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Score a touchdown with Experian’s football audience playbook

by Lucy Simmonds 7 min read January 7, 2025

Huddle up: Target football's biggest fans with Experian Audiences

The stakes are high when it comes to advertising during football’s biggest games as the cost of advertising continues to rise, with the average 30-second TV ad during the 2023-24 Sunday Night Football season priced at $882K. With record viewership at the College Football Playoff and the Super Bowl drawing in 123.7 million average viewers, the largest TV audience on record, it’s no surprise that brands are willing to pay those prices since football games are prime time for reaching engaged audiences. In fact, an estimated 51% of viewers search for an ad they saw during the game, underscoring the potential of second-screen engagement to amplify campaign impact. Whether you advertise on TV during these games or not, brands are exploring how they can use football season to drive a deeper connection to their audience. To do this, brands need data driven strategies.

In this blog post, we’ll reveal audience segments designed for you to craft tailored marketing strategies that resonate with football fans in the stands and on the couch. You can find the complete audience segment name in the appendix.

Make a game-winning play with Experian Audiences

With playoff season fast approaching, it’s the perfect time to go on the offensive and target football fans. Utilize Experian’s syndicated audiences to ensure your marketing messages resonate with fans when they’re the most engaged.

  • Experian’s 2,400+ syndicated audiences are available directly on over 30 leading television, social, and programmatic advertising platforms.
  • Reach consumers based on who they are, where they live, and what they do using data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset.
  • Run omnichannel campaigns based on a reliable understanding of households, people, digital identifiers, and marketing attributes.

Four football audience categories to add to your advertising lineup

Football fans come in all shapes, sizes, and viewing habits. From dedicated supporters to casual viewers, targeting the right audience can make or break your campaign.

Here are four football audience categories you can target:

  • Sports enthusiasts
  • College football fans
  • 21+ audiences
  • TV viewers

Let’s huddle up and break down the audience segments within each category. Whether it’s tailgating, tuning in, or cheering from the stands, these insights will get your campaign into the end zone.

Sports enthusiasts

Sports enthusiasts

Whether they’re following their favorite teams, attending games in person, or watching professional sports events on TV, football fans are deeply engaged, making them an ideal target for advertisers looking to score big.

Here are five audiences to target:

  1. NFL Enthusiasts
  2. Football (FLA/Fair Lending Friendly)1
  3. Sports Enthusiasts
  4. NFL Stadium Visitors
  5. Professionals Sports Event

College football fans

College football fans

College football fans bring unmatched passion and loyalty, with bowl games during the 2023 season drawing on average of 4.6 million viewers across 40 total games—a 5% increase year-over-year. From students to alumni, these fans represent an invaluable opportunity for advertisers to connect with a deeply invested audience.

Here are four audiences to target to connect with passionate college football fans:

  1. College Football Stadium Visitors
  2. College Football Bowls
  3. College Students
  4. College Sports Venues

21+ audiences

21+ audiences

With 84% of U.S adults reporting that they drink alcohol while watching football on TV, targeting 21+ audiences during game season is a winning play. Whether they’re cracking open a cold one at a tailgate, hosting a game-day party, or relaxing on the couch, these audiences represent a key audience for brands looking to tap into football culture.

Here are four audiences that you can target this post season:

  1. Imported Light Beer Enthusiasts
  2. Domestic/Imported Beer
  3. High-end Spirit Drinkers
  4. Discretionary spend: Alcohol and wine $331 – $726

These audiences can help you serve up campaigns that pour directly into the heart of football fandom.

TV viewers

TV viewers

Football games attract some of the most engaged and diverse TV audiences, with 85% of sports fans preferring to watch live sports on TV rather than in-person. Notably, for the first time, viewers aged 18 to 49 spent the majority of their sports viewing time (54%) via streaming. This shift highlights the immense opportunity for advertisers to connect with highly attentive viewers tuned into every play.

Here are seven audiences that you can use to create a game-winning strategy to reach engaged TV watching football fans:

  1. Cable Satellite or Streaming Network Subscribers
  2. Streaming Video: High Spenders
  3. Cord Cutters
  4. Cable and Streaming TV Service Subscribers
  5. Paid TV High Spenders
  6. Screen Size – Large
  7. Co-Watchers

Whether they’re catching the action on a large TV screen or streaming from their phone, these audiences will help you craft campaigns that deliver results with highly engaged viewers.

