Fox Sports Casebook

May 3, 2018 CONTENTS

3 Meet the Team 4 Situation Summary 7 The Consumer 8 Key Behaviors 9 Key Attitudes 10 Digital Influencers 11 Media Planning Objectives 13 The Big Idea 14 Events, Contests, Sponsorships 15 Star of the Week 18 GO Tailgate 19 Social Media Audit 27 Goals and Role of Social Media 28 Strategic Recomendation 29 Social Media Tactics 30 Non-Paid Social Media 36 Paid Social Media 37 Creative Plan 38 Display Advertising 40 Online Creative 41 Online Targeting 42 Native Advertising 45 SEM 50 SEO 52 Landing Pages 53 Streaming Video 54 Streaming Audio 55 Apps 55 Media Strategies MEET THE TEAM

Molly O’Brien

Edie Block Jason Werre

Alex Beckman Philip Rudnitzky

Martina Sarver

3 SITUATION SUMMARY

4 SITUATION SUMMARY THE STATS FOX Sports Wisconsin (FSW) is part of 21st Century Fox @fswisconsin and within that, Fox Sports. This provides Fox Sports Wisconsin with both opportunities and limitations in campaigns. As a multibillion dollar company, there are 71,000 less budget constraints than other local programming networks face. On the other hand, this means there are strict guidelines to be followed surrounding advertising and branding, and a successful campaign must be trans- 48,300 ferable to other markets as well. FOX Sports Wisconsin owns the streaming rights to 3,446 Bucks games, meaning when someone with a local Wisconsin cable package is looking to watch the Bucks, they will more than likely be doing so on FSW. This gives FOX Sports Wisconsin a very large share of the 2,118 audience. They are recognized by name and are active on social media, though their performance is not as good as it could be with quality, interactive content that 463 strives for engagement. With just under 70,000 unique streams so far this season, the Bucks are receiving fewer streams than the Brewers did in their most recent season. In terms of social media, FOX Sports Wisconsin has 71,000 Facebook likes, 48.3 thousand Twitter followers and just over 3,000 Instagram followers. The content is typically the same on Facebook and Twitter, meaning FSW is not catering to the different demographics tuning into one over the other for information. Despite a presence on most major channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube), FSW lacks likes, shares and comments on their content due to low-quality imagery and various other issues. The Pinterest channel is outdated and repetitive. Facebook has too much content for the casual fan to keep up with. Twitter is performing well. Further, we chose not to utilize Snapchat as it is more targeted to younger demographics. A deeper analysis of FSW social media will come later in this casebook.

Current season streaming data as of February 2018:

70,000 Unique Streams 6,326 Unique Streamers

30 min. per stream

55% on a connected device 17% on a mobile phone

5 Although FSW owns streaming rights to the Bucks games, there are a few competitors. For one, other networks offer a wider range of games and coverage. ESPN, TNT and NBA TV are all less localized and therefore appeal to fans of the NBA at large. In addition to this, there is competition outside the market, such as other ways to spend the target’s limited leisure time. Lastly, sports fans are likely to have a second screen out while watching sports , and they aren’t always looking at sports information on that second screen. Accord- ing to Mintel, while watching sports, 33 percent of fans check email, 32 percent check social media, 30 percent text or message others, 22 percent surf the internet for non-sports related content, and 13 percent check sports content online.

This campaign focuses on the Milwaukee Bucks rather than the Brewers. We chose to do this because the NBA is hot right now. Viewership is up 17 percent since last season and it has the fastest growing ratings of any professional sport in the United States. This growth likely comes from multiple factors: games are fast-paced, players are easily identifiable because they don’t need protective wear, there is less political charge than the NFL, and games tend to be shorter than other sports, where an average basketball game is two hours and fifteen minutes and baseball is closer to three hours and five minutes. Our target is busy, and finding time to watch the game amidst spending time with family is one of the biggest concerns, so the short game time works to FSW’s favor. Some also believe basketball will take over as “America’s Sport” because it is more accessible to all in- come levels. All of these things point toward NBA fans being a more viable, long-term market.

When looking at the Bucks more specifically, the team is scheduled to begin next season in their new stadium, which will definitely generate buzz. While this may mean that fans are more likely to attend the game, it is also an opportunity to build on the buzz for those that may not be able to attend due to finances or distance, or if there is an away game. Lastly, despite rumors of the contrary, Giannis Antetokounmpo, this season’s standout player, indicated he has no plans to move to LA after the All-Star game, and really likes the city of Milwaukee. The current FOX Sports GO Bucks consumer is an “avid fan” of the NBA — someone who is younger than 35 and likely does not have a cable subscription. This fan cares about basketball and makes a point of keeping up on game highlights. With current Facebook content such as multiple videos a day and game highlights, this consumer is targeted, and FSW is doing well. 6 Casual Fan > Avid Fan For our strategy, we have decided to target the “casual fan,” rather than the “avid fan.” We came to this decision after realizing that the “avid fans” of the NBA are more likely to be younger people . Although, those avid fans are also less likely to have a cable subscription than the older, casual fan. This could prove problematic, as FOX Sports GO requires users to log in with their cable subscription before watching games. Middle aged men are more likely to have a cable subscription, and in the Mid- west, only 15 percent of men aged 35-54 reported being “very” interested in the NBA while 25 percent reported being either “somewhat” or “a little” inter- Source: Mintel Academic ested. THE CONSUMER Our target is an urban, middle-class male aged between 35-54, living in the Midwest, predominantly southwestern Wisconsin, who has kids and is active on social media. He has a steady 9-to-5 work schedule and his leisure time likely takes place after this. His kids likely play sports and are involved in numerous activities and extracurriculars. Because of his commute, job and family obligations, his leisure time is decreasing. He likes sports because they promote his familial and social values such as hard work, teamwork and determination. This is The Midwest Dad.

According to Simmons, the “Midwest dad with an interest in the NBA” has a set daily schedule as shown below: HIS DAY 7-7:59 am: the morning commute

8am-12pm: work

12pm: lunch break

1-4:59 pm: work

6 pm: family dinner

7-10:59 pm: leisure time

11 pm: bedtime.

We can clearly see that our target has limited leisure time, as he spends a bulk of his day at work. His inclination toward bonding with his family and coworkers alike, though, fixes FOX Sports Wis- consin right into this evening leisure time. Further, his life is rather structured and he follows a routine, giving him limited free time each night. In that time, the target is likely to be inclined to exercise, watch television, spend time with his kids or socialize. FSW needs to break into the time between family dinner and bedtime in order to reach the target. 7 KEY BEHAVIORS • Spend time with family • Fantasy Sports Leagues • Game nights with the kids • Listens to the radio • Nights at home • Uses Social Media • Barbecues • Uses a smartphone • Travels The key behavior of our target is that they prioritize spending their free time with their family . This includes spending the night at home playing card/board games, having a barbecue, and even traveling. Around 67 percent of our target also prefers spending their nights at home. The Midwestern Dad truly values his children, and he sees them as some of the most important people in his life. He wants to see them succeed.

He also engages in sport-minded activities, such as playing basketball or participating in a fantasy league. His purchasing habits are influenced by his favorite teams, as Simmons reports that this target is 60 percent more likely than the American public to agree with the statement “I am more likely to buy products from companies that sponsor sports teams and sports events,” and they are 229 percent more likely than the American public to have pur- chased NBA apparel within the past 12 months. From this, we can see there is a sweet spot FOX Sports Wisconsin can hit through bringing his family and basketball together. He want the best of both worlds and likely uses sports as a more social activity than the avid fan, so using this as leverage is important in integrating FSW into his life.

Our target is also inclined to listen to the radio, typically from 6am-10am and 3pm-7pm, corresponding with their commute to and from work. While at work, our target is likely to be using the internet for e-mail and other work-related purposes. But when not at work, they are more likely to be using the internet to browse social media, maps and search engines and keep up with news and spots. Furthermore, 84.2 percent of our target are smartphone users, and 60.2 percent report relying on their device in order to keep up with news and sports. This gives us a large range of media we can use to target our audience during various times of the day . This data leads us to conclude that our target can be reached through various forms of media ranging from radio to social media, depending on which time of day that media is most likely to be accessed.

When looking at social media behaviors specifically, our target is highly engaged. Generation X (which our target falls into) spends an average of seven hours a week on social media, while millenials are behind with 6 hours a week. Overall, 90 percent of our target uses social media, and 60 percent of fathers said they believe they started using it more frequently after having children and are likely to be using it to connect to family . Additionally, about a third of our target reported often using multiple devices to log in to their social media accounts. Combined with their heavy reliance on smartphones, it’s very likely that our target will have access to social media at almost any given time, but is only using it when they have a break from their busy schedules.

8 KEY ATTITUDES

“I care about my family.” 91.4 percent of our target agreed with this “My children mean a lot to me and I statement on Simmons, and 85.5 percent agreed with the statement: “Family is the want to see them do well.” most important thing to me.” 69 percent of our target agreed with the statement: “I like to provide my children with the things I didn’t have as a child.” Our “My leisure time is decreasing.” target clearly wants to see his children thrive A majority of our target is at work from 8 am-5 and succeed in everything that they do. pm, and so they are forced to prioritize their time.

“I want to watch the game, With their work schedule, our target leads an extremely busy life, often leaving little time to even take care of his own desires but I am typically busy with and needs. In fact, 48.5 percent of our target agreed with the other things.” statement: “Because of my busy lifestyle, I don’t take care of myself as well as I should.”

“I’m totally going to beat Jeff from Sales in Fantasy this season.” “When I come home from a long “There is nothing like a good barbecue. day at the office, I am happy to It’s the simple things that bring fami- see my family.” lies together.” 9 DIGITAL INFLUENCERS 1. Ted Davis - Radio Play-by-Play WTMJ AM radio a. Ted has 15.4 thousands followers on Twitter and is a reporter for the Milwaukee Bucks. This means that he is influential to those who are interested in the team, particularly those who listen to radio such as our target. Further, he is associated with the Bucks, not a specific media company, so this should not result in a conflict of interest.

2. Craig Coshun - Fox Sports Wisconsin announcer a. Craig is a host and reporter for Fox Sports Wisconsin with an emphasis on the Bucks. He has over 8,000 followers on Twitter. His name is associated with both the Bucks and FSW, making his recognizable for fans as well as an accessible spokesperson.

