An expanded deal with the National Football League was one of the content agreements detailed by Snap Inc. at its Snap Partner Summit last month, and the league will present near-real-time highlights on the platform three times per week (Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays), up from once per week during the 2019 season.
Snap said in a blog post, “As people were social distancing and sports were put on pause, fans still found ways to engage with sports content by tuning into documentaries like The Last Dance, news coverage about the impact of Covid-19 on professional sports and best-of countdown shows. This craving for sports content was also seen on Snapchat—time spent watching Snapchat Shows has been higher than ever. And while watching major sporting events from the stadium isn’t an option, we’re still seeing sustained engagement with sports-related content.”
Average time spent per viewer on NFL-partnered content on Snapchat shot up 80% during the 2019 campaign compared with the 2018 season, and 90% of those viewers were under 35.
And NFL-partnered augmented reality lenses and filters reached 45 million Snapchat users during the weekend of Super Bowl LIV, generating 101 million impressions.
Snap teamed up with Verto Analytics to analyze how the sports community uses its platform, including during the Big Game in February. Findings included:
- Snapchat is most commonly used for sharing reactions and communicating with fellow fans during the game, as well as catching up on things they may have missed. Snap and Verto found that 68% of Snapchatters 21 and older used the app to share video, images or reactions from the game they were watching, while 61% sent direct, one-on-one messages to friends, family or other fans.
Snap Inc./Verto Analytics
- Snapchatters aged 18 through 23 were more likely to share reactions to games and communicate with friends than non-Snapchatters who use other social platforms.
Snap Inc./Verto Analytics
- During Super Bowl LIV, Snapchat usage spiked during exciting live moments in the game, rather than during commercial breaks.
Verto Analytics vice president of market operations and research Vinayak Nair said in an email, “We found that Snapchatters are incredibly active in communicating and sharing with each other during live sports. Advertisers will benefit from Snapchat’s engaged sports community.”
And Snap shared a quote from NFL vp of digital media business development Blake Stuchin, from The New York Times: “We want to meet our fans where they already are, whether that means making sure they know there is a game coming up or telling them more about a favorite player or giving them creative tools to express themselves.”
Snap Inc.