SportsDay wanted to position their brand as the superior resource for local sports news and insight. It’s a claim that SportsDay could own; The editorial team had just won their 25th Triple Crown from the Associated Press Sports Editors, making them the most highly-decorated team in the U.S., and the newsroom has more journalists covering more Texas sports than any other competitor. It’s a great claim, but we knew we couldn’t thump our chest and announce this, so we studied our audience. SportsDay’s print plus digital target was 25-54 males (35-year old sweet spot, and some of the things they told us in focus groups were:

“I like SportsDay, but all sports news resources are the same.”

“I watch ESPN, The Bleacher Report and local TV so I can to uphold my expert status as a Texas sports fan.”

“I’m completely turned off by advertising that doesn’t speak to my personality.”

THE SOLUTIONS

We created a campaign that positioned SportsDay as the only sports resource that can help you keep your “expert” status. We made our accolades relevant to the target with one line that flipped the conversation: Speak like an expert.

Print, digital and social hit the market to spread the word. The insider tone of voice was lighthearted and written to appeal to sports fanatics.

In addition, we purchased digital boards throughout D-FW to share breaking news at out of home locations. SportsDay literally gave drivers expert information as they drove to their water coolers at work.

THE RESULTS

After viewing the campaign, focus groups told us that the SportsDay experts helped them speak like experts. Hooray! Success followed in digital with 12,500 local unique visitors to SportsDayDFW.com, plus a #1 Comscore ranking. And how ’bout this: We had an increase in page views from 2.6 million to 3.3 million YOY, an increase of about 29%.