3. Mike Heller - The Mike Heller Show a. Mike Heller is also a radio talk show host, reaching our target with reports on sports. He does not have as big of a following as Ted Davis, but is still of interest to FOX as he reports on both basketball and baseball. SWOT ANALYSIS

Key Issues 1. Even though cable subscriptions are decreasing, basketball is gaining viewership and fans at a fast rate and the Bucks are more popular than the Brewers. 2. Our consumer is occupied with family activities, on social media and a fan of the NBA. 3. FOX Sports is a strong brand but engagement on social media is low, likely due to an over- whelming amount of content. 10 Objectives and Strategies:

Marketing Objectives: • Increase monetization revenue on FOX Sports GO app by 15 percent by June 2019. • Increase tune in on app and cable 20 percent by June 2019. • Drive 40 percent product awareness among cable subscribers by June 2019.

Advertising Objectives: • Generate buzz. • Increase engagement. • Encourage app downloads.

Radio and social media are the most efficient medium to target our audience as they heavily rely on these platforms in their daily lives. Radio is mainly used during the commute and social media during leisure time, particularly before bed. Currently, Fox’s social media is repetitive and not diverse. By posting less and more relevantly, we can better grab the attention of our audience. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): • Conversion rate of app downloads for FOX Sports GO will be measured in comparison to the beginning of our campaign, providing an image of each download through the duration of the season. • Brand engagement will be tracked through likes, shares and comments on Facebook and Twitter, as well as brand mentions online throughout the Bucks’ season. An increase in these engagements will show FSW is breaking through competition of other content online. • Time spent on the FOX Sports GO app and the number of unique streamers on the FOX Sports GO app throughout the season will also be measured, showing how well the app is performing in comparison to previous seasons.

Media Planning Objectives:

Geography: While the coverage will be available to all of Wisconsin, the geographical strategy focuses mainly on Milwaukee and southwestern Wisconsin, including Madison. Simmons OneView also highlighted that our target demographic has held their current job for an average of 11 or more years, meaning they likely value their community and have strong ties to where they live. Over 75 percent are also registered to vote, again highlighting their dedication to their community. Lastly, Simmons also shows that of Midwestern men aged 35-54 with an interest in the NBA, 47.3 percent live in county size A locations — largest metropolitan cities — and 26.5 live in county size B — population of 150,000+. Because of this, we plan to focus on Madison, Milwaukee, Racine, Waukesha and Kenosha areas, including close suburbs of these cities.

11 Seasonality: This plan will start in September 2018, driving awareness of both the app and FOX Sports GO as the premiere location for Bucks coverage prior to the season. With the frequency of games in a regular basketball season, content is required to be pretty constant on social media to keep FSW top of mind.

In addition, our target values his family and the time they spend with one another. Because of this, we plan to do a push during December and the holiday season, as families are typically home with less work and school responsibilities at this time. This push will focus more on the familial aspects of basketball rather than the Bucks broadly. The final push of the campaign will be during playoffs with the potential for finals depending how the team performs, ending after the NBA draft in June 2019.

Scheduling:

• Time of Day: The times chosen are times when the Midwestern Dad is connected or at leisure. For example, the lunch break at work or right before bed. These are also times where he may be thinking about how to spend the rest of his time that day or the next day. - Online: 12-1 pm; 5 pm; 8-10 pm

• Day of the week -Before game days: We want to drive tune in for Bucks games. Running ads prior to the game reminds our target there will be a game taking place, and gives them time to plan ahead for it. -On game days: Reminds audience to tune into the game. If they are already watching, we can inform them that they can also watch any of these games on the go, since they most likely have a cable subscription.

• Weekends -Target will have the most free time on these days.

• Week of the Month -Although there are varying pressures on the target throughout the month, we found there is not a specific week of the month where more advertising is in order.

• Month of the Year -October-June -Basketball season -December push -Holidays, increased family time -April Push -Beginning of NBA Playoffs 12 THE BIG IDEA

From our research, we know the Midwestern Dad, Joel, loves his family and values being able to watch sports. He takes the game seriously and is impressed by all the efforts the players put in. Sometimes, he even daydreams about his kid bring the next Giannis. Obviously, these NBA players started out in their recreational or school league just like his child. To him, both the Bucks players and his kid’s team are stars. Our big idea moving forward uses this concept: They are both stars in dad’s eyes, and FOX Sports Wisconsin gives him the opportunity to enjoy both the things he values.

With FOX Sports Wisconsin, Joel can bond with his child and see the game. He feels good about watching FOX Sports Wisconsin because they care about the kids in his community, as is evident through their partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club. FOX Sports Wisconsin is where his stars align.

13 EVENTS, SPONSORSHIPS, CONTESTS

14 STAR OF THE WEEK

The Bucks, FOX Sports Wisconsin and Milwaukee Boys and Girls Club: The Milwaukee Bucks and Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwau- kee already have a strong relationship . Last September, players from the Milwaukee Bucks, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker and coach Joe Prunty, made appearances at multiple clubs within the area to help kids in the BGC Emerging Athletes basketball program with their skills as well as donate school sup- plies . In addition, FOX Sports Wisconsin is already a sponsor of the emerging athletes program , so we plan to build on this relationship. We see a perfect opportunity to form a partnership with the Bucks and the Boys and Girls Club to promote FOX Sports Wiscon- sin to families with strong community ties in Southeastern Wiscon- sin.

How it works: For the #StarOfTheWeek contest, we will ask teams to send in videos to broadcast on our social media of what “makes their team full of stars.” Whether it is the work they do in the community, a hardship they overcame or simply positive attitudes, the kids and their mentors at the Boys and Girls Club can decide. These videos can be shot on iPhones or cameras so long as they can be uploaded to our Facebook channel. The team at FOX Sports Wisconsin will then pick one team from each region to be a “star of the week” for a six-week campaign (one team per week) on our social media.

Why this works: Our target has a high affinity for their family. As found in our situation summary research, he often works all day and is looking to have quality time with those he cares about when he gets off work. Additionally, Joel really likes his sports teams but also places high value on his family time. By aligning our brand with family and community values, we are providing an opportunity for father and child to bond, as well as supporting a community Joel feels passionate about.

When a team is chosen as the star of the week, they are first featured on our Facebook page, as this is the channel that we found our target is utilizing the most. Their game and team highlights will be covered similar to how a Milwaukee Bucks game would be, with a #StarOfTheGame highlighting a key player either on or off the court.

In addition, each winning team will have the Milwaukee Bucks Spirit Squad attend one of their games to cheer them on and hype the crowd, similar to how the Spirit Squad gives out t-shirts and cheers during Bucks game breaks. FOX Sports Wisconsin will also bring a camera crew to broadcast the game on Facebook Live, complete with interviews of players. The kids will feel like stars of the game. By broadcasting on Facebook Live, parents who are not at the game will also be able to watch their child play.

15 This team will also be given media exposure through our affiliates. For each winning team, one or two players will be elected the “face of the stars.” This player will be given the opportunity to appear on television in early evening programming in the days following the game as a professional player might, discussing how the game went and the unique aspects of their BGC.

Duration and dates: At the Boys and Girls Club, boys’ basketball games occur in the fall and spring, and girls play in the winter. As we would like this to lead up to the start of the season, this campaign will focus on boys’ basketball teams but could be extended to the girls season in the future. • Social media campaign targeting fathers: Late September 2018 • Entries submitted to FOX Sports Wisconsin: Late October 2018 • Star of the Week games: November - December 2018 (with no team the week of Thanksgiving)

Location: In our #StarOfTheWeek event, we are looking at the Southeastern Wisconsin dads with a child who plays basketball specifically at a Boys and Girls club in the Mil- waukee area, with opportunity to expand beyond there. We chose the Milwaukee area as this area is likely to have a strong tie to the Milwaukee Bucks already, and this creates ease for the spirit squad to travel to games. Of these clubs, we plan to split Milwaukee into six subgroups based on the six locations emerging athlete games are played :

• Augusta LaVarnway (North Central) • Daniels-Mardak (North) • Don & Sallie Davis (South) • Mary Ryan (West) • Pieper-Hillside (Central) • Roger and Leona Fitzsimonds (Central West)

Partners and Alliances: Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Bucks Spirit Squad • The Milwaukee Bucks Spirit Squad will be part of the events as they will cheer on the winning teams at one game throughout the season. We chose to bring the Bucks into this event to reinforce our ongoing partnership with the team as well as maintain FOX Sports Wisconsin’s name as the place to go for all Milwaukee Bucks content. Boys and Girls Club of Wisconsin • We chose to focus on basketball teams within the Boys and Girls Club because children in these programs may not be recognized in the same respect as more demanding traveling teams and we want to reinforce that “everyone is a star.” In addition, FOX Sports Wisconsin’s already sponsors the Emerging Athletes program at the Boys and Girls Club, meaning this event will continue to develop the shared relationship.

16 Sponsors: Lead: Pick ‘n Save grocery stores • Pick ‘n Save and the Milwaukee Bucks already have a strong relationship as they are the official grocer of the Bucks. In addition, all families need groceries, especially after celebrating a big win. By sponsoring our event, Pick ‘n Save aligns themselves with the community values #StarOfTheWeek aims to promote. Additionally, Pick ‘n Save has over 100 stores across Wisconsin and originated in Milwaukee. According to the Pick ‘n Save website, they have donated $4 million back to their local communities . This means they have the funds to be a lead sponsor where other companies may not. Lower level: Johnsonville Food • Our target enjoys grilling out and Johnsonville wants to be the top-of-mind brand when thinking about this. The Milwaukee Brewers just made the switch to Johnsonville as their official sausage, so it is likely Johnsonville will be looking to maintain this brand image year-round . By supporting the #StarOfTheWeek, Johnsonville shows that, despite being a national brand, they care about the community. Lower level: Wilderness Resorts • The Wilderness is a perfect escape for Southwestern Wisconsin families, providing safe fun nearby. Sponsoring our event reminds parents of the opportunity within reach.

Lower level: WTMJ (AM) radio • Our target Joel listens to the radio during his commute each day. In our situation summary, we identified WTMJ’s Ted Davis as a key influencer because he reports on the Milwaukee Bucks, and if our target misses a game, they are likely to listen in for the highlights. By partnering with WTMJ, FOX Sports Wisconsin can receive media coverage leading up to the event, and WTMJ can align themselves with sports in the community.

17 GO TAILGATE

FOX Sports Wisconsin will host a tailgate for the Milwaukee Bucks’ first home game in the new arena. The stadium is set to officially open at the first home game next fall , which we see as an opportunity to remind fans that even if you can’t make it to the game, FOX Sports Wisconsin is the premier station to watch. We also see this as a good opportunity to reach and personally engage with our target audience and remind them about the FOX Sports GO app. Date and Time: Two hours before the first home game of the season.

