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
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:
- NFL Enthusiasts
- Football (FLA/Fair Lending Friendly)1
- Sports Enthusiasts
- NFL Stadium Visitors
- Professionals Sports Event
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:
- College Football Stadium Visitors
- College Football Bowls
- College Students
- College Sports Venues
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:
- Imported Light Beer Enthusiasts
- Domestic/Imported Beer
- High-end Spirit Drinkers
- 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
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:
- Cable Satellite or Streaming Network Subscribers
- Streaming Video: High Spenders
- Cord Cutters
- Cable and Streaming TV Service Subscribers
- Paid TV High Spenders
- Screen Size – Large
- 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.
1 “Fair 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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London – 24 November, 2017 – Tapad, part of Experian, is the leader in cross-device marketing technology and continues to broaden its reach across EMEA. The business today reported a 20 percent growth in the scope of its regional device graph, a data set used by organisations to map consumers to their devices, enabling better, more personalised cross-device marketing. This news complements Tapad’s recent expansion of its UK team with the hire of experienced solutions engineer, Davide Rosamilia. As the demand for cross-device technology solutions continues to grow around the globe, coupled with the emergence of regulations such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Tapad is committed to offering suppliers the greatest level of insight without compromising consumer privacy. Since Tapad started licensing its proprietary Tapad Device GraphTM just over a year ago, demand for the company’s technology has experienced significant growth. New supply partnerships and proactive data sourcing have also meant an increase in devices across key markets, which contribute to the overall 20 percent growth of the EMEA device graph, including a 44 percent increase in the U.K., 47 percent in France, and 85 percent in Germany. “We’re continuing to invest heavily in growing our regional device graph, allowing us to better meet the needs of EMEA marketers as they strive to reach individuals with greater precision in some of the most tightly regulated marketplaces worldwide,” said Tom Rolph, VP EMEA, Tapad. “This year, we have also welcomed 10 new data suppliers whom we’ve helped to increase cross-device amplification, attribution and audience extension, helping to further set us apart in the marketplace and successfully expand our EMEA presence.” Available around the world, the Device Graph provides access to Tapad’s globally compliant and privacy-safe datasets across EMEA, APAC and the U.S., and offers deeper knowledge of consumer preferences, purchase intent, and conversion behaviors. “Tapad has shown a unique ability to adapt to the nuances of the local EMEA market and display impressive growth without sacrificing dedication to privacy,” said Alistair Hill, CEO and Co-founder at On Device Research. “When we started vetting technology vendors, we needed to be sure that we selected a partner that could offer compliant and privacy-safe datasets to operate within our stringent data standards. Tapad’s probabilistic solution offered us greater scale, greater device reach, and increased engagement without compromising on privacy.” For information more about the Tapad Device Graph™, or to request a demo, contact us today. Get started with us
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The Tapad Device Graph™ increases Throtle’s amplification by 475 percent. NEW YORK, Nov. 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, now a part of Experian, the leader in cross-device marketing technology, today announced a partnership with Throtle, a leading data onboarding company. The Tapad Device Graph™ will enhance Throtle's best-in-class onboarding capabilities by providing accurate and privacy-safe cross-device reach as well as precise audiences at scale. In partnership with Tapad, Throtle will deterministically link its services to a corroborated individual with hundreds of targeting attributes. This linkage allows Throtle to offer true cross-device identity management and identity resolution services to accompany its robust onboarding capabilities. Throtle will also work with Tapad to validate its device graph, building larger, more comprehensive audience segments. To date, the Tapad Device Graph™ has connected 61 percent of Throtle IDs to related ones in the graph, with an average amplification rate of 475 percent for Throtle's IDs, or 4.8 new IDs per each of Throtle's. Throtle has also seen its overall match rates involving Tapad's identity insights rise an average of 15 percent since the inception of the partnership. More specifically, Tapad's mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs) have increased Throtle's in-app identity inventory by 35 percent. "Tapad has proven to be a trusted source for cross-device matching and has a tremendous reputation in the advertising and marketing technology industries for delivering superior precision and scale with the utmost dedication to privacy," says Paul Chachko, CEO, Throtle. "Since we first began our test phase, and continuing through to this day, Tapad has met and exceeded our expectations for what a partner should be." With Tapad's strong commitment to precision and accuracy, Throtle was confident that this partnership would prove to be the right choice for the strategic expansion of its platform. Not only does Tapad deliver in-depth insights, parsing deterministic from probabilistic linkages, but its pool of device-level touchpoints enables Throtle to increase scale without seeing a decline in precision. "Accuracy and precision are core characteristics of our proprietary Device Graph," explains Chris Feo, SVP, Strategy & Global Partnerships, Tapad. "When Throtle approached our team, we knew we would be the right partner to assist their leading onboarding technology. We're excited to work with Throtle to achieve cross-device reach, audience scale and precise deterministic and probabilistic linkages for its clients." For more information about the Tapad Device Graph™, or to request a demo, visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/consumer-sync About TapadTapad Inc. is a marketing technology company renowned for its breakthrough, unified, cross-device solutions. The company's signature Tapad Device Graph™ connects millions of consumers across billions of devices. The world's largest brands and most effective marketers entrust Tapad to provide an accurate, privacy-conscious, and unified approach to connecting with consumers across screens. In 2015, Tapad began licensing the Tapad Device Graph™ and swiftly became the established gold-standard throughout the ad tech ecosystem. Tapad is based in New York and has offices in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Oslo, San Francisco, Singapore, and Tokyo. Tapad's numerous awards include: Forbes' Most Promising Companies, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, Crain's Fast 50, TMCnet Tech Culture Award, and Global Startup Award's "Startup Founder of the Year". In 2016, Tapad was acquired by the Telenor Group, one of the world's largest mobile operators. About ThrotleThrotle is a data onboarding company focused on deterministic matching and identity resolution, empowering brands with true individual-based marketing. Our data centric onboarding approach guarantees the highest level of accuracy, scale, and responsiveness for our clients. For more information on Throtle, please visit, throtle.io. Contact us today!