Disruptive impact of Covid-19 on Australian sport. A social media perspective. (Oct-20)

1. How
social
media is
providing
direction
through
disruption.
Impactof
Covid-19 on
Australian sport.
A social media
perspective.
FACEBOOK
APRILtoSEPTEMBER
2019v2020

2. Aftersix
months
arewe
through
theworst
ofit?
INDUSTRY
Until such time as a vaccine is universally available
sport will be at the mercy of the next virus hotspot
and the effectiveness of measures to contain it. In the
meantime we must be prepared for any eventuality.
So what insights does social media data tell us about
how sport is coping and where we’re heading?
When you consider that the majority of content
published on social media is event based, something
there’s been precious little of in the last 6-months its
astounding that sport has bounced back so strongly.
From productivity levels (social media posts published)
that were hit hard initially (down by a third in April) to a
September result just 14% less than the same time last
year.
This ability to adapt to UGC generated stay-at-home
sports themed content to then switching gears to on
again, off-again events coverage has been impressive.
Highlighting the resilience and never say die attitude
of sport to keep audiences engaged via social media.
Engagement results in the first full month of nationwide
lockdowns (April) for sport were surprisingly good with
a net drop of a little over 2%. As restrictions wore on so
too did its impact with engagement slipping in May
and June.
What saved the day? Intriguingly it was a sport very
much out of season..... Cricket. With a July result
that was almost 200% better than this time last year.
This equated to a whopping 2.25 million (net) more
reactions, comments and shares on Facebook.
It wasn’t just July either, with more good results in
August that were almost 1 million up on 2019. More than
enough to lift the whole industry into positive territory.
The cricket ‘bump’ didn’t last though as industry
engagement levels were once again underwater by
September to the tune of more than 10%.
While an upward productivity trajectory for the
industry is firming, there is likely to be more volatility on
the engagement side of the ledger in coming months.
A key performance
indicatorofthe
industry’shealth
(communications)
hastaken a beating
during Covid-19 but
there are signsofa
recovery.
Sample: 518 National and state/territory sporting organisations,
peak bodies and government agencies.
ALL Posts; Facebook video, picture and link posts.
ALL Reactions; Facebook reactions, comments and shares.

3. The
longhard
slogto
anew
normal.
While industry social media industry productivity has
recovered to a level 14% less that this time last year the
total number of sports that are posting positive results
each month is taking longer to bounce back.
The majority monitored (72%), posted a negative result
in April ‘20 compared to the same period in 2019. Since
then it hasn’t really improved, with results flat-lining in
the negative 66-68% range before finally dropping to
62% in September.
In comparing the core metrics from this report its clear
that some sports, in some markets are doing better
than others.
Contributing factors to a sports resilience in dealing
with the disruptive influences of Covid-19 include the
management philosophy of the executive and board,
financial reserves, timing of key decision-making,
contractual arrangements, seasonal factors and the
underlying culture.
As expected, April was a particularly tough month for
Australian sport as nationwide Covid-19 lockdowns
started to bite.
The impact of these unprecedented measures was
that just 23% of the more than 500 sports analysed for
this report posted a positive social media engagement
result when compared to the same month last year.
From May the situation improved but then began to
slide again with July another challenging month as
stricter lockdowns were re-applied in Victoria.
Markets that struggled were South Australia (83%
negative) and National Sports Organisations (78%).
While the Northern Territory (53% negative), Tasmania
(66%) and interestingly Victoria (68%) fared better.
Thankfully, the situation for sport overall has improved
somewhat since then but its clear there’s still a way to
go before the industry gets on top of a worrying trend.
If social media audiences continue to disengage are
participants next?
The Covid-19
recovery is
patchy with
mostsportsstill
struggling.
Sample: 518 National and state/territory sporting organisations,
peak bodies and government agencies (Facebook).
ALL Posts/ALL Reactions; Organisations that posted positive or
negative results when comparing 2020 to 2019 by month (Facebook).
INDUSTRY

4. Some
markets
aredoing
better
than
others.
The recovery to more normal (2019) social media
publishing productivity levels for the industry is playing
out very differently in each geographic market.
Northern Territory, South Australian and Tasmanian
sports have emerged relatively unscathed from
Covid-19 as can be seen here in the 2019 to 2020
6-month comparison. The mystery (and concern) is in
Western Australia, where state sporting organisations
are down by 30% despite lockdown levels in the West
being relatively light and short.
Greater resources and a national footing are likely
mitigating factors in the NSOs (National Sporting
Organisations) ability to ride-out restrictions in better
shape than most. NSW and notably Victoria’s recent
battles with virus flareups and associated lockdowns
are reflected in their lower ranking.
The ACT is also perplexing. Sport in the capital territory
may have been caught-up in their neighbours troubles
while fewer resources and a smaller participant
footprint won’t have helped the cause?
Western Australia and NSO’s (National Sporting
Organisations) achieved positive engagement results
for the last 6-months from April to September when
comparing 2019 to 2020. Good news!
In the West it was Surfing that carried the day, up a
staggering 186k engagements (reactions, comments
and shares) on 2019. Next best were a small group of
organisations that eked out 1-2k positive results.
For the NSO’s it was all about cricket who has stunned
during its off-season with a +5.6m engagement result.
At the other end of the scale some of the smallest
participation markets in the country are seriously
struggling to get close to 2019 engagement levels.
In Tasmania, 43% of state sports are down more than
50% on the same period last year for engagement
while in the ACT the situation is even worse with 63% of
sports ‘underwater’ by more than 50%.
Just a temporary blip or something more permanent?
What does it mean for sports long-term sustainability?
Lockdown
length and
severity in
each market
isinfluencing
recovery rates.
MARKET
Positive/negative results comparing social media productivity and
engagement from 2019 to 2020 - April to September inclusive.
Sample: 518 National and state/territory sporting organisations,
peak bodies and government agencies.