Attendees who have the FOX Sports GO app will receive an email thanking them for using the app and a coupon to come to the tailgate and receive a free souvenir cup that can be used in the new stadium. There will also be an area for attendees to download and register the app at the tailgate to receive a free gift from FOX Sports Wisconsin. FOX will have basketball themed games for the whole family to enjoy whether or not they have tickets for the game. Our sponsor Pick ‘n Save will donate food to serve at the event. At the tailgate, FOX Sports Wisconsin will give away four tickets to that night’s game. To qualify, app users will respond to an email asking them to sign up to win the tickets. Those who download and register the app at the tailgate will also be added to the pool. 20 minutes before the game, Ted Davis from WTMJ will pick a name at random to present the tickets to. You must be physically at the tailgate to accept the tickets. Sponsors: Pick ‘n Save • Pick ‘n Save is a leading grocer in the Milwaukee area and has a lasting relationship with the Milwaukee Bucks and the community. By aligning themselves with this event, they are able to be part of the opening of the Wisconsin Sports and Entertainment Center as well as with the Milwaukee Bucks, who will be coming off of a strong 2018 season. • We would also like to see if Pick ‘n Save would be willing to donate coupons to our app users for game day foods such as hot dogs, chips, buns, and soda. This would provide incen- tives to use our app as well as bring customers into their stores. BMO Harris Bank • BMO Harris Bank is a longstanding partner with the Milwaukee Bucks . As a premier and well-known company in Milwaukee, we would like to see them at our event. Boys and Girls Club • We are partnering with Boys and Girls Club of Milwaukee for an event earlier in the year so we think it is a good idea to have them represented at the GO Tailgate. Attendees can learn more about the organization, our contest with them and be able to donate. Radio station • WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee will come to the event to promote it on their station and social media. Ted Davis will be the influencer giving away the free tickets right before the game. Radio stations also have games that they bring to onsite events that the kids can play.

Social Media Promotion: Starting on September 17, 2018, this event will be promoted on social media. #GOTailgate will the hashtag for the event used on social media. During the event, FOX Sports Wisconsin will be live tweeting photos and videos. There will also be in-app ads and an email campaign to remind our app subscribers to register for the contest and get them to attend. 18 SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

Social Media Audit: FACEBOOK

FOX Sports Wisconsin’s Facebook is very active, posting multiple times per day, every day. They currently have 72,184 likes and 69,835 followers. The content appeals strongly to avid fans of basketball with videos and constant posts, but may not as much to our casual fan target. Because of this, we think it is important to include more posts promoting our events, which align FOX Sports Wisconsin with the community, as our target values more than sports. We looked at 152 Facebook posts from February through April 2018. This time frame was chosen for simplicity, as Facebook only allows for scrolling to find previous posts. We did not look at the current season in its entirety due to Facebook’s inability to load content. Of these posts, 65 linked to an article on the FOX Sports Wisconsin website, 33 are photos or graphics and 52 are videos. There was one fault in the spreadsheet.

What is working: FOX Sports Wisconsin has a Klout score of 84, meaning that its social interaction level on the platform is above average . The #StoryOfTheGame, a summary of each inning or period of the game and major plays, appeared in six of the top 20 liked posts on FOX Sports Wisconsin’s page. This means that people are looking for the in-depth coverage, especially those that may not have caught the game due to their busy lifestyles. Overall when looking at likes, articles perform the best. The highest number of likes received on a single post came from a #StoryOfT- heGame article discussing the Brewers starting the season with a sweep with a total of 1,200. High-quality videos also perform well, and photos were varying in the number of likes dependent on the content. What is not working: FOX Sports Wisconsin posts on average 6.68 times per day. Because of this, content is often not seen by Facebook fans. In addition, posting this frequently can make messages become lost.

Another key issue in reaching the casual fan is Facebook’s algorithm. With recent changes, Facebook plans to prioritize person-to-person content rather than person-to-page. They are encouraging more conversation and brands cannot reach as large of an audience because of this. Further, non-paid sports coverage will likely be exposed more to those who have a high affinity for sports. Because our target has other interests, such as their family and work life, they may not be seeing FOX Sports Wisconsin’s posts at all. This means FOX Sports Wisconsin should be engaging with other interests outside of sports. Some content, specifically photos, is unattractive. Although they are mainly used to promote upcoming games, these photos are not on-brand with the high-quality content featured on the page and bring down the quality of FOX Sports Wisconsin’s Facebook.

19 Competitors: CBS SPORTS CBS Sports’ Facebook also features a high number of posts per day, with 24 posts on March 31, 2018, and 20 on March 30, 2018. They have a Klout score of 91 , reflecting a high engagement rate. The volume of posts is too much, we believe, but it is also a national sports news outlet, whereas FOX Sports Wisconsin is regional. One thing CBS Sports does well is include content that appeals to emotions. For example, they posted an article covering Michigan basketball’s Jordan Poole talking to Villanova’s famous Sister Jean that received 7.2K likes and nearly 500 shares. Generally, aside from simple game highlights, content related to players with a positive sentiment performs well, and this is something FOX Sports Wisconsin can adopt. In addition, nearly all Facebook content is either a link to an article or a video. CBS Sports utilizes fewer photos, with only 13 of 60 posts being such. Video is more engaging than photos, and FOX Sports Wisconsin can build on this finding for their own media.

Competitors: NBA NBA has over 35 million likes on Facebook. They have a Klout score of 98 , which is the highest of any of FOX Sports Wisconsin’s competitors. The role of the NBA’s Facebook account is to provide short highlight reels from each day and important NBA-related news. They post 8-15 times on Facebook each day. While we felt that this was too much, the NBA does a few things well that FOX Sports Wisconsin can learn from. They almost exclusively post videos, some of which get 5 million views and thousands of shares. The most popular videos are ones of top NBA players such as James Harden, Lebron James and Steph Curry. NBA’s Facebook voice is enthusiastic and excited about players, teams and games. They have clearly figured out that video is the top content on Facebook and stick to that. This is a tactic FOX Sports Wisconsin can adopt.

This post (right) by the NBA is a highlight video of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade as teammates. LeBron James is the subject of some of their most viewed videos. This video has almost 5 million views, 112K likes and over 40,000 shares. Popular players and big plays get views online, something that FOX Sports Wisconsin can keep in mind when creating new content for Facebook.

Competitors: Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks have 1.6 million likes on Facebook. They have a Klout score of 91 , meaning their content is engaging. Most of the content is highlight videos from the previous game and paid posts from their sponsors. Their videos receive higher engagement than photos but is still very low for such a large following. The Bucks post heavily every day except Sunday, with at least one post per weekday paid for by a sponsor. FOX Sports Wisconsin could utilize more paid posts on their feed.

20 Social Media Audit: TWITTER FOX Sports Wisconsin’s Twitter page ranges in action from multiple posts some days to lesser posts on others. However, tweets will be sent at least every day. Heavy tweet days are usually game days or larger events and news that concern basketball and baseball fans. The page has about 49,300 followers and has sent around 45,600 tweets. The content ranges from mainly links to articles and videos, photos and text posts alone are less common. According to Meltwater, Twitter is the top social media platform in which users are engaging with at 70 percent in comparison to other platforms. Of the tweets we looked at, around 40 percent were articles, 40 percent were videos, 12 percent were photos, 3 percent were solely text. Our target audience does not engage with Twitter to the same extent that they do with Facebook. Keeping this account active is beneficial for their overall audience.

What is working: FOX Sports Wisconsin tweets on average about 15 times a day. Twitter works well as a platform to have more frequent tweets happen throughout the day. These allow for many posts to be successful throughout the day. The best content, receiving the highest amount of engagements, proves to be videos. Of these videos, the best videos are announcements such as the congratulations for the Bucks making the playoffs, while photos work well with announcements such as good luck photo to Giannis for the All-Star Game. The next most engaging content comes from interviews with players and game highlights.

What is not working: In respect to our consumer target, this is a platform that isn’t as frequently used in comparison to others. Since the focus is on the casual fan there will need to be an emphasis on posts that have retweet material. This could also come from engaging with other Twit- ters of similar interests of our consumer. FOX Sports Wisconsin lacks this engagement. This could also be a matter of replying and interacting with fans.

Competitors: CBS SPORTS CBS Sports is one of our competitors and holds rank at 1.13 million followers. However, their focus is not solely basketball and baseball in the Midwest and must make up for a more national coverage, giving our consumer more information than the casual fan would need to consume. Their techniques use many videos and photos that are not directly attached to article links, as are the ones used in FOX Sports Wisconsin’s Twitter. CBS Sports does not tag all their photos and videos with their logo, unlike FOX Sports Wisconsin. Many of the photos they post are low quality if they are posting live at an event. Their engagement numbers are much higher, which would be expected with their amount of followers. CBS Sports does a good job at creating more ‘viral’ type of content with use of gifs and captions. This type of content increases their engagement and could be a type of use with the platform that FOX Sports Wisconsin could easily adopt.

Competitors: NBA They only post content about basketball and boast 27.5 million followers. They follow a very aggressive posting schedule, posting on average 110 tweets a day. With their schedule, a user will always see one of their tweets when they log into Twitter, and other tweets can potentially be drowned out. Most of their tweets are also centered during game time, further clouding the most important posting time. 21 Competitors: Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks also have a very active and successful Twitter, with 882,000 followers. Many of their tweets are very hit or miss. Even though their average like per tweet is 170, true tweets are very spread out. Out of the most recent tweets on April 8th, they averaged around 50 likes per tweet, which is pretty low for an account with almost 1 million followers. However, occa- sionally they will land up to 8,000 likes. This only, or mostly occurs when the post about Giannis, which shows heavy reliance on him. If he were to get injured or leave for another reason, they would struggle to be successful on Twitter.

Social Media Audit: INSTAGRAM

After analyzing all of FOX Sports Wisconsin’s Instagram posts from March 1, 2017, to March 1, 2018, the page had a total of 3,168 followers, 397 posts, a total of 32,587 likes and 400 comments on all of the posts. The page posted on average, 1.1 times a day, received an average of 82.1 likes per post and one comment per post.

The content consists of videos and images that mainly include pictures of Bucks and Brewers players in addition to various merchandise sweepstakes. Some posts also contain behind-the- scenes information regarding reporters and commentators, information that they would not be able to find on another sports site.

What is working: One of the positive qualities of the page is that videos are used as well as pictures in the Instagram posts, which exhibits a nice variety for our audience to engage with. Another positive characteristic is that they efficiently notify that there are games to be watched on the FOX Sports Channel. This information, if seen by our audience, will drive them to participate in viewership.

