Sport has long been a domain where companies turn to the same marketing methods time and again: a logo on a player’s chest, advertising boards inside a stadium or TV adverts during half-time. But as Generation Z develops into a target for advertisers, it is time to upgrade these tried-and-trusted techniques. The competition for GenZ’s attention is fierce. Gaming and hip-hop, in particular, play just as big a role (if not an even bigger one) in their leisure time, with Spotify, TikTok, Twitch and Netflix, making them a much more natural part of the daily life of this generation aged 14 to 29 than sport.
However, they needn’t compete with each other. Thanks to their shared values, like internationalism with a clear regional focus, an awareness of competition and cultural diversity, and the belief that people can make it big, even if they start at the bottom, there is significant overlap between the target audiences of sport, gaming and hip-hop: the perfect conditions for collaborations. Using these urban cultural platforms honestly and in the right way could be a real opportunity for almost every sport – and especially those faced with an allegedly ageing fan base – to gain relevance for a young target audience. In our view, it would be an error indeed if handball, ice hockey and similar sports believed that they primarily needed to make their live experiences more exciting, even changing the way they were played. It would also be a mistake if they thought that it was sufficient to use tried-and-trusted content on new OTT and streaming platforms. Instead, they also need to keep expanding their non-live experience and make it more entertaining.
Collaborations with hip-hop artists linked to a sport or even a club would be an easy starting point. For advertisers, this is also a huge opportunity to add pop culture content to their brands and benefit from artists’ knowledge of the target group, reach, network and creative input. And if they don’t have a direct link to these urban culture topics, rights holders can be the perfect bridge between rap or gaming content creators and companies.
SPORTFIVE’s goal is to bring together brands, rights holders and stakeholders from the pop culture worlds of hip-hop, gaming and the like. In an epaper, it showcases exciting insights and informative interviews from a variety of perspectives, as well as national and international best cases, to highlight the different facets of urban culture and its marketing potential. In so doing, it always focuses on the connection to sport – which is in SPORTFIVE’s DNA
Niko Backspin on the importance of hip-hop, the needs of the target group and the potential for sport.
Flemming Pinck on the significance of hip hop for fashion & merch, NFTs and the development of a Hamburg-based fashion brand inspired by skating and surfing.
Steffen Ansorge on graffiti as an impactful form of communication in sport and outdoor advertising.
Max Schneider-Ludorff on hip-hop collaborations for events, the role of music at sports events and the transformation of the values “realness” and “underground” in hip-hop.
Massoud Mahgoli on gaming products with a street vibe, rappers as the metaverse pioneers and how he and SPORTFIVE want to emulate the FaZe Clan and the 100 Thieves with their own SQVAD team.
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