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