NFL Ranks Number One In New Adobe Index Report Social Buzz Data

The Adobe Digital Index team compiled new National Football League social buzz data in an Infographic that confirms the NFL is firmly at the top of all American team sports, accumulating over 5 million mentions by the end of August. Fans in stadium, at their mancave and those out-and-about using their mobile technology devices, will all be locked into their second screens rooting on their favorite teams, players and fantasy football squads, while dissing the team, players and officials they dislike the most, all game and weekend long, during the NFL and college football opening Labor day extended weekend. The Sports Techie community blog was able to speak once again with Joe Martin, analyst at ADI, about the key insights over the past 30 days, data mined from 15 million social mentions on 15 different social media platforms.

Methodology
ADI’s proprietary sports analytics compiled 15 million social mentions focused on the NFL and college football. Social buzz was calculated by Adobe Social tech via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, Flickr, Reddit, Tumblr, Foursquare, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Disqus, VK, and WordPress.

The Adobe reports breakdown insights into social buzz and sentiments around major NFL teams, rivalries, individual players, which States drive the most NFL buzz, how the NFL is being discussed internationally and more. The NFL has fantasy football fever the tune of $11 billion, teams flock to social media to share real-time information and players have never been closer to the fans thanks to social media. Further analysis shows the New York Giants generate the most NFL social-buzz, while college football heavyweight universities, LSU, USC and Texas rank as the top sport buzzed universities.

“This analysis proves that there is a passionate group of NFL fans both in the United States and internationally,” said Martin. “Marketers should be looking at this as an opportunity to reach fans of these teams through sponsorships and sports-related marketing efforts. Additionally, if you are a global marketer, look at the popular teams in other countries because the fans overseas could be another opportunity for both engagement and long-lasting loyalty.”

12s, Cheeseheads, Digital Fan-mania
The NFL begins this Thursday with a doozy of a TNF game, September 4, on the NBC Sports Network. The Green Bay Packers travel to the defending Super Bowl Champions, the Seattle Seahawks sold out Century Link stadium that will be a buzz with the 12^th man cheering loud and proud, while using social media on smartphones and tablets to augment their fan experience. Whether your team plays at home, or on the road, this Thursday, Sunday and Monday night on CBS, Fox or ESPN, it promises to be a Twitter hashtag and retweet overload during pre-game and live games, while Facebook will dominate the post-game frenzy, with a bonanza of fan-centric big data, much the same as this first college football weekend.

“Marketers must understand that sporting events are among the most social events taking place,” Martin said. “Football has a lot of passionate enthusiasts, and social buzz allows marketers to identify these aficionados and reach a targeted group of consumers.”

Players

• Johnny, Tom and Jameis are kings: Players are generated huge interest with Cleveland Browns rookie Johnny Manziel already with the most social buzz of any NFL Quarterback, Tom Brady has the most buzz of all top 100 ranked NFL.com players with 9% total share. Additionally, of the 5 players in the running for the Heisman trophy, Jameis Winston, who won last year, has the most buzz. Oregon Ducks superstar, Marcus Mariota, is a close second.

Rivalries

• The rivalry between San Francisco and Seattle is real: 53% of buzz that mentions both the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks relates to emotions such as anger, sadness or disgust. Additionally, the Seahawks have the most buzz tied to the 2014-2015 Super Bowl 49, with the 49ers coming in as a close 2^nd.

International Exposure

• It’s not just in the U.S.: 21% of NFL social buzz is international. The New York Giants have the most international appeal of any NFL team, as 36% of their geo tagged social buzz comes from outside the U.S. (including the UK and Japan, who chatter about them more than any other team).
• Futbol beats Football: Real Madrid, arguably the world’s most popular soccer team and definitely the most valued organization, had 2.2 million mentions in the last month: that’s 14 times the amount the New York Giants received.

Stateside

• New York loves the NFL: The state of New York has the largest percentage (16%) of social buzz for the NFL, in comparison with the other states.

