Octagon Launches The Passion Shift at SXSW

AUSTIN, Texas, March 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Sports and entertainment marketing leader Octagon introduces The Passion Shift study, proprietary brand research designed to help marketers reach consumers in an increasingly passion-based market.  The study demystifies the evolving complexity of how fans use technology to feed their passion for sport and provides brands with the information needed to effectively reach the fans most likely to support sponsors. 

Octagon's new research maps consumer behavior, allowing brands to create marketing strategies and activations that will enhance the fan experience and ultimately help them become loved by consumers.  The tools created from the study outline the consumption habits of fans of 13 different sports.

"Technology has fundamentally changed the fan experience.  It is imperative that marketers understand how consumers behave in an increasingly passion-based world if they want to build affinity for their brands through sport," said Octagon's Chief Strategy Officer Simon Wardle.  "The Passion Shift provides brands with the data and the tools they need to understand which fans to target and how to reach those fans in the most effective and compelling manner."  

Key findings of the Passion Shift research include:

THE PASSION SHIFT: WHO TO TARGET
It turns out that "avid fans" are far less important than interactive fans. 

• The level of a fan's interactivity and how they consume content is more strongly correlated with their willingness to change their purchase behavior as a result of sponsorship, than their self-reported avidity. 

PASSION CONTINUUM: HOW FANS ARE FANS
From "Couch Potato" to "Super Fan," Octagon has identified the 8 different ways fans use technology to help feed their passion for sport.

• The Passion Shift research includes a behavioral segmentation that defines a spectrum of 8 different fan typologies from passive to interactive.

PASSION PROFILING: HOW TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING HOW FANS ARE FANS
Octagon has mapped the complexities of how fans use technology to choose, curate, consume and share sports content.

• The Passion Shift represents one of the largest and most detailed studies of US fan behavior and identifies and maps 33 different ways that fans consume sports content across 14 different sports.

MARKETING IN AN INCREASINGLY PASSION-BASED WORLD: ENGAGING THE RIGHT FANS
Digital, social and mobile channels represent the key to targeting and engaging with fans that are predisposed to supporting and rewarding sponsoring brands.

• For example, fans who say they are more likely to buy your product as a result of sponsorship are 4.2 times more likely to post to sports-related blogs than fans that are not inclined to buy your product as a result of sponsorship.

The Passion Shift, designed by Wardle, surveyed over 7,000 fans and builds on the foundation of Octagon's ongoing Passion Drivers® research initiative. Passion Drivers® research (first released in 2005) quantifies the emotional connections that consumers have to sport, and consequently helps Octagon's brand clients understand how to better emotionally engage with fans in 15 countries around the world.  

Octagon is a proud partner of SXSW's first-ever SXsports. Simon Wardle will host a session today discussing The Passion Shift. http://bit.ly/1fDweuZ. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for updates throughout the week.

About Octagon
Octagon, (NYSE: IPG) is the world's largest sponsorship consulting practice, managing and influencing some $3 billion in sponsorship-related spending annually. Octagon also is a pioneer and leader in athlete & personality representation and management. With more than 800+ employees worldwide, Octagon works with hundreds of blue-chip corporate clients, more than 800 athletes & personalities clients and manages more than 13,000 events per year.  To learn more about Octagon, visit: www.octagon.com.  

SOURCE Octagon