5. Howwell
hasyour
sport
responded
toCovid?
Rank Sport ALL Posts %
1 Peak Body 268 111.67%
2 Outdoors 194 61.59%
3 Sailing 322 36.14%
4 Pony Club 294 29.31%
5 Government 87 21.22%
6 Squash 95 12.06%
7 Football 99 5.14%
8 Equestrian 70 4.57%
9 Handball 12 2.77%
10 Little Athletics 12 1.48%
Rank Sport ALL Reactions %
1 Volleyball 344,229 522.10%
2 Wrestling 1,210 129.14%
3 Peak Body 2,192 113.75%
4 Little Athletics 36,710 86.26%
5 Surfing 195,580 70.50%
6 Cricket 5,607,182 51.84%
7 Rugby 133,816 23.10%
8 Sailing 1,984 14.95%
9 Pony Club 5,839 11.70%
In times of crisis peak bodies (Rank-1,2) spring into
action to keep members informed and ramp-up
stakeholder advocacy. This has definitely been
the case with SportWest who is leading the way in
Western Australia.
One essential industry stakeholder are government
agencies (Rank-5) who compliment the work of peak
bodies. During Covid-19, government has played a
critical role in providing both financial lifelines and
guidance in negotiating lockdowns.
In terms of identifying Covid-19 ‘winners’ across the
Australian sports industry any activity that can be
undertaken with minimal contact will be perceived as
low-risk. This makes active recreation type pursuits
such as surfing, cycling, hiking (Outdoors Rank-2),
sailing (Rank-3) and equestrian (Rank-8) or pony club
(Rank-4) ideal options.
With fewer lockdown associated disruptions, these
activities have been able to not only maintain but
increase their social media publishing outputs. A feat
just 10 sports have achieved amongst a group of more
than 70 currently monitored as part of this report.
Only nine of 70 plus monitored sports were able to
achieve positive social media engagement results over
the last 6-months (April to September) compared to
the same period for 2019.
Volleyball Australia benefited from massively viral
content in April to record the best result for the
industry, up an impressive +500%.
Industry peak body’s translated a lift in productivity
to engagement to be one of only three recording a
+100% result.
Little Athletics are out-of-season through winter but
this did not stop the sport at a national level from
upping its engagement game by over 500% (up 54k) to
lift the sport by close to 100% across the board.
Active recreation orientated sports such as surfing,
sailing and pony club figure highly on the engagement
side of the ledger as well.
Switching from its multi-nation SANZAR format to more
of a homegrown affair that brought the Western Force
back from the cold paid dividends for Rugby with a
134k boost in Facebook engagement.
SPORT
Sample: 74 Sport, recreation, peak body, high-performance and
government agencies. Positive (Facebook) results only listed.
Positive/negative results comparing social media productivity and
engagement from 2019 to 2020 - April to September inclusive.

6. Five
challenges
youshould
beplanning
forright
now.....
The clockisticking.
The long-term
sustainability ofyour
sportdependson
whatyou do next.
Longstanding practices
and assumptions
about the delivery and
administration of sport
have been turned-on
their head.
How prepared is your
sport to deal with the
new normal?
Where the industry
is heading and what
your target markets are
thinking has never been
more important.
What tools do you have
in place to maintain
situational awareness?
Sport will live or die on
its ability to support
its participation base
during a period of
unprecedented stress.
How are you helping
your grassroots acquire
and retain members?
Having the right content,
in the right place at the
right time will be mission
critical in ensuring target
audiences are both
informed and engaged.
What’s your sports
communications
roadmap?
Achieving more with less
will be the rallying-cry of
sport for the foreseeable
future.
How will you use data
and technology to
squeeze more and
more efficiencies out of
shrinking resources?
DISRUPTION LISTENING POST ROADMAP
ENGAGEMENT COST-SAVINGS OUTREACH
Time for a chat about
how your sport is not
only going to survive but
thrive in a challenging
environment?
Stu Williams
MD@Shunt
E: stuart@shunt.com.au
W: www.shunt.com.au