The Digital Strategy Illusion

We all need a digital strategy, right? It may sound odd but in this digital age but I think it’s a red herring. All the most successful modern businesses have integrated “digital” into everything they do. They just call it “strategy”. When I am asked about it, I always ask where the digital strategy sits in relations to their analogue strategy. See? It doesn’t make any sense, does it?

I was recently asked by a National Governing Body (NGB) to look at the “digital strategy” their agency had created for them as they were not convinced by its quality. I shared their concerns: not only was the document little more than a social media execution plan but it failed to identify - much less answer- the fundamental, structural issues in the NGB’s business model (of which, more later).

It is said that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king and that is certainly true in the case of sport and digital. I was recently told by one senior sports executive that his organisation was just starting out on its digital journey but he found it difficult to understand because he was not on Facebook. Very often, an agency’s work can only ever be as good as the client’s brief.

The digital age is fast moving and sport is by no means the only sector to have struggled to keep pace. It is also only human nature to try to find a quick, cheap and easy solution to problems and it can be tempting to see “digital” as a silver bullet, a panacea for all ills.

Returning to the example of the NGB, it was pretty obvious to me that the fundamental problem with their business was that they were thinking and behaving like an NGB. Their national team has half a dozen home matches each season – all of which are played in the same location – and around 90% of its commercial revenues were reliant on those few matchdays. No amount of digital sticking plaster could cover over the gaping wound.

This is the problem: although I have no doubt it was a reasonable social media plan, it could not alone have positively influenced the NGB’s institutional commercial problems, nor could it address any of the contextual issues – economic, generational change, shifting technology landscape, changing media consumption behaviours – that are also exacerbating those problems.

For a “digital strategy” to succeed it cannot exist on its own or as a bolt-on to other (analogue) activity. Like the force in Star Wars, it must permeate everything. It must start with the CEO, must be informed by – and feed into - a smart data strategy (in this case, it was distinct), it should add value to and benefit from a strategic approach to partnerships and most of all it needs great content.

A great content strategy cannot survive on a handful of infrequent events where content is simply pushed to an audience. Content is now created, curated and shared as well as consumed. Making your customers a part of the content experience enables authenticity and encourages them to involve their friends … ultimately doing your job for you. You need to be “on” all the time.

To create great content you need great experiences, which in this case means that the NGB should be proactively creating a year-round, country-wide experiential strategy from which to derive great content, build the customer base and to provide a more powerful platform for sponsors. All of which would enable a much more effective “digital” strategy. It would also encourage greater customer interaction, loyalty and advocacy and mean that they were more likely to want themselves to engage with the NGB, building a more sustainable commercial model.

In such circumstances, I could envisage all of the above helping to address the easily identifiable and fundamental issues in the NGB’s business. Of course, it would take time and investment – not always readily available in sport – but in my view time and money far better spent than hoping for a cheap and easy fix. Matchday should thus become the platform to promote and redeem all of the activity going on around the country, year-round rather than it being the be-all-and-end-all. The mindset that matchday is a means to an end rather than the end will allow sports organisations to start to build more dynamic and flexible businesses. Sadly, the NGB reference here is not an isolated example.

Sports businesses need to stop thinking like sports businesses and more like media companies and lifestyle brands. They need more strategists and marketers and a lesser emphasis on selling. In my view the “digital” strategy can only ever be the icing on the cake. There is absolutely a role for it to play but it needs a well thought-out environment in which to achieve that which too many hope it to realise in isolation.

This article was originally commissioned by Sporto Magazine. The excellent Sporto Conference takes place in beautiful Portoroz, Slovenia on November 16/17.