What is not working: This engagement is extremely low compared to the vast amount of content FOX Sports Wisconsin is posting, which could suggest that the page is posting too much content and therefore causes a surplus of images competing for the attention of our audience. Another noticeable characteristic of these posts is that they are very low quality and often suggest minimal time and effort spent on the posts. It is also apparent that many of the posts on the Instagram page are identical to those that are posted on other social media sites. This is a major negative characteristic because different platforms engage different audiences. For example, the following post was also placed on Facebook and Twitter, two distinctly different platforms:

22 Competitors: CBS SPORTS CBS Sports has a total of 9,430 posts and 377,000 followers. The content features different teams and sports, often exhibiting a flair of humor. They have more engagement than FOX Sports Wisconsin, and there is a link in their bio to their site. Competitors: NBA The NBA Instagram page has 24,158 posts and 27.5 million followers. Their content features all basketball teams and favors the use of video content over images. Their engagement far exceeds that of FOX Sports Wisconsin and has lots of highlights from NBA games in addition to player statistics. Competitors: Milwaukee Bucks The Bucks Instagram has 9,772 posts and 967,000 followers. They have more followers and general engagement than FOX Sports Wisconsin, and in their bio, they have a link to a site where one can download their app. Their content consists of videos and images including game highlights as well as behind-the-scenes content with the team.

Social Media Audit: SNAPCHAT

Snapchat is used predominantly by younger demographics with 60 percent of users being under the age of 25. A 2018 Pew Research Center study showed that just over 25 percent of U.S. adults aged 30-49 use Snapchat . Because our target is in the 30-45-year-old age range, we do not feel it would be beneficial to spend time developing a Snapchat campaign. Furthermore, most data shows that Snapchat users are on the app from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., meaning it is more of a late night activity. With a demanding work schedule, our target is unlikely to stay up late using this app, especially when he is not connecting with others his age. Snapchat will not be used as a major part of this campaign but could be developed in the future.

Social Media Audit: PINTEREST

In analyzing FOX Sports Wisconsin’s Pinterest page, we found that the account has 12 boards to which they pin, and each board has anywhere from 6 to 59 pins. The account is followed by 463 people, comprised of slightly more females than males, as well as brands, restaurants, and radio stations. The account is following 14 accounts, among which are the Milwaukee Bucks and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It seems that Pinterest has been used in the past to interact with fans by offering them holiday ideas, pictures of over-the-top fanatics, sports team gear linked to online stores, and even behind the scenes looks at the FOX Sports Wisconsin Office. This way of using Pinterest would allow FOX Sports Wisconsin to appeal to some of their fans’ other interests besides their favorite teams.

Although, it seems that the Pinterest account has become largely defunct. For a time, FOX Sports Wisconsin was actively pinning, even maintaining a “Daily Freeze Frame” board to which favorite sports scenes were pinned every day. In the week that we conducted the audit, no new content had been pinned to the account throughout the week, leading us to believe that the account is overall inactive. Additionally, clicking the pins in each board promoting the sports gear leads to either broken links, web pages that no longer exist, or sold-out products. Strangely, the “Packers Gear” board in particular features a tank top pinned 9 times in a row (on next page). 23 What is working: FOX Sports Wisconsin used to maintain an active Pinterest account, engaging their followers by pinning interesting content. Many of the Pins are hashtagged as well, leading more people to discover their content. As part of attracting the casual fan is showing how FOX Sports Wisconsin can fit into their lifestyle, FOX Sports Wisconsin’s Pinterest does well showing food, clothing and other lifestyle needs. Having multiple boards is also very useful in organizing content to increase the user experience. FOX Sports Wisconsin’s organization makes the page easy to navigate for those who may not be completely comfortable with Pinterest.

What is not working: FOX Sports Wisconsin’s Pinterest account looks to be inactive. If it is still being used, it is not a good sign that we cannot tell. In addition, they repeatedly posted the same exact pins, all of which have broken links. The account has a low following and low engagement.

Competitors: CBS SPORTS CBS Sports’ Pinterest account is far more active, with 69 boards ranging in topic anywhere from sports jokes to pictures of cute animals. While some content is about sports highlights and news, this is mixed with humorous and “idea” boards such as food and party ideas.

This strategy of pinning regularly to a wide variety of boards has paid off for CBS Sports, as they have 1,141,610 followers as of 4/9/2018. FOX Sports Wisconsin could learn from these tactics in order to attract more followers to their account.

24 Competitors: NBA The NBA Pinterest account also seems to be actively pinning. The content pinned on the NBA page is majorly products that are linked back to the NBA store in order to boost sales. This strategy doesn’t really apply to FOX Sports Wisconsin since sales are not their goal. However, the NBA Pinterest account only has 40,122 followers, proving that only pinning sports-heavy content and products isn’t the best way to gain a vast following on Pinterest.

Competitors: Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks’ Pinterest account is similar to FOX Sports Wisconsin’s Pinterest, as they do not regularly pin and many of the product links are broken or expired. The content pinned is almost exclusively Bucks products linked back to their store, and the account has 1,867 followers.

Social Media Audit: YOUTUBE

FOX Sports Wisconsin maintains an active YouTube account, posting around 3-5 times a day. They have 2,125 subscribers, but each video posted varies greatly in viewership, anywhere from 100 views to 807,000 views, although on average each video has around 1,000 views. It seems that with the number of videos posted, some of the videos are viewed by thousands while many other videos are either ignored or lost in the mix. The videos are posted to playlists, but only two out of the five playlists on the channel are still being updated: one for the Brewers, and one for the Bucks. The YouTube channel is being used to post game highlights, interviews, and press releases. The channel is also being used to bolster the Facebook account, as a majority of all videos posted on YouTube can also be found on the Facebook page. The content posted is very much targeting the avid fan of the Bucks and the Brewers.

It is worth noting that out of FOX Sports Wisconsin’s 10 most viewed videos on the channel, 8 of them feature Giannis Antetokounmpo in some capacity. His star power fuels virality, as can be seen on the channel’s most viewed video, “NBA Players on Giannis Antetokounmpo,” which has 807,000 views.

What is working: FOX Sports Wisconsin’s YouTube account is a good place to organize all of the videos on Facebook. The account remains active with new videos uploaded daily. They use Giannis’ star power to their advantage to post big plays and get views. They should continue to post highlight rolls and power plays from games.

What is not working: With so many videos being uploaded every day, some of them get lost in the mix. This may be an indication that too many videos are being posted. Only two of the YouTube playlists are being updated, even though there are five playlists.

25 Competitors: CBS SPORTS With 70,191 subscribers, CBS Sports’ YouTube channel posts similar content to that of FOX Sports Wisconsin. However, the content itself is more extensive, as they have posted videos not only of the NBA and the MLB, but also of golf and the NHL. CBS Sports posts to YouTube more than double as much as FOX Sports Wisconsin, up to 20+ times per day. While it may not be in FOX Sports Wisconsin’s best interest to post videos of many other sports, they could learn from CBS Sports by posting a variety of basketball or baseball-related content, such as more interviews or reaction videos.

Competitors: NBA The NBA’s YouTube boasts 8,845,377 subscribers. However, upon searching “NBA” on YouTube, the account doesn’t show up until halfway down the page. This is because NBA content from other users is prioritized on YouTube’s search. Rather than uploading every single highlight clip from every single game, the NBA YouTube account has a series called “Top 10 Plays of the Night” which runs during the season. This series has been wildly successful, with each video boasting hundreds of thousands of views. FOX Sports Wisconsin can learn from this by finding a spin on a topic that people like, and then keeping that pattern up reliably.

Competitors: Milwaukee Bucks To find the Milwaukee Bucks’ YouTube page, one has to search “Milwaukee Bucks” and scroll down about 2 pages before finding the channel. The channel itself has 38,189 subscribers and the viewership rates are comparable to that of FOX Sports Wisconsin. Like the FOX Sports Wisconsin page, many of the most-viewed videos feature Giannis. However, the top three most viewed videos do not feature him; in fact, the most-viewed video, with almost 4 million views, features the Bucks’ mascot, Bango, performing a dunking stunt. From this YouTube channel, we can glean that novelty video topics can have just as much potential for virality as a video about Giannis. Furthermore, the ease with which FOX Sports Wisconsin’s channel can be found in the search is something that can be taken advantage of. 26 Future Goals and Role of Social Media Overall Goals: We want to utilize each platform to its full potential. This means diversifying the content across platforms, making it unique to each channel instead of posting the same exact content across all.

Facebook • Increase shares on Facebook by 10 percent and views of videos by 25 percent. • New content will only be high-quality videos or links to articles regarding the most recent game or key players by January 2019. • Posts will not exceed five per day on game days and one per day on non-game days. When there is a game, content will be used to remind fans of the game and show highlights or recaps.

Twitter • Increase amount of favorites and retweets by 20 percent. • Increase engagement with other profile brands and fans through tweet replies, favorites, retweets by end of January 2019. • Utilize humor and virality through meme usage and encourage an increase of retweets and followers by 15 percent by end of January 2019.

Instagram • New content will be only high-quality videos and photos from the games and of the teams. • The role of Instagram will be to provide professional, visual media to our audience. • The content will inform the audience of Bucks games and the app’s features. • The content will also be unique and original, not recycled on and from various platforms.

Pinterest • Reactivate account. • Increase amount of followers by 25 percent. • Delete boards with broken or defunct links. • Pinterest will be directed at casual fans like Joel through home improvement ideas and other content related to the Milwaukee Bucks. This content will show how FOX Sports Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Bucks can fit into a casual fan’s life.

27 Strategic Recommendation FOX Sports Wisconsin should be consistently engaging with followers throughout the day and posting extra when necessary. Finding the perfect schedule can take some experimentation. If the audience isn’t engaging when we thought they would, try a different time of day for the next week until you find what works best. Below are some guidelines and suggestions for each social media channel. The next section will have more specific tactics and example posts.

Facebook • We recommend focusing on highlight videos and live streaming on Facebook. From our social media audit, we found that these receive the most engagement. This schedule is tentative to the Bucks game schedule. If you see that the highlight videos are getting more engagement on game days then post on game days. If they are getting more engagement on off days, post then. Post each video on Facebook to YouTube as well. • In our audit, we found that the #StoryOfTheGame posts do well and can continue to be posted on Facebook. These are not on the monthly schedule because they depend on the game schedule. • #TBT Every Thursday, post a video or photo of a famous player or play each week to highlight to past Bucks players and appeal to the nostalgia in our audience. It is also a fun way to show that you are knowledgeable about the Bucks and have a longstanding relationship with them.

Twitter • Tweets should be posted every day, Monday-Friday, between 12-1 p.m. or after 3 p.m.. FOX Sports Wisconsin should have one scheduled post per day and be responding and engaging with followers and other sports content throughout the day. • We would also like to see you live-tweet during games. Pick 3-5 high-profile games each month to live tweet. Since we are focusing twitter on the weekdays, finding games to live-tweet on the weekends would help round out the week and keep your busy dads informed.

