Welcoming the new season in the football competition, major European football teams, already possessing global reputations and fan bases, are devising various strategies to attract and engage with the younger market. With the emergence of the younger demographic Gen Z, there has been a drastic shift in how they interact with and consume sports content.
A recent study by Morning Consult on sports interest indicates that Gen Z is less inclined to watch and attend competitive sports events live compared to previous generations. Another study by YouGov confirms this decreasing engagement is becoming more prevalent among Gen Z.
This generation prefers platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok as their primary sources for consuming popular sports. They get most of their sports highlights and content directly from social media.
Short-Form Content Consumption Behavior
Gen Z, born and raised online, spends more time on their phones in ‘timepass mode,’ according to a recent study by Jigsaw. This generation tends to interact with light content to avoid boredom.
The shortening attention span among Gen Z viewers makes watching a full 90-minute football match seem tedious. They prefer watching short-form sports content on social media. This is highlighted in the study titled ‘Engaging Sports Fans & Gen Z’, which was conducted by One Poll among 600 sports fans aged 18-26.
During a recent preseason tour, while major teams like Real Madrid, Chelsea, and Manchester City visited the United States, Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich chose South Korea.
They invited the popular K-pop group New Jeans, known for their catchy songs and cute performances in the digital world. The group performed and made a ‘cameo’ appearance before the match against the English team Tottenham Hotspur.
A viral TikTok clip featured the five members of New Jeans kicking the ball from the center of the pitch, surrounded by Bayern Munich and Tottenham players, accompanied by cheers from the stadium crowd.
Meanwhile, their closest rival, Dortmund, which boasts a massive ultra-fan base in Germany, chose Japan as their preseason tour destination. To welcome the new season, Dortmund’s social media team posted content featuring Dortmund players interacting with the character Monkey D. Luffy and elements from the popular manga One Piece at Universal Studios in Tokyo.
This content went viral among Gen Z and attracted engagement from anime fans worldwide in the comment section of Dortmund’s official social media accounts.