fan is experiencing it: “If you are starting to plan how to connect to people who love footy, sit in the grandstand and get an understanding of the fan experience first. The mainstream experience is what brands need to create a connection to.”