Instagram • On Instagram, FOX Sports Wisconsin should only be posting high-quality videos and photos from games. Posts should be done once a week during one of the peak times: -Monday/Thursday 8-9 a.m., 5 p.m. or Wednesday at 7 p.m. • In addition to posting once a week, we think that FOX Sports Wisconsin should be using Instagram stories almost daily. This isn’t on the schedule because it depends on what the content of the story will be. Good things to post include: -Fun behind-the-scenes at the office -At the game, watching the game or screenshot and post other users photos watching the Bucks game at home -Promoting contests and events -Fun things around Milwaukee, Bucks related or not • #TBT could also be done on this social medium either on a story or in a post.

Pinterest • Once a week, one person should go on Pinterest and add a handful of pins to your boards. Make sure they are relevant and have working links. Pins can be added to boards any day of the week, but it should be done before users go on over the weekend.

28 SOCIAL MEDIA TACTICS During the first week of the campaign, we will be pushing both of our events and getting our audience excited for the upcoming season. Below are example posts for the scheduled posts each of this week. In addition to what is listed below, FOX Sports Wisconsin should also be posting Insta- gram Stories 4-7 days a week and engaging with other users on Twitter.

MONDAY: TUESDAY:

9 a.m. 9 a.m.

8 a.m.

12 p.m. 12 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: THURSDAY:

7 p.m. 7 p.m. 3 p.m.

12 p.m.

FRIDAY:

1 p.m. 3 p.m.

12 p.m.

29 NON-PAID SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook According to our research, about 90 percent of our target reported being a social media user. Facebook is where we recommend focusing most of these efforts. According to Pew Research Center, 78 percent of adults ages 30-49 report using Facebook, and according to Simmons On- eView, 47.4 percent of our target reported visiting Facebook in the past seven days. A Facebook campaign sponsoring our posts will establish a spot on our audience’s feed, even with Facebook’s algorithm and therefore drive engagement with our target audience. We will post more videos since they receive more likes, comments, and shares from the public.

Additionally, we can utilize the Facebook Live feature and have live videos of postgame interviews and other behind-the-scenes footage that will help personalize our brand and set FOX Sports Wisconsin apart from other sports broadcasting networks. We can also use this feature to promote our events, #StaroftheWeek and #GOTailgate. Facebook is great for family-oriented content, like videos of our #StaroftheWeek talking about his/her basketball game. We want our social influencers to share and interact with our posts. Another easy way to be seen on Facebook is by interacting with users who comment on our posts and quickly respond to messages. This will create a positive, lasting impression on those users and they will be more likely to interact with FSW in the future.

30 Twitter Twitter is a must have platform for FOX Sports Wisconsin, as it is a platform designed for tweets to go viral and be seen. Posts, especially creative ones, have the ability to go viral because it’s simple to retweet a message and hashtags. Not only can people follow and search specific hashtags they want to follow up on, but some also make it on the trending page. Participating in the trend can greatly increase visibility. In addition, 12 million people out of our target audience (Male 35-54) uses Twitter daily. It’s a large audience that can be reached efficiently and allows for direct engagement with FOX Sports Wis- consin. You can instantly post news and quickly participate in trending topics, and it allows you to communicate with your audience immediately about live events. In general, Twitter allows for great consumer engagement, and accounts such as Netflix and Wendy’s have made headlines for effec- tively communicating with customers.

31 Instagram As 40 percent of our target reports being an Instagram user, we recommend utilizing this platform to reach our target, but not focusing on it as heavily as Facebook and Pinterest. The following are some examples of pictures FOX Sports Wisconsin will post to their Instagram page to drive more engagement with their fans. Most are pictures from past games with a #TBT in the caption as well as high-quality images from more recent games. They feature popular players from past and present Bucks rosters. There are also posts that promote our events such as the GO Tailgate post and the #StarOfTheWeek post.

32 Pinterest While a majority of Pinterest users are female, males are increasingly using Pinterest. 40 percent of new Pinterest users are male, and 1 in 3 US dads use Pinterest. These stats should not be ignored, as they prove that our target is indeed using Pinterest. Additionally, Pinterest will enable FOX Sports Wisconsin to reach the target in ways that will appeal to their interests other than sports, which will help draw people in, with the end goal being that they will tune-in or download FOX Sports GO. However, in order to continue engaging their fans, FOX Sports Wisconsin needs to begin pinning regularly once again. Since DIYs, home projects, and recipes do well on Pinterest, they could ben- efit from posting more of this content. They will also need to go through their old boards, clean up the duplicate pins, and delete any that lead to broken links. We propose that FOX Sports Wisconsin deletes all four of the boards promoting sports gear; that is, “Packers Gear,” “Brewers Gear,” “Bucks Gear,” and “Badgers Gear.” This is because the gear pinned to each board leads to broken or expired links. The account could replace these boards by starting four new boards: a “Stars of the Week” board which would feature an outstanding child each week active in sports teams or the community; a “Mancaves” board with ideas for a game-watching space; a “TBT” board featuring historical pictures related to Wisconsin sports teams; and, a “Game Day Grub” board featuring Midwest game day food ideas and recipes.

Four new proposed boards on Pinterest

Five example pins to the #TBT board on Pinterest.

33 YouTube FOX Sports Wisconsin should continue reposting to YouTube all the videos that they post on Face- book in order to maintain consistency, although if they make more use of Giannis and other star players in the videos they could gain more viewership. YouTube has a messy interface; to best reach audience you have to know who to target. Seven- ty-one percent of adults have used YouTube and 28 percent of these adults visit the site daily. This is a perfect platform for videos and live streaming, best for trending videos. YoutTube can be beneficial in multiple ways:

• YouTube’s interface is easy to use and the videos are easily functional when embedded on other websites. This is also a great platform for those who view on mobile, it is instant and free to post your own content. This is a great platform to use creativity and work with sponsors. • Brands do very well on YouTube for promotions, partnerships and corporation generated content. • YouTube videos are also easy to embed into another page such as blogs and social media, allowing click-through to the FOX Sports Wisconsin website. It is best to post on weekday afternoons and weekend mornings. • The bumper ad is the most effective for audience recall, especially since it is six seconds and allows for creativity and compelling content.

We plan to use YouTube specifically with our #StarOfTheWeek campaign. This will give us an opportunity to deeply feature different Boys and Girls Clubs and the difference these organizations are making in the children’s lives. Additionally, younger populations are using YouTube as a social platform more than older gen- erations, making the child-focused media particularly useful in getting the children to recognize our brand and ask their parents about it.

Blog There is potential with having FOX Sports Wisconsin start a blog. While data shows that not many Americans regularly visit blogs, evidence suggests that the average age of readers of the top internet blogs is 41 years old, which falls right into our target’s age range. A FOX Sports Wisconsin blog could specifically focus on families and advice columns. These could range from ideas such as quick meal options for a busy weeknight, what movies are inspirational and family friendly, fun weekend activities, to how to talk to your child about sportsmanship. This blog would appeal to our target consumer audience as they are a consumer that actively tries to find ways that they can spend time with their families and maintain their busy schedule. Since our consumer audience also uses the internet for web searching, this has potential to be the type of information they would seek out.

The digital influencers Mike Heller and Ted Davis could play a role in this blog by writing a few pieces of their own for the blog or encouraging listeners to check it out for family fun ideas. The Wendy’s Big Show would also be able to fall under the same use as Ted Davis and Mike Heller, especially since their show runs during our consumer’s commute from work.

34 One of the bloggers that we could work with could be Adrian from the blog dadoralive.com. Adrian blogs about life experiences dealing with his children, lessons he’s learned and shares advice on how to parent. Adrian would be to utilize sponsored blog posts or content. Adrian takes a comedic approach so these blog posts could be more humorous and entertaining. The second blogger that could be of use is Out With the Kids by Jeff Bogle. Jeff takes more of an event and foods approach. This would be a great way to sponsor our events that are family friendly or a way to share food and meal ideas for parents. This would work for our consumer who would be interesting in finding new ways to find things to do with their family. Finally, the last blogger I found would be The Daddy Files. This blog would be great for keeping up with daily news stories that are relevant to our consumer audience. All three of these bloggers could offer a different audience of fathers, capitalizing on the broad interests many fathers may have.

EXAMPLE BLOG POST Statistically, it has been shown that girls drop out of sports at a younger age than boys do due to social stigmas and reasons such as lack of role models and quality of experience. Boys are encouraged by society to continue on their sports journey for not just showmanship of talent, but for their enjoyment as well. These facts sparked an emotional note with me. As a father of two girls who enjoy basketball, I want them to feel like their enjoyment of the game doesn’t need to end with age. I want to understand their sporting experience and encourage them to find joy in fun competitive atmospheres. As a kid, I was always involved in all types of sports, my favorite being basketball. But these experiences taught me lessons of leadership, communication, willpower, team-building, sportsmanship—the list is endless. I want the same thing for my daughters, and I want to be part of the journey as well. I did some research, and I came across this new partnership between the Milwaukee Bucks, FOX Sports GO and the Milwau- kee Boys and Girls Club starting an initiative and contest called #StarOfTheWeek that encourages all kids to have this bonding experience with sports as fun and competitive. This is a great step towards encouraging girls—our daughters—to feel empow- ered in the sports they play and that they too can be the stars that we see that they are.

I think this is an ample opportunity for parents to see their children gain those valuable lessons that come with the game. Furthermore, their peers and teammates have the opportunity to work together and learn to encourage and praise others for their hard work as a team!

35 Snapchat Quick growth has struck Snapchat recently. The users enjoy the aspect of sending photos directly, rather than posting for masses, and daily users view 10 billion snaps every day. That being said, Snapchat is used predominantly by younger demographics with 60 percent of users being under the age of 25. A 2018 Pew Research Center study showed that just over 25 percent of U.S. adults aged 30-49 use Snapchat. Further, Snapchat is used for “funny content” rather than news and information. As our target is in the 35-54 year old age range, we do not feel it would be beneficial to spend time developing a Snapchat campaign. Further, most data shows that Snapchat users are on the app from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., meaning it is more of a late night activity. With a demanding work schedule, our target is unlikely to stay up late using this app, especially when he is not connecting with others his age. Snapchat will not be used as a major part of this campaign, but could be developed in the future. If the client is interested in utilizing Snapchat, we suggest a paid Snapchat ad or filter at the Mil- waukee Bucks’ stadium during one or more games. Fans often take photos at these events, and it would create a brand association particularly with the child ideally. As children often influence household decisions, this would allow for greater brand recall when watching at home thereafter.

