Facebook Ball Sports Audience Content Opportunity Analysis™ Q4 2022

Content Opportunity Methodology

1. Measure & Categorize: Sample a large number of social posts to find ones that are significantly outperforming the average.
2. Identify Top Themes: Identify the themes that are resonating most with the audience by sorting the themes by their aggregated performance metrics.
3. Identify a Benchmark: Identify content themes that are performing above and under an average benchmark for the industry based on views & engagements.
4. Identify Opportunities: Look at the data and find the content themes that are resonating with the audience based on a set of top creators.
5. Repeat For Each Platform: Repeat the analysis for every platform that matters to your brand and audience to find platform-specific opportunities.

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Facebook Content Bucket Definitions

• Athletes Deep Dive: Videos in this category give viewers an in-depth look at their favourite athletes. They cover elements of their personal lives, events, and achievements both on and off the pitch (or court).
• Ball Sports Humour: Funny, sports-related skits and clips of comedic moments in ball sports. Top videos in this category are Football related.
• Football Training and Skills: Amateur Football players of all ages show off their technical skills and the drills they do to keep them sharp.
• Freestyle Football: Impressive footage of footballers juggling and passing a ball using creative tricks and moves to keep it off the ground.
• Football Fan Behaviour: Videos showing how fans react and interact with their favourite football players and teams.
• Pranks & Challenges: Entertaining videos combining clips of athletes performing silly challenges or pranks typically in public settings.
• Athlete Spotlight: These videos are similar to those in the Athlete Deep Dive category but focus only on the athletic career of an athlete with most footage looking directly at their performance in sport.
• Game Commentary: Football and Basketball game highlights and post-game reviews narrated by professional sports commentators. 
• Player Highlight Reel: Compilation-style videos showcasing the talent and athleticism of one player.
• Football News & Gossip: News, opinions, and gossip in the football world including list-style play reviews, roundtable discussions, and breaking news about players and clubs.
• Athlete & Coach Interview: Full interviews and interview clips with coaches, players, and team managers. 
• Entertainment Segment: In these videos, athlete(s) and fans participate in challenges and games hosted by sports news outlets and creators. This content gives fans a chance to learn more about their favourite athletes and their personalities. 

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Excellent performing content categories for the Ball Sports audience on Facebook include:

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Good performing content categories for the Ball Sports audience on Facebook include:

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Substandard performing content categories for the Ball Sports audience on Facebook include:

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Low performing content categories for the Ball Sports audience on Facebook include:

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Content Opportunities:

1. Athlete Deep Dive 

Videos in this category give viewers an in-depth look at their favourite athletes. They cover elements of their personal lives, events, and achievements both on and off the pitch (or court). 

Tactics to Implement:

• Storytelling: Both videos highlight one athlete and use multiple clips in a variety of settings to weave together a narrative about the player. The first video below uses interview clips of the athlete and others close to him between footage of the athlete with his child. The second video below uses on-screen text on top of clips of the athlete to visually narrate the athlete’s profile.
• Comment Section: Oh My Goal uses the comment section to draw attention to a new episode in one of their Facebook video series.
• Video Credit: The first video below uses content from Manchester City and tags them in the caption and onscreen, the second video below uses fan content and includes on-screen tags in each clip.

4M Views

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5.5M Views

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2. Ball Sports Humour

Funny, sports-related skits and clips of comedic moments in ball sports. The top videos in this category are Football related. 

Tactics to Implement:

• Fan-Sourced Content: Top creator, SPORTbible, posts content sent in by fans often crediting and tagging them in the comments like the first video below. The second video below is a compilation of funny clips from a variety of sources.
• Subtitles & On-Screen Captions: The first video below uses subtitles for viewers watching without audio. The second video below follows the “Expectation Vs. Reality” trend and labels each clip as Expectation or Reality. In addition, a SPORTbible logo appears in all clips ensuring the brand is identifiable anytime the video is reshared. 
• Duration: 2.5 & 3.2 minutes
  

5.6M Views

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2.6M Views

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3. Football Training & Skills

Amateur Football players of all ages show off their technical skills and the drills they do to keep them sharp.

Tactics to Implement:

• Music: Videos use music to set the tone of the video. The first video below uses a more serious track while following the impressive skills of the 7-year-old player while the second video below uses a more upbeat, carnival-style song as it shows entertaining clips of people struggling to keep up with the “Footbot”.
• On-Screen Text: Videos do not include verbal audio and instead use on-screen text to narrate clips. The second video below also displays the ball's speed in the screen's top right corner. The text is large and bold and uses high contrast to make it easy to read.
• Duration: All videos in this category are between 3:00 and 3:10 minutes long.

4.6M  Views

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2.4M Views

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Outliers: These videos were omitted from their content buckets as ‘viral’ outliers for exceeding 3x the views and engagements of their respective benchmarks.

Ball Sports Humour

Content: This tennis fan went viral last year when she chugged her beer on the jumbotron at the US Open. She’s gone viral again this year and this video features back to back clips of her act in 2021 and 2022.

44M Views

Pranks & Challenges

Content: In this prank compilation video, bystanders attempt to kick a soccer ball back to the man in the video screen shot above. The ball is actually attached to his ankle and he pulls it back each time someone tries to kick it. 

29M Views

Match Highlight

Content: This cricket highlight video from BBC Sport gained attention for the controversial play used by India to beat England in a championship match. Videos of the play garnered high engagement and sparked debate across social platforms with some fans calling the move unfair.

9.8M Views

Entertainment Segment

Content: Football fans play a game of ring toss to predict the results for a match between FC Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona. GiveMeSport uses a branded ring toss set for this segment and places the competing team logos on either side.

7.9 Views