Sports marketing agency IMG has released its eighth annual Digital Trends Report, highlighting the technologies and innovations set to influence the sports and media landscape over the coming year. Ashley Shaner, IMG’s Vice President of Strategy & Operations for Digital, shares key insights.
Chief Marketer: What is the key takeaway for brands?
Ashley Shaner, Vice President of Strategy & Operations for Digital at IMG: Our work is predominantly with sports rightsholders, but many of our takeaways can be adopted for brands as well. A key takeaway, something that can be implemented almost immediately with the right resource in place, would be their approach to discovery or more importantly what is not being done currently.
Agentic AI searches are now taking on making decisions and sorting through all the information on the user’s behalf, removing the step of the person choosing the information they were looking for. Brands need to adapt their strategy to now include how they provide the appropriate information that will then be picked up by AI Search tools as well as the news ones that are evolving daily. ChatGPT is leading when it comes to market share, but there is also Perplexity, Microsoft CoPilot, etc. Therefore, brands need to adapt their approach when it comes to SEO and also start to evaluate GEO as well.
I would also say that we are often asked how to reach Gen Alpha. With RedNote’s consistent growth, now reaching approximately 600 million users, it provides a prime opportunity for brands to quickly plug into new audiences. The functionality provides a different experience for users, serving as a search, shopping, and social platform.
CM: What was the most surprising finding in the report?
AS: The most surprising area for me was just how far reaching the Amazon ecosystem is when you peel back all the layers, and their reach into the sports world, driven by market leading tech. We’ve always known that they are a significant player in the market, but the strides that have been made over the past 10 years are impressive. AWS has provided top computing power but now goes even further when it comes to compatibility with other products that lead in the creative space, data-led decision making for sports organizations, and providing new revenue streams through advertising opportunities.
As a sports rightsholder, a platform-specific approach to Amazon and AWS is now essential and complementary to how you look strategically at many areas of your business. With the rapid evolution of the Amazon ecosystem, it also clearly needs to reflect the interconnectedness of humans and technology and where one can be dialed up or down for greater benefit.
CM: How must sports brands adapt?
AS: It is undeniable that we have entered the AI era, with certain components existing already for quite some time. You can look at it in isolation or as one single tool as it is integrated into everything we do and all areas of your business. This includes tools that we work with, like Adobe products for content creation, the mining of data, or even responding to customers.
Sports brands should always look to evolve how they connect with and grow new audiences, which means evaluating and testing technology, platforms and geographies that might not be as familiar to them. Rightsholders and brands need to embrace the current shift that is happening as it will only continue, and by doing nothing they run the risk of becoming irrelevant to their current audiences and left behind as they move forward.
Lynne Leahey is Editorial Director Cynopsis.