PAID SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook utilizes an algorithmic system that values person-to-person communication over person-to-page making it harder for brands to stand out because it values a more personal connection. Because of this, it is easy to get lost amongst the various posts and interactions between people, which is why it is important to sponsor posts. Spon- soring posts will help us to target our specific audience: males ages 35-54. eW can also narrow this audience to reach men who are living in Wisconsin, and especially focus on those living in the Milwaukee area, ensuring that we reach only those who are already somewhat likely to be predisposed to utilizing FOX Sports Wisconsin’s services. We will also have a paid promotion on Twitter. During the weeks leading up to each of our events, we will pay to promote tweets to our audience. For the first month of our campaign, FOX Sports Wisconsin will pay to have one promoted tweet a week about each event. Advertising on Twitter is very specific and this will ensure that our audience is aware of both events. They will flow organically into their timeline so it won’t be dis- tracting to our audience. We will also promote a call-to-action tweet with a link to our app in the app store. With this campaign, FOX Sports Wisconsin only pays when a user clicks on the link. They will easily be able to measure how many people looked at the app. Due to the growing amount of men and U.S. dads that are on Pinterest, we believe that it would be in FOX Sports Wisconsin’s best interest to utilize the Pinterest’s “Promoted Pins” feature. This feature allows us to target consumers by gender, location, and even habits and interests. We will be using this feature to target dads living in the Midwest who have shown interest in Wisconsin sports teams and family related projects. We would suggest beginning by promoting pins from the “Mancaves” board. This is because at 17.2 percent of all boards, “Home” is the most popular category on Pinterest. Promoting pins in this category will drive more engagement with the FOX Sports Wis- consin Pinterest page, and will also lead users to discover the content on all the page’s other boards.

36 CREATIVE PLAN

37 DISPLAY ADVERTISING In order to pinpoint which websites would be the most useful for purchasing display ads, we conducted research using Simmons OneView database to learn which websites are being visited most frequently by our target (Males, ages 35-54). In doing so, we discovered five websites that have a high reach for our target, as well as five sites whose visitors are comprised of a high percentage of our target:

REACH: Accuweather.com • 16.2 percent of our target reported visiting this website in the last 7 days. This makes sense, as our target has already reported often using the internet to check the weather. If the website reports that the weather on game day is less than ideal, a strategically placed FOX Sports Wisconsin ad will reassure our target that the game can still be enjoyed from the comfort of his own home.

Weather.com • 20.1 percent of our target reported visiting this website in the last 7 days. Similar to Accuweather, our target will likely be checking the weather as he’s making his plans for the day. An ad on this website will raise an awareness of FOX Sports Wisconsin as he considers those plans.

Amazon.com • 26.7 percent of our target reported using this website in the last 7 days. Amazon also has one of the highest overall reaches of any of the websites, at an estimated 61,650,000 Americans having reported visiting the site in the past 7 days. To drive maximum awareness, it’s crucial for us to buy a display ad space on this site.

Ebay.com • 16.9 percent of our target reported using this website in the last 7 days. Like Amazon, Ebay also has a high overall reach, allowing us to also drive awareness in audiences other than our target, while also reaching a large segment of our target audience.

Yahoo.com • 25.7 percent of our target reported using this website in the last 7 days. This percentage, combined with the fact that our target also has reported using the internet to read the news, makes Yahoo a strategic site on which to purchase a display ad.

38 COMPOSITION: Autotrader.com • Our target comprises 32 percent of the visitors to this site. Although the total number of visitors to this site is not as numerous, the fact that nearly third of the visitors fit within our target range makes this website a good place for an ad.

Careerbuilder.com • Our target comprises 30.1 percent of the visitors to this site. Since our target is very career-driven, this website also aligns with his psy- chographics.

Cnet.com • Our target comprises 39.9 percent of the visitors to this site. In addition to having a high composition, visitors to this website are often looking for the latest technologies, and would likely take interest in seeing advertisements for FOX Sports Go.

Wsj.com • Our target comprises 33.5 percent of the visitors to this site. As with Drudge Report, our target is likely to visit this site with the intention of reading the news, and seeing a display ad placed on this site will drive awareness within our target.

Drudgereport.com • Our target comprises 32 percent of the visitors to this site. Addition- ally, with our target’s propensity for visiting news sites, a display ad placed on this website is sure to reach our target.

Although the data on Simmons does not include it in their database, we will buy display ads on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel website, jsonline.com. This will enable us to target people living in the Milwaukee area over the course of any month. Furthermore, our target has shown a propensity for using the internet to read the news, and buying space on this website can help us reach them and drive further awareness.

Other websites that we feel would be effective to place display ads on include: • TripAdvisor.com: Since our target travels often, and enjoys spending time with his family, he is likely to visit TripAdvisor to find recommendations for family activities. This would be a good spot to buy especially during winter break, spring break, and summer.

• WikiHow.com: This is one of those websites that is likely to often be visited by adults and teens alike. It will allow us to reach our target, while also reaching the rest of the vast audience that visits this site. Our target is likely to use Wiki- How for advice on anything from how to change his car’s oil, to how to teach his daughter how to shoot a free throw.

39 • Sports.Yahoo.com/fantasy: This is one of the most prevalent sites for all things fantasy sports. Since our target reported that he is likely to use the internet to play in fantasy sports leagues, it is imperative that we buy display ads on this website in order to reach them.

• Foodnetwork.com: While the Simmons report did not indicate that our target visits this website all that often, we believe that we could reach our target with display ads on this website during the summer months. We came to this conclusion because our target reports that he enjoys spending his time barbecuing, and so during the summer months he is likely to look up tips and recipes on this website.

• Wissports.net: This website is all about sports in Wisconsin, and has a lot of information about high school sports and statistics that our target is likely to browse.

ONLINE ADVERTISING CREATIVE The creative units will play a crucial role in our online advertising campaign, both as a way to drive awareness about FOX Sports Wisconsin and FOX Sports GO, but also as a way to drive traffic to the FOX Sports Wisconsin website and also encourage tune-in to the games. To tailor the ads to the target which we want to reach, we intend to craft the advertisements to accommodate the needs of our target. The most specific psychographic need that we intend to appeal to is the need of our target to see his family, specifically his children, succeed. As a casual fan of the Bucks, our target is likely to have already have a vested interest in the team, and taking advantage of this interest combined with his love for his children and family is likely to be very effective in an advertisement.

We would recommend using a mixture of both static display ads, and also interactive rich media display ads. Both will do an effective job of driving awareness for the brand, but rich media ads have a higher click-through rate than static display ads. Therefore, a combination of the two will prove to be overall more effective in driving awareness as well as prompting action such as tune- in.

As for the timing of the display ads, we recommend a push in display advertisements around the beginning of the campaign, the end of december and beginning of January, the week of the NBA All-Star game, and the week that play-offs begin, as we believe that that these are critical times during the season during which we aim to drive more awareness of FOX Sports Wisconsin. Rich media advertisements will also be shown during intervals throughout the season, as they tend to have higher click through rates and interaction rates.

The sites which we previously outlined will serve as the best websites on which to run these creative units, so that we can most easily and most efficiently reach our target, as they are likely to be utilizing these webpages.

40 These are examples of display ads that will help drive awareness about the FOX Sports Go app, and will lead directly to the website when clicked upon.

This is an example of an interactive rich media ad that will be displayed on websites.

ONLINE ADVERTISING TARGETING

Display ads will enable you to strategically target ads to the right people, at the right time, and in the right place in a way that other forms of advertising cannot. The following are five methods which we recommend that this feature be utilized in order to reach maximum effectivity.

• Day of Week and/or “Day-parting” This method displays the ads to users based on a predetermined day of the week or time of day. By using this method, we can reach our target (males aged 35-54) as they browse various websites. We would recommend setting the ads to be displayed on game days, specifically in the 3 hours before each game starts.This way, users will see the ad, become aware that there will be a game that day, and also become aware that they can catch the game on FOX Sports Wisconsin.

41 • Editorial Content This method includes presenting ads to users on websites that contain content that they are likely to be interested in. For instance, our target is interested in cars, and so a strategically placed ad on Autotrader.com will prove to be effective.

• Contextual This method entails presenting a display ad on a webpage containing content that is complementary to that of the ad. In doing so, this method allows for targeting of users who are already in a specific mindset. For our campaign, we recommend using this method to target users on news sites reading articles about basketball. This shows that the user intends to learn more about basketball and likely also intends to watch it, so a strategically placed display ad will provide awareness to the user that he or she can fulfill this intention by tuning in to FOX Sports Wisconsin.

• Geo-Targeting This method entails targeting a specific audience based on their geographic location. We recommend using the implicit method, which uses content and IP addresses in order to target users who reside in a specific locale. For this campaign, we will heavily users residing within southeastern Wisconsin, but also all Wisconsinites across the state. This way, we can make sure to reach out to members of the Milwaukee community, but also reach people living across Wisconsin to ensure that they know they can tune in to FOX Sports Wisconsin in order to keep up with the Bucks.

• Weather-Triggered This method entails presenting display ads depending on the weather conditions. For instance, some ads might only show if rain is forecasted for the day, while other ads will only be shown if the temperature is forecasted to be over 60 degrees. In this instance, we will be able to target people who are looking up the weather in order to plan out their day or their week. We will use this method to display a FOX Sports Wis- consin ad when the weather is forecasted to rain, or to be under 50 degrees. This way, our target will be encouraged to avoid the unsavory weather conditions by staying in and tuning in to FOX Sports Wisconsin.

NATIVE ADVERTISING

Native advertising is a form of advertising that appears as native content on a website, making it seem like an editorial piece. It appears in-feed rather than along sidebars or above the website’s content. Native advertising has been shown to increase brand recall, yield greater attention and encourage greater sharing from consumers. Native advertising is a great way to build trust with your brand and align the brand with a certain belief or cause. Further, native advertising proves to have a higher click-through rate than display advertising, and they naturally flow into a page rather than interrupt the user experience. According to Marketing Land, native advertisements are viewed over 50 percent more than display ads, result in an 18 percent purchase intent increase and receive more social media shares due to the informative nature of content.

42 Our target, Joel, utilizes the internet for social media and information alike. For this reason, we recommend using local publications’ websites, such as Milwaukee Magazine and Madison Maga- zine, for this promotion. This is because it allows for a local tie to the community, which our target cares about, as well as a platform local families may be looking to when making plans. In addition, Facebook — our target’s most used social media website — is a smart investment for native advertising. With the “casual fan,” it can be hard to break into a newsfeed, unlike the avid fan. By purchasing ad space with content our target would be interested in, like example one above, FSW can build brand recall and align the brand with familial values.

These ads would run early in the Bucks’ season, specifically the first in December and the second and third in late September and early October, respectively. The first native ad focuses on a snowy night, which is likely to be happening over Christmas break when the family is together. This would run around lunch time, when the family is trying to decide how to spend their evening. In addition, the second ad would be featured earlier in the year as it is when our Boys and Girls Club events will be occurring, and this ties into the “every child is a star” mentality. Finally, the third would run around the same time to encourage app downloads early in the season. We want the Midwestern dad to understand the app and always have it with him. For further scheduling information, see calendar.

