Social Content Opportunities for the Winter Sports Audience on Instagram in Q4 2022

How the Social Content Opportunity Analysis™ Methodology Works

1. ‍Measure & Categorize Posts. 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. ‍Measure The Benchmark. Identify content themes that are performing above and under an average benchmark for the industry based on views & engagements.
4. ‍Identify & Rank 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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Instagram Content Bucket Definitions

• Just For Fun: Comedic or wholesome skiing and boarding-related content designed purely for viewer entertainment.
• Novelty Skiing: Athletes pushing the limits of what’s possible on skis, through the use of specialized equipment and unique terrain.  
• First-Person & Follow-Cam POV: Footage filmed using a GoPro or by a person skiing directly behind or beside an athlete.
• Slow Motion Trick Highlight: Videos that showcase an athlete performing a single trick using slow motion editing.
• Ski Film Scenes: Single clip scenes or montages from full-length ski films that feature beautiful mountain scenery in addition to downhill action.
• Big Mountain Skiing: Expert-level skiers tackle long and steep descents at high speeds, often hitting cliff drops and getting lots of air time on the way down.
• Raw Footage: In-the-moment videos of skiers and boarders in action without the addition of stylistic elements or editing. 
• Urban Riding: Snowboarders use features like staircases, roofs, and fences in urban environments and public spaces to perform tricks. 
• Pow Day: Skiers and boarders enjoy fresh snowfalls and deep conditions in resort and backcountry settings. 
• Aerial Footage: Stunning drone footage that features athletes dropping in or performing tricks in alpine terrain.
• Stylized Video Edit: High-production value edits from noteworthy ski and board trips or a thematic collection of clips from a ski season. 
• Park Riding: Footage of skiers and boarders hitting jumps and rails in ski hill the terrain parks.

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Just For Fun is an extreme performing content opportunity, averaging 3x the views & engagement rate on Instagram.

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Excellent performing content categories for the Winter Sports audience on Instagram include:

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Good performing content categories for the Winter Sports audience on Instagram include:

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Substandard performing content categories for the Winter Sports audience on Instagram include:

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Low performing content categories for the Winter Sports audience on Instagram include:

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Extreme Performing Segment:

‍1. Just For Fun

Comedic or wholesome skiing and boarding-related content designed purely for viewer entertainment. The top videos in this category are from SKI Magazine.

Tactics to Implement:

• Context: The entertainment value of these videos can be attributed to elements that appear out of context. I.e a dog boarding a chairlift and a skier in a bathrobe. These scenes appeal to an audience beyond those strictly interested in skiing and boarding. 
• Audio: The raw audio in this video can be heard behind the music played with the clip. It captures the voices from a nearby group as they react to the scene. This video uses music and strategically times the drop with the landing of the athlete’s flip.
• Hashtags: 2 & 2

3.3M Views

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2.3M Views

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Content Opportunities:

2. Novelty Skiing

Athletes pushing the limits of what’s possible on skis through the use of specialized equipment and unique terrain. These examples feature turf skiing, a method used most commonly for alpine skiing training and speedriding, a combination of paragliding and skiing that allows athletes to maximize their speed and air time. 

Tactics to Implement:

• Prompt: Both videos provide opportunities for the viewer to learn more about the video. This post directed viewers to their stories while this one points viewers to a link in the account’s bio for more information on the sport, the featured athletes, and their speedriding training program. 
• Music: The top videos in this category are set to instrumental tracks that help to create the tone for the content.

• Hashtags: 4 & 0

591K Views

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192K  Views

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3. First-Person & Follow-Cam POV

Footage filmed using a GoPro or by a person skiing directly behind or beside an athlete.

Tactics to Implement:

• Short-Form Video: These videos are 14 seconds in length on average.
• Music: Like novelty skiing videos, these videos use music that matches the energy and pace of the video.
• Unique Angle: Follow-cam POV footage shows viewers a unique angle of the subject and the tricks they perform, and like POV footage, it gives viewers a better sense of the real-time speed of the activity. 
• Video-Worthy Content: Both videos have elements that make the content worthy of capturing including the beautiful sunset in this example, and the skier performing back-to-back buttering tricks in this one.
• Hashtags: 3 & 3

453K Views

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378K Views

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4. Slow Motion Trick Highlight

 Videos that showcase an athlete performing a single trick using slow-motion editing. 

Tactics to Implement:

• Short-Form Video: These videos are 11 seconds in length on average.
• Shock Value: The top-performing videos in this category were those that featured the most unique and high-risk stunts rather than those with the highest level of difficulty or complexity.
• Slo-Mo Timing: The use of slow motion in both videos is strategically timed to emphasize the skier’s air time, returning to normal speed shortly after the take-off.

• Hashtags: 2 & 2

489K Views

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357K 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.

Film Scenes

Content: A short clip from the ski film YUP featuring drone footage of athlete Sammy Carlson hitting a man-made jump in the backcountry.

361K Views

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First-Person & Follow Cam POV

Content: Fast-paced follow-cam footage from behind an athlete showing off fancy footwork as they make their way down the run. 

1.4M Views

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Pow Day

Content: Slow-motion footage from a bluebird powder day in which the athlete side stops to demonstrate the depth of the snow.  

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Slow Motion Trick Highlight

Content: Drone footage of a skier hitting a jump while alpenglow can be seen on the mountains in the background. The video begins and ends at normal speed with the frames slowed down when the athlete is in the air.

1.9M Views

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Aerial Footage

Content: Aerial footage filmed at a distance of a skier getting huge air off of a large ridge. The clip is set to music with a strong bass and timed with the athlete’s take-off.   

984K Views

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Stylized Video Edit

Content: A short clip announcing the release of a new video edit and the addition of athlete Simon Hillis to the Teton Gravity Research team.

349K Views