Sport in Times of Crisis, with Matt Readman

Neil Wilkins Podcast

Matt Readman, chief strategy officer of Omicom-owned sports creative agency Dark Horses has just launched a new report called Sport in Times of Crisis. This is a comprehensive look at modern sport and brands through the lens of three of the most prevalent issues facing the planet and consumers - Politics, Cost of Living and Climate. It gives brand owners, insights, learnings and advice, on how to not only understand sport better through that lens, but also how to use it to build their businesses.

Some of the key learning for brands are:

1. Sport is not automatically a force for good despite what we’re often told. It can divide, control, abuse and exploit.

2. Sport doesn’t have to be just a branding exercise that slowly changes opinion over time.

Sport can be used strategically in the short-term to directly change behaviour.

3. Sport is inherently connected to politics, the question is not whether sport should be political, but who controls the politics in sport. If brands are not in charge of their political message in sport, someone else is.

4. Politics is not a safe space where brands can be blindly neutral. The idea that by not acting you can’t offend anyone no longer exists. Brands need to be clearer than ever on why they’re in sport and what they’re trying to achieve. If they don’t have this clarity it’s very easy to get swept up in someone else’s narrative.

5. Stand for something not next to something. Be clear as to why you are using sport. If you are merely badging a property, you are at risk of your brand being hijacked by someone else’s story.

6. Sport can be a platform for your brand to help combat climate change. Brands can capture people’s attention in a way that inspires hope, not shocks them into fear.

Politics - There are many who argue that sport and politics shouldn’t mix. In truth, sport and politics are intertwined. They are impossible to separate as long as we play national anthems and fly jets over stadiums, or indeed we continue to support teams that represent our local identity. Brands, whether wittingly or not, are partially responsible for this rise in politically charged athletes.

Climate - We know the importance of the fight against climate change and sport is once again intertwined with it. Firstly, because sport is a victim of climate change. Sporting events are being cancelled or disrupted at both a professional and grassroots level. Sport isn’t just a victim of climate change however, it is a contributor. It is estimated that sporting events alone create 30m tonnes of CO2 a year, that’s about the same as Denmark. This doesn’t include travel around the events, just the events themselves. But Sport also has the potential to be part of the solution. Sport is a platform that can still generate a huge collective audience watching the same thing at the same time.

Cost of Living - The destabilised political landscape has made the cost of living crisis more painful. This crisis is affecting people in different ways and we are seeing a breakdown in customer experience across travel, hospitality, health and utilities. As economic hardship increases the gap between those who can access sport regularly and those who can’t continue to grow. At the moment, sport has the power to deepen regional and socioeconomic divides and can worsen the inequality we see in the cost of living crisis.

https://darkhorses.com/