Example one: This editorial-type piece would run on our Facebook page. In this piece, we plan to highlight “the perfect night in with the family.” This would feature snacks, games and, of course, watching the game on FSW. This content highlights family values that our target could align with, as well as provide useful ideas if they are looking to bond with their children more over sports. Additionally, this advertisement would run in a week where there may be harsh weather (i.e. winter conditions) coming, as this tends to be a time people want to stay in. Further, this would run over holiday breaks, a time dads have more time to spend with their children.

Example two: As an older man, apps can sometimes be confusing. That is why we also would like to target the Midwestern dad with a Facebook post that simply explains the app and how to use it. If someone isn’t already signed up for FOX Sports GO, they may not understand the benefits. eW want to show our busy target all the places that the app can go with them, as well as how to use it so it is easier to navigate when the download occurs.

Example three: This editorial-type piece would run on a local culture magazine’s website, such as Madison Magazine or Milwaukee Magazine. This piece has a similar goal to the above example, which is to align our brand name with family and community values. In the example below, we highlight three ways to encourage your child to see their inner star. This would be a part of our #StarOfTheWeek campaign. It emphasizes that the child can be a star off the court, just as most parents want their kids to understand. This also could be used to reach our target with the 80/20 rule of posting (80 percent what they are interested in, 20 percent promotion of the brand).

43 Example three: School is picking up and the backpacks are getting stuffed. Every day, students run off to class- es and practices with around 20 students, talking, playing and learning. It is a time to learn practical skills, but soft traits are important as well. Maybe your fifth grader is struggling in math but excels in basketball — let them see that. FOX Sports Wisconsin sees the value in making each and every child feel special, so here are a few ways you can encourage your kid to be as brave as a Buck at home and beyond.

Take time

One of the biggest concerns for kids when prac- ticing a new skill is taking up someone else’s time doing it. This is where a parent can help. Set aside time each night to practice new skills with your kid. Whether it be 30 minutes of lay-ups after everyone else leaves practice or 30 minutes of “no distrac- tion” reading before bed, create a safe environment for your kid to be okay with being an amateur. It will boost their trust in you, and remind them that when you work hard at something, it pays off. They are capable.

Give choices

When given the power to choose, a child feels in control of the situation. This promotes their confidence and develops competence. Present options: “you can watch the Bucks Game in your bed on the iPad with the FOX Sports GO app, or we can have ice cream and watch it as a family.” By allowing your kid to decide how to watch, they can enjoy their decision wholeheartedly.

Offer praise appropriately

Focusing on your child’s appearance or specific skill can be useful in the moment, but in the long run will make them harder on themselves if they do not perform well or look good. In- stead, when offering compliements, try to focus on their mindset: “I noticed you worked really hard to master your free throw, it looked great tonight.” This shows that you noticed their efforts and reminds the child what they are capable of.

This Bucks’ season, FOX Sports Wisconsin wants every child to recognize their inner star, both on and off the court. These are just a few ways you can help your kid recognize theirs today. Please, comment any other tips and tricks you use at home for your young stars.

44 SEM, SEO, LANDING PAGES

Pay per click advertising (PPC) refers to when an advertiser pays a platform to feature their ad, but only pays when it is clicked on by users. Google sells PPC via AdWords based on the quality and relevancy of a brand’s keywords and PPC ads. This rating is called the quality score. It is af- fected by click-through rate, relevancy of each keyword in an advertisement, landing page quality and relevance and historical performance of your AdWords account. A higher click-through rate on your pay-per-click advertising is considered very relevant to consumers and is therefore rewarded with lower advertising costs and higher ad rankings. It is important to use PPC in the media plan because of its mass customization, cheaper costs (only paying for the click) and trackability.

From an analysis of FOX Sports Wisconsin in comparison to competitors such as CBS Sports and ESPN, we found that FOX Sports Wisconsin does not have any paid keywords. While FOX Sports does pay for keywords, they have the smallest number of paid keywords with approximately 31. CBS Sports has 198 paid keywords, and ESPN has 55. After running a test of adding keywords, we found it is possible for FOX Sports Wisconsin to increase their PPC to somewhere between 568 and 949. Examples of competitors’ keywords are “fantasy,” “store,” “tickets,” “baseball,” “basketball” and specific team names.

45 CBS Sports advertisements focus on bringing people into their online stores. Their goal is driven by an increase of sales items such as clothing and sporting accessories. Their advertisements appeared mostly at the beginning of the search page as a text ad rather than a PLA ad. However, their advertisements only show up when users search for keywords they had previously bought. CBS Sports, however, does not have any advertisements in spaces that would be of particular interest to FOX Sports Wisconsin, such as “sport statistics” or “basketball statistics.”

46 As for ESPN, their advertisement keywords focus on specific teams and subscriptions. ESPN aims to be the one-stop shop for relevant sports information from their ads. However, when searching ESPN’s keywords, advertisements for their site do not show up. This could be because they are not running advertisements at this time, meaning ESPN’s strategy for advertising reflects an event timeline. They specifically market during certain events such as “Arsenal vs. Liverpool tickets” and “Nassau Collisium.” This strategy puts ESPN at the top-of-mind when a specific audience is checking in on their team or game. Interestingly, the keyword of “Nassau Collisium” that they have bought is actually the wrong spelling of “Coliseum.” This strategy allows them to target individuals that may not know much about this arena but are interested in what is going on there.

PPC should play a key role in FOX Sports Wisconsin’s campaign since people are actively searching for competitors to find game statistics. This means that it is vital for FOX Sports Wisconsin to break through the noise by purchasing keywords that will move ads onto pages where consumers are looking for sports information. This way there will be a more distinct recall for FOX Sports in which consumers could grow accustomed to actively searching FOX Sports out of the competitors.

Our target consumer is a busy family man who enjoys sports as a casual fan. We suggest adding keywords that will be part of searches this type of audience would seek and interrupting it with advertisements from FOX Sports Wisconsin. Keyword searches that revolve around family activities, tailgate meal plans, specific players and game schedules are all useful. PPC will deliver a stand-in interruption of searches that will force an audience to recognize FOX Sports Wisconsin as a place to find the materials they are searching for. This is a different type of disruption from traditional or digital media because FOX Sports Wisconsin will be presenting themselves as a place to turn to at the exact moment the specific audience is looking for one.

Further, our target audience is busy and a casual consumer of sports. Because of this, we believe it is useful to represent FSW as a part of their lifestyle with content about family basketball activities, specific players and more. FOX Sports Wisconsin can present themselves as the source to bring sports and family together for our target. This could be harder for targeting committed fans who consume sports media regularly and have already formed relationships with certain digital sports outlets that they will search for by name. FOX Sports Wisconsin is not currently considered a main sports media outlet in searches, whereas ESPN does. Targeting the casual fan will encourage a relationship between fans who want to be more involved with sports but aims to maintain consumption as a social, family-oriented activity.

47 KEYWORDS:

Search popularity shows the number of searches for a keyword that meet your criteria. Use it to get an idea of how much monthly traffic you can expect on average from a keyword if you add it to a campaign. (Ad- Words)

48 Sample Advertisements:

The seasonality for our campaign will begin in September and push through the Bucks’ season. There will be a heavier push during school breaks such as Thanksgiving break, winter break and spring break. These times should be pushed more frequently because it is when the children of our target audience will be home from school. The best timing to run these advertisements would be in the morning, at lunchtime and after 7 p.m. while our target audience has down time that could be used to search. These searches will vary for the devices.

• Mobile and tablet: morning • Desktop computers: Noon and lunchtime • Mobile and tablet: Evening

This is based off the devices our target audience would be using at this time, as they tend to be more active on mobiles and tablets in the morning before work and after dinner while lounging before bed. The desktop ad is based on their computer use during work and lunch break. The best times to run these would be during the later half of the week such as Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Morning tablet and mobile advertisements should run on Saturday and Sunday. This is because our target will likely be searching for time to occupy their weekend hours.

49 SEO (Search Engine Optimization) SEO is a mostly free way to increase traffic from Google and other search engines by increasing a website’s search prioritization. Traffic is driven organically, and the only upfront cost is creating an appealing landing page. Strong SEO results in a website appearing high in a Google search. Though there are several search engines, it is best to optimize for Google as they dominate the search share with 91.25 percent, followed by Bing with 3.08 percent.

FOX Sports, and in our case, its subdomain FOX Sports Wisconsin, is lacking in this area. The only time the site appears as the first search result is if the word “Fox” is directly search.Any - thing more ambiguous, and it quickly falls behind three main competitors: NBA, CBS Sports, and ESPN. The same is true for “Fox Sports GO.”

FOX Sports Wisconsin is mainly used as a news site, which means scores, rosters, schedules and news are key. We searched keywords commonly associated with FSW such as “Bucks schedule.” We found the FSW results struggled. The best search position FOX Sports had was for Bucks stats. Even there, it appeared as the fifth result, which statistically only gets around 5 percent of clicks on average.

When searching “Bucks news,” FSW had poor results. As a website consistently publishing sports news articles, this is a critical position for the FSW brand. Not only does the site fail to appear on the first page, but it ranks low on the second page. Though FOX Sports Wisconsin has weak SEO and search presence, it is still one of the top sites for Milwaukee Bucks information. FOX Sports GO, on the other hand, does not appear. When “Bucks stream online” or “Bucks live stream” is searched a link to FOX doesn’t appear until the second page. Even then, it links to a FOX Sports article on how to access the live stream, instead of directly linking to FOX Sports GO.

50 Though FOX Sports Wisconsin has weak SEO and search presence, it is still one of the top sites for Milwaukee Bucks information. FOX Sports GO, on the other hand, does not appear. When “Bucks stream online” or “Bucks live stream” is searched a link to FOX doesn’t appear until the second page. Even then, it links to a FOX Sports article on how to access the live stream, instead of directly linking to FOX sports GO.

Furthermore, even when you directly search for “Fox sports live stream,” FOX sports GO is the third result. The first result leads to an outdated page, pictured to the right. The live videos in this link are over a year old. Preferably, GO would be the first link featured on a search. At a minimum, the videos above should be up to date. Given that our goal is to use family values to drive tune in to FOX Sports Wisconsin and increase FOX Sports GO app downloads, we should focus on embedding the following keywords into our website:

• Milwaukee Bucks • Bucks Game Day • Bucks News All the keywords that include “Bucks” are a must. As we • Bucks Roster want to be a top-of-mind association with the team, be- • Bucks Stream ing the first search result would optimize clicks and brand • Bucks Live recall. FOX Sports GO is a streaming service, meaning we • Bucks schedule need to push anything associated with that, such as “live” • Bucks updates and “live streaming.” In addition, as our campaign focuses on family values, family-oriented keywords and “Star of the • Playoffs Week” should be included in campaigns. • All star • Giannis • Giannis Antetokounmpo SEO is one of the most cost-effective methods to increase • Star of the week our audience. It only requires one major overhaul to set-up • Family a strong website. It is also important to maintain the web- • Basketball site afterward and follow SEO trends. If done correctly, it • Fear the Deer can organically bolster the page in search results to higher • Fox Sports GO rankings, which will have a major effect on viewership. • Fox GO

51 Even increasing from a fourth search result to a third raises your chances of being clicked by around 5 percent, and it grows from there as seen in the graph above. In addition, SEO offers our audience the ability to search for and see exactly what they are looking for. For example, if a casual Bucks fan doesn’t have a designated source for score updates, he may search for them on Google, which would offer immediate results. If that were the case, it is important that one of the first websites they see is that of FOX Sports Wisconsin.