Score big with Experian this postseason

As some of football’s biggest games approach, it’s time to huddle up and connect with consumers who live for the thrill of the game.Whether they’re tuning in to cheer for their favorite teams, tailgating with friends, or enjoying the game-day experience from home, Experian Marketing Data provides the playbook to score big with targeting, enrichment, and activation. With Experian’s data-driven insights, you can turn every opportunity into a game-winning play!

You can activate our syndicated audiences on-the-shelf of most major platforms. For a full list of Experian’s syndicated audiences and activation destinations, download our syndicated audiences guide.

Explore our other seasonal audiences that you can activate today.

1Fair Lending Friendly” indicates data fields that Experian has made available without use of certain demographic attributes that may increase the likelihood of discriminatory practices prohibited by the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”). These excluded attributes include, but may not be limited to, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, disability, handicap, family status, ancestry, sexual orientation, unfavorable military discharge, and gender. Experian’s provision of Fair Lending Friendly indicators does not constitute legal advice or otherwise assures your compliance with the FHA, ECOA, or any other applicable laws. Clients should seek legal advice with respect to your use of data in connection with lending decisions or application and compliance with applicable laws.


Appendix

Sports enthusiasts

  • Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Activities and Entertainment > NFL Enthusiasts
  • Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Sports and Recreation > Sports Enthusiast
  • Mobile Location Models > Visits > NFL Stadium Visitors
  • Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Sports > Football (FLA / Fair Lending Friendly)2 Travel Intent > Activities > Professional Sports Event

College sports fans

  • Mobile Location Models > Visits > University Stadium College Football Visitor
  • Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Sports > College Football Bowls
  • Mobile Location Models > Visits > College Students
  • Mobile Location Models > Visits > College Sport Venues

21+ audiences

  • Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Activities and Entertainment > Imported Light Beer Enthusiasts
  • Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > In-Market > Domestic/Imported Beer
  • Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Retail > High-end Spirit Drinkers
  • Financial – Analytics IQ > Discretionary Spend > Alcohol and Wine: $331-$726

TV viewers

  • Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Cable Satellite or Streaming Network Subscribers
  • Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Entertainment > Streaming/Video/Audio/CTV/Cable TV: Streaming Video: High Spenders
  • Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Cord Cutters
  • Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Cable and Streaming Service Subscribers
  • Television (TV) > TV Enthusiasts > Paid TV High Spenders
  • Television (TV) > Viewing Device Type > Screen Size – Large
  • Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Co-Watchers

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The overlap in addressable and CTV data leads to fragmentation Personally identifiable information (PII) makes up the majority of addressable TV households' data. Part of the attraction to CTV is that their IDs remain universal, persistent, and stable. Analysts project that CTV ad spending will hit $23B in 2023. Consumers now have an average of 4.7 streaming subscriptions per household. It’s no surprise then, that Disney+, HBO, and Netflix released or announced ad-supported tiers. Addressable TV and CTV are often thought of as distinct markets across the industry. But, in the context of identity, we should look at them through the same lens. Millions of households still consume TV and video content via a set-top box or through apps on CTVs. This is in addition to what they consume on their laptops, tablets, and phones. Of the top 11 cable and satellite providers, 65 million U.S. households still have a box in their homes. 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To achieve the three-pillared approach today, you need to use many vendors and fragmented data sources. Often with conflicting data. As we look forward, the tools to do this are becoming more advanced and unified. The players in our ecosystem should adopt a seamless identity strategy. One that provides a privacy-safe yet full-picture solution. That means capturing and unifying all devices within a household. While also understanding the consumer behaviors and profiles behind those devices. As TV becomes more sophisticated, our data and services will enable you to unlock a holistic identity. Chris Feo, SVP of Advanced TV and Platforms, spoke with Broadcasting & Cable about how our data powers measurement, audience insights, and results for businesses within the TV space. 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Contact us to learn how we can connect the complex dots of identity resolution. About our experts Damian Amitin, VP of Enterprise Partnerships, Experian Marketing Services Damian Amitin is the VP of Enterprise Partnerships and joined Experian during the Tapad acquisition in November 2020. Damian is a senior sales and partnerships executive, specializing in the identity resolution and marketing data ecosystem. Damian helps brands, publishers, and technology vendors enable enhanced ID resolution through The Experian/Tapad platform to attain a 360 view of the customer across targeting analytics, attribution, and personalization. Colleen Dawe, Senior Account Executive, Experian Marketing Services Colleen Dawe is a Senior Account Executive on the Advanced TV Team within Experian Marketing Services. With 15 years of experience working within the television ecosystem, Colleen works with clients to bring the value and expertise of Experian to support their objectives in the areas of data, identity, activation, and measurement.

Published: Oct 31, 2022 by Experian Marketing Services

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