Overall Buzz

• The NFL takes home the gold for social buzz: NFL is the most social sports league, beating out the NBA, MLB and college football in social mentions both during the season and prior to its start. Total social buzz for the NFL is 50% higher than the MLB (before the season even started).
• Bad behavior off the field translates to social conversations: Given some recent bad behavior off the field (such as Ray Rice’s domestic dispute and Josh Gordon’s drug abuse), 55% of total NFL social buzz prior to the pre-season related to sadness, anger, disgust or surprise. Following the first pre-season game on August 3, the sentiment completely flipped to 69% positive. This social phenomenon also happened during the FIFA World Cup Brazil, according to CMO.com metrics.

College vs. Pro

• And College beats the NFL: The LSU Tigers, USC Trojans and Texas Longhorns had more social mentions than 25 NFL teams combined.

Sports Techie, The NFL is a significant core of my Sports Techie history. I was the Director of Sales for Sports 2000, selling the GridIron 2000, expert game planning system, in 1997 and 98′, that helped the NFL enter the sports tech age. The football software I sold was way beyond what Head Coach Jon Gruden had at the Oakland Raiders. Before I launched the Sports Techie community, resource and blog, I was the Moderator for the NY Giants official historical wiki, the NFL’s oldest franchise, and helped prove a sports tech business model. My last blog before this one was published is about the cutting edge Topps and NFL.com trading cards that are fantasy football-centric for adults and kids, males and female.

Because of these facts, I am not surprised in the least that the NFL has become part of the United States personality for 70 percent of Americans. Watching the World Cup was awesome, soccer is the number one sport in the world but football is clearly the American way, for now. Will that always be the case? The concussion era is upon us and no matter what social media does in terms of creating popularity, the NFL, college, high school, and especially youth football, have taken a serious head blow and are finally being held accountable for something the NFL has known was dangerous for at least ten years, according to the PBS report, League of Denial. Now FIFA and some U.S. Soccer NGB’s are getting sued for concussions in a class action lawsuit by concerned parents, and rightfully so.

I must add that Commissioner Goodell is transparent. As a lawyer, he suspended Cleveland Browns player, Josh Gordon, number two on the top 100 social media buzz list, for a full year after his appeal for smoking marijuana, which is legal in Washington and Colorado state.  Aldon Smith on the S.F. 49ers, violated the NFL personal conduct policy and substance abuse policies that included threatening a plane with a bomb and he only got the arbitrary number of a nine-game suspension. Then there is poster boy, Ray Rice, user of the X2 helmet, who dragged his unconscious wife out an elevator on film after knocking her out, and he received a measly two-game suspension. Boy are we fans dumb for not seeing straight threw the commish who obviously had no intention of doing the right thing when the Rice issue was made public via social media channels, rather he coyly let the bad press go viral on social media and then did what President Nixon, who attended Whittier College like me, never did, and said he made a mistake but never actually said he was sorry. I mean, c’mon man, you played us fans all along and I for one, am not buying it. Roger knew exactly what he was doing, and waiting until just before the season starts when the NFL is approaching a media and fan peak frenzy according to ADI after a long training camp and unnecessary pre-season games, to play judge, jury and executioner for a business monopoly, (which is illegal in the United States), in order to make a grand announcement about his new policy towards domestic violence, yet he left the original Rice suspension untouched.

Bottom line, I love the NFL and football. I played in 5th grade, as a freshman and played coed flag football as an adult. I also played hard hitting with less pads, high school, college and men’s league lacrosse.  With that said, I pledge that my 15-month old son today, (happy birthday!) will not play football until his brain is old enough to recover from the forceful impacts that occur in football which may not happen until at least high school. Soccer is next, if the powers that be do not also admit to knowing the dangers of heading a soccer ball, especially for a kids skull and brain that are not fully developed and made for this repetitive action, in the next several weeks or months, he will be forced to play other sports and activities until safety measures are in place.

Go @Seahawks.

See y’all later here in Atlanta.

I will see ya when I see ya, THE Sports Techie @THESportsTechie – http://twitter.com/THESportsTechie

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