Landing Page A landing page is a page you are brought to after clicking on an ad shown in a search engine. Using Google as a search engine, we looked up several phrases of interest to see whether we or our competitors are buying ad space. Phrases included, but were not limited to: • “Best sports channel” Interestingly enough, there was not a single ad. This is • “Best basketball channel” important to note when considering SEM, as discussed • “Fox sports” earlier. In addition, there is a huge potential audience • “NBA schedule” that is not being targeted, and we can be the first. In addition, we can boost our positioning by coming into the • “Bucks news” opportunity with a solid landing page and strong SEM and PPC. Below are examples of a desktop and mobile landing page for a Google text ad.

52 The most important criteria of a landing page is simplicity. It should have little words—no more than a sentence—and be a call to action. This is exactly what our landing page accomplishes. It clearly states where to click. A user only has two options, either stream immediately or get a subscription to be able to stream. It is visual, shows which games are streamable, and what networks support our streaming. In addition, we also added some non traditional networks that support streaming which may be more popular for people without cable.

Furthermore, both of our landing pages are fixed, meaning a user cannot scroll on them.This en- sures that every time it loads, the viewer sees everything right away, and nothing is cut off. While useful on desktop, it is especially helpful on mobile, where scrolling can sometimes not work,or cause images to shift to the right, causing confusion to the user. STREAMING VIDEO

Streaming video includes services such as Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video where a user can load and watch video content with a subscription and an internet service. Once you purchase a subscription, you receive access to shows, movies and more for as long as the subscription provides. For streaming services like Hulu, there are advertisement breaks for each show unless the user pays for an upgrade in his or her account. In this way, it works very much like the network television we are used to. Streaming video is more convenient and efficient that regular networks, mainly because users can choose exactly what they wish to watch and when they wish to watch it — it’s on demand. It is also less expensive than cable television, which is why a younger demographic typically uses this service.

Our target audience of middle-aged fathers believes that their leisure time is decreasing, so they are probably more likely to indulge in activities with their family, such as watching television. Hulu is predominantly used by younger demographics; however, these children may be likely to push their father to view content they can enjoy together. For this campaign, we would recommend that our client not put as much time and money into this platform because our target audience does not generally consume it and is more likely to find entertainment on network television.As discussed earlier, we also know they are likely to still be using a cable subscription. In addition, data from Simmons OneView reported that our target audience still uses network television to watch sports and athletic programming.

53 If we were to run advertisements on any of these platforms, we would choose Hulu because it is well-known to the public and reaches a higher percentage of teens, which could be the children of our target audience. If it reaches the children of our target audience, the chances that our target will see it increase because we know he likes to spend his leisure time with family, watching television. If his family is watching Hulu, he is likely to participate and therefore view the advertisement. Further, children tend to have an influence on their parents purchasing habits.

Timing would be difficult, considering this is a streaming platform; however, it would be most beneficial to place the advertisements after 6 p.m. and before 10 p.m., which is when our target audience has the most available leisure time and is most likely to sit down and watch a show. Additionally, advertisements should be run all through the day in days leading to games to notify the audience when the game is and how it can be viewed. They should also be played during the weekends since we know our target will be around the house and participating in leisurely activities, as well as before playoff season and the regular NBA season when there is already hype.

STREAMING AUDIO

Streaming audio is a platform where users can listen to music, radio and podcasts. It is usually through a subscription to a service and can be accessed through an internet connection. Some- times these platforms have advertisements and others do not—typically the “free” services have advertisements between songs. Streaming audio provides a platform that targets a different demographic than other media content. It can also target people on the go, because audio content can be consumed much more easily while in transit than video content. Further, streaming radio services often play smaller “sets” of commercials than traditional AM/FM radio, meaning there is a greater chance for brand recall.

The best advertisement format for this platform would be audio slipped into the grain of the streaming service Pandora because it seems most similar to radio. We know based on our research that our audience consumes a high amount of radio content, and if we create advertisements that fit into this habit, we will be successful in grasping their attention.

54 Streaming services often cater to the musical and audio content preferences of the individual. Based on this information, we would be able to seek out our target audience based on the audio content they typically consume, such as using a particular station or playlist. According to research conducted on Simmons OneView, our target is most likely to enjoy listening to 60s-70s pop classics, 80s pop/rock and traditional country music. Therefore, we will have the audio ads placed on Pandora radio stations and playlists from these genres.

APPS A main goal of this campaign is to drive more interaction with and increase downloads of our app, FOX Sports GO. Because of this, we know it is important to advertise this service that our brand provides through other apps, so the download process through the App Store or Google Play is more accessible and convenient. Our target audience uses a lot of social media in their leisure time, which we know is accessed through apps. We also know they are more likely to have a second screen up during a game, which could be a phone of sorts, therefore we know they have access to apps while watching television. Additionally, they check the weather and conduct searches, all of which can be used through apps on one’s phone. Knowing this, we acknowledge the importance of tapping into the target’s virtual sphere through this device. One way we will drive awareness of the FOX Sports GO app is through other apps like Insta- gram. One way we can raise awareness is by placing a link to download the app in our biography of our page, which is a free way to give people an easy and convenient opportunity to access it. We will also make sure our website is mobile-friendly on various search engine apps, which will help increase our SEO.

Media Strategies, Prioritization, and Integration

Our advertising will begin the week of September 10th. FSW will have a push on all media the week of February 11th for the 2019 All-Star Game, and again the week of April 1st, right before playoffs begin. Depending on the length of the season, FSW can buy ads through the end of April and in May. Our schedule starts to taper off at the end of April.

Thirty percent of our budget will be used to buy ads on the various social media platforms we are focusing on during this campaign. The use of these ads will boost FOX Sports Wisconsin’s brand awareness on social media, promote the FOX GO app and promote our events. Advertis- ing on all social media platforms will begin the second week of September. To begin by remind- ing our followers of the app as we approach the Buck’s season. These ads will also be used to promote our GO Tailgate at the very first game and our Star of the Week contest. See Social Media Strategy for more details.

Facebook: • We want to increase FSW’s presence on Facebook. FSW will run a Facebook ad campaign for the first eight weeks of the campaign. After that, FSW will advertise every other week until March, when they will buy ads every two weeks because the season will wind down. April and May will be dependent on whether or the Bucks make the playoffs and how far they go. We recommend using videos in the paid ads of highlights from the games, or a video about the app. The ads should be set up to appear on mobile and desktop. FSW should focus the most on Facebook ads because it is highly targeted, so even with Facebook’s algorithm, ads will be able to reach our target audience and increase brand awareness.

Twitter • FSW will start advertising on Twitter the first two weeks of the campaign and every other week after that, in addition to overall strategy stated above. We recommend using the Twitter Ads Campaigns package to advertise on Twitter. This allows FSW to pay for ads with no monthly fee. This will include promoted tweets, call-to-action tweets with a link to the app or one of our events and promoting FSW’s account.

Instagram • Instagram advertising will begin the first three weeks of the campaign and continue with 1-2 sponsored posts each month. We recommend using either the photo or video ad format and not a carousel ad. Instagram won’t be a major focus because we want to increase FSW’s presence on the platform, but it is not essential to our campaign. We would rather focus on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Pinterest • FSW will be using promoted pins to regrow their presence on Pinterest beginning weeks two and three of the campaign, with one ad per month for the rest of the campaign. FSW can pick a pin or video to promote or promote the app on Pinterest. FSW will run ads the first two weeks of January to take advantage of NewYear’s resolutions—a popular time on Pinterest— and again in April when people begin spring cleaning and start having more time to do things around the house and outside with the kids.

Live stream and Youtube • FSW should utilize live streaming. We did not include it on the schedule because it will correspond with the #StaroftheWeek contest and other events. These live streams can be paid to be promoted on Youtube while it is happening. After the live stream, the video will be automatically uploaded to your Facebook page and you can promote this video with Facebook ads.

Twenty percent of our budget will be on display advertising. Starting week one, we will use banner ads, rich media ads and mobile ads. We are making this 20 percent of the budget to drive traffic to FSW’s website and bring awareness to the app. We will be pushing display advertising in October right before the official season begins to get app downloads ahead of time.After that, display advertising will be used two weeks a month as a retargeting strategy. See Display and Native Adver- tising section for more details.

57 Fifteen percent of our budget will be spent on SEO and SEM. We want to make sure there is a continuous advertisement throughout the season for the FOX Sports GO app. Since FSW will pay when users click on the ad, FSW may discontinue the ad if it starts to exceed the budget. See SEO & SEM section for more details. Our audience still actively listens to the radio. FSW will spend 15 percent of the budget to buy ads on Pandora and on traditional AM/FM radio. These ads will begin week two of the campaign with a push at the end of December while the kids are on winter break and again during week 23 for the 2019 All-Star Game.

AM/FM radio • Our target audience still listens to the radio on their way home from work so we will be advertising on this medium more than Pandora. The first half of the campaign we want to advertise on the radio 2 weeks a month and then one a month for the rest. We want to use radio to promote our events, especially the #StaroftheWeek contest. Since these dads are on the go, the radio ad will remind them about the app within their daily lives.

Pandora • FSW will run Pandora ads one week per month for the length of the campaign. There will be an extra week added at the end of December to reach our target who may be traveling or have some extra free time while their kids are home on winter break. The week in February will line up with the All-Star Game.

Ten percent of our budget will be used on native advertising. This is on the lower end of our media strategies and will be used one week in a month, three times throughout the season. Native advertising will be primarily used to promote our #StaroftheWeek and the schedule can be changed to fit when the events take place. We also see this as an opportunity to write a fun article about how well the Bucks are doing and how to watch them on the GO app. See Display and Native Advertising section for more details. Ten percent of our budget will go toward apps. We would like to do this one week a month. We plan to use apps such as weather.com to reach our audience, as well as through social media apps. See app section for more details.

We do not have a set budget allocation for streaming video services. This is something we would recommend to use if the budget allows, but it is not essential to our campaign.

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