In this insight, we wanted to share our journey to creating Sportstar Influencer, a unique platform which combines social following, engagement and performance stats with search and demographic data. With its main purpose of identifying the real marketing value of sports players from across the globe.
Developed in 2017, the initial concept for Sportstar Influencer, was born from a desire to determine the reach and influence of a Premier League Clubs digital marketing, pulling together disparate sources of data and accumulating them into a single view.
As the project developed, we found that we could do this on a basic level using a platform such as Sprout, but it only took into account social following. We then looked into news stories and column inches being written about players. This led us to consider how we could capture positive or negative sentiments from such sources. Being inquisitive by nature we decided to do an R&D prototype project to better understand ‘real’ influence and nuances to better determine ‘true’ ranking. In addition, it was also important to try and show how the clubs social ranking and influence differed from other clubs.
At the heart of each ‘influence score’, we have developed the platform to look at overall social following across the main networks, and then added on modifiers for levels of performance, engagement, sentiment, media buzz and other elements. Rating ‘influence’ however is not just a numbers games and we are acutely aware of this. ‘Influence’ is also based on softer, more human factors; which is why we are developing our datasets to feature personality traits.
It became clear that no single index existed for how influential sports players are, and how they compare to each other. Sportstar Influencer changes that, allowing brands to understand which players can provide the most effective return on investment for marketing spend.
Filter, CEO
