NFL Lockout – Will Fans Stay? Measuring the Impact of the NFL Labor

Dispute

Presented By: Jim Reynolds

Strategic Account Manager – SM2

@jimmyrey

Search Setup In Alterian SM2

• NFL Terms Monitored: “NFL Lockout” & “NFL” AND “Lockout”

• Categories: All NFL Teams, NFL Owners, NFLPA, Roger Goodell &

DeMaurice Smith

• Date Range(s): 2/1/2011 – 5/1/2011

• Locations / Languages: US & English Only

Daily Volume – NFL Lockout

Analysis

• Total of 206k social media mentions

• Largest volume of conversation when the NFL locked out the players (3/12)

• 2nd Largest Spike: NFL & NFLPA agree to extend labor talks (3/3)

Share of Voice Total – NFL Lockout

Analysis • 55% Media Types –

Other – (Mostly affiliate news sites covering local teams)

• 28% Microblogs – (Twitter & Clones)

• 6.5% Message Boards & Forums

• 6% Blogs – (Major & Minor sports blogs)

• 5% Social Networks - (Public Facebook, Myspace & Others)

•

Share of Voice Trend – NFL Lockout

Analysis • Major spikes focus primarily around information pre-lockout • Once NFLPA decertifies, conversations increase dramatically • Media Types – Other & Twitter follow nearly identical patterns

Owners VS. Players

Analysis • By Far, the players are being discussed more than the owners, 61% to 39% • Conversations about the players are more focused on individual players and updates

around the dispute • Conversations around the owners are definitely more focused on financial topics

Fan Sentiment

NFL Lockout – Tone of Conversation

Analysis • By far the majority of the sentiment around the lockout is negative • The positive conversation correlates directly to break throughs in the labor dispute

NFL Lockout – Tone of Conversation

Analysis • 77% + of the total graded posts were negative • As news is released around updates of labor dispute, spikes occur

NFL Lockout Owners – Brand References

Analysis • 57% of the conversations about the owners are negative • Recently, conversations have become increasingly negative due to next break in labor

mediation

NFL Lockout Owners – Brand References

Analysis • First major spike in negative opinion focused on owners locking out players • Most recent spike was focused on recent releases of information from mediation

NFL Lockout Players – Brand References

Analysis • 55% of the conversations around the players are negative • Conversations follow a very similar pattern to owner chatter

NFL Lockout Players – Brand References

Analysis • Many of the NFLPA press releases and court cases have been received negatively by

audience • As labor dispute continues, much of the audiences is equally angry at both owners &

players

Ranking the Teams

Ranking the teams - Volume

Analysis Top 5 1. Packers 2. Steelers 3. Cowboys 4. Giants 5. Jets

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

20000

Ranking the teams – Negative Opinion

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Analysis Top 5 1. Chiefs 2. Broncos 3. Cowboys 4. Saints 5. Lions

Summary

Overall

• Being an NFL fan this was personally an very interesting data set to review. I feel

that my personal view point is identical to many of the fans that commented in this

analysis

• Both the fans and the players have much to lose and based on the data set neither

group is winning the hearts and minds of the fans

• Beyond the fans, I could only image how concerned the broadcasters and

advertisers are currently; with such an high amount of negative opinion currently

associated with the League

THANK YOU!

Please contact us with any questions

Jim Reynolds: jim.reynolds@alterian.com

@jimmyrey

UK/EU: +44 (0) 117 970 3200 | US: +1 312 704 1700 | Asia/Pac: +61 (2) 9968 2449

Web: www.alterian.com | Blog: www.engagingtimes.com | Twitter: @Alterian

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