Are sports marketers really in shape to make the most of the London 2012 Olympic legacy?

To give a snapshot of current sports participation levels, here are some key statistics from the latest Sport England Active People Survey for the 12 months up to April 2012. (Sport England defines regular participation for adults aged 16+ as playing sport once a week for at least half an hour):

- 15.3 million people participated in sport at least once a week during the 12-month period. This compares to 14 million people between 2005 and 2006.

- The number of women participating is increasing, but they are still not as active as men. Some 8.7 million men (41.3%) participated once a week compared to 6.6 million (30.3%) women.

- Younger people are participating more than older age groups - 54.1% of young people aged 16 to 25 participated once a week compared to 32.1% of adults aged 26 and over.

We can infer from these figures that a large part of the population remains inactive. Many barriers to entry are obvious: for example, lack of time, lack of confidence and taking up sport being seen as too expensive. So what can sports organisations - and other partners involved in the marketing and delivery of physical activity, such as local authorities and healthcare providers - do to get people to act differently?

Too often the sports sector has been guilty of overdosing on competitive spirit, failing to work in partnership to attract more people to try sport in general and using a one-size-fits-all approach to increase participation in sport and physical activity. If we want to change people’s behaviour and get more people taking part in sport, we need to adopt a systematic behaviour change process that asks and answers four key questions:

1. What behaviour are we trying to change?

For example, are we trying to encourage people who already play sport infrequently to play more, or are we encouraging those who are currently inactive to start participating?

2. Who is the audience?

We need to be brave enough to be specific. Campaigns aimed at behaviour change often try to be all inclusive and fail to achieve real change amongst anyone. It sounds obvious, but a programme aimed at young people would have different messages to persuade them to act than communications aimed at older people. David Cameron has been clear that his priority is the next generation and has inferred that the solution is a “big culture change” towards sport in schools with a return to “competitive ethos”. But should we just focus on young people or is there a wider opportunity? The stats certainly seem to suggest this focus is too narrow.

3. What is the motivation of the target audience?

Many examples of existing sports marketing focus on glory, success and competition as key motivators. Indeed, David Cameron believes that increased competition in schools will motivate young people to participate. But is this really what will motivate young people? Colin Moynihan, Chairman of the British Olympic Association, disagrees, saying many young people do not want to play competitive sport, not should they have too. Similarly, Jessica Ennis has said: “you don’t want to be too competitive at the start, it’s just about enjoyment”. Until we ask young people themselves, it’s hard to know what message to lead with - and the motivations of other population segments are likely to be different again.

4. What interventions will the target audience respond to?

Understanding which groups will respond to what type of intervention is vital. Is more competition in school the answer for young people, or is it perhaps informal sporting opportunities provided in communities, to name just one alternative? Only once we have completed all the previous stages can we design and deliver solutions and therefore know how to market them effectively to ensure messages are relevant, targeted and capable of engaging our target audience and motivating them to act.

Ultimately, it’s all about putting the customer at the heart of generating solutions.

There are many instances of good and bad sports marketing that either exemplify or eschew the customer insight-led process outlined above. My local gym springs to mind for the latter. On a recent visit I noticed posters screaming ‘Join our club!’ – a generalised sales message that begs the question: why should I? And why is the poster not outside the gym to attract people who aren’t already members?

A good sports participation campaign example is the Sport England Sport Makers programme. Launched in 2011, it set out to find 40,000 brand new volunteers to help make sports happen at a local level throughout this Olympic year. The campaign was clearly targeted at particular segments, led with messages aligned to motivations to act, and clearly stated the behaviour sought and the intervention to achieve that behaviour. More than 30,000 people have now signed up. Puma's recent advertising campaign, ‘The After Hours Athlete’, focussing on the majority of ‘unsung heroes’ who just want to have fun playing sport, rather than the elite athletes or ‘sports warriors’ so often featured in traditional sports marketing, is another fine piece of customer-led, insight-informed targeted marketing in action.

Sports marketing approaches that try to be all things to all people might be easier, simpler and cheaper to deliver but it’s a false economy: this approach will only succeed in engaging those who are already motivated to participate in sport and will miss the bigger opportunity that behaviour change marketing approaches provide to affect a long-term shift in sports participation.

If we could achieve a rise in the Active People Survey figures over the coming year by changing marketeers’ approaches to delivering campaigns aimed at increasing participation in sport - and see that increase sustained - that really would be an Olympic legacy for us to be proud of.

Hazel Wilkinson is director of insight and social marketing at sustainable behaviour change agency Corporate Culture