What Will the NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB Do Now That Vine Has Gone?. Like many of you, I watched and shared “Budweiser 2017 Super Bowl Commercial | ‘Born The Hard Way’” several days before the Big Game. On Oct. 27, 2016, Team Vine and Twitter shared the news that “in the coming months we’ll be discontinuing the mobile app.” Now, if I were a typical journalist, then I would have spent hours and hours of my valuable time poking around the online newsrooms of four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada looking for an official response. Meanwhile, after spending a couple of hours poking around the online newsrooms of the four major professional sports leagues in the US and Canada, I still couldn’t find an official announcement about what the NBA, NFL, NHL, or MLB plans to do now that Vine is dead. And I uncovered a story that hasn’t been reported before: 3 of the 4 major professional sports leagues in the US and Canada are “voting with their feet” by leaving video platforms they do not like or going to video platforms they believe to be more beneficial. It uploaded 15,100 videos to its social video platforms during the 365 days before the Vine announcement stunned video marketers. And during the 100 days after the announcement, the NHL has uploaded 2,039 videos. But, during the 100 days after the announcement, MLB has uploaded 10,100 videos. (Yes, that’s more videos a day than the NBA uploads!). Even before “loops” became an ex-metric, video marketers knew that different video platforms had different definitions of a “view.” Instead, look at where the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB are uploading their videos.
Okay, so everyone knows the Big Game in the NFL, Super Bowl LI, was just held on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017. But, only hockey fanatics know that the NHL All-Star Game was held back on Sunday, Jan. 29. Meanwhile over in MLB, baseball junkies like me know that pitchers and catchers don’t report for spring training until Sunday, Feb. 12. And hoop fans have to wait until Sunday, Feb. 19, before they can watch the NBA All-Star Game. That makes this a “slow week” in the sports calendar, which is precisely why Sports Illustrated invented the Swimsuit Issue – to bridge the week-long gap between major sporting events.
So, what critical data or trends in the digital video marketing business can I deliver to you, the readers of Tubular Insights, during this bye week? Like many of you, I watched and shared “Budweiser 2017 Super Bowl Commercial | ‘Born The Hard Way’” several days before the Big Game. But, it’s really too soon to declare which Super Bowl ad was the winner.
The YouGov BrandIndex waits at least 3 days until after the Super Bowl before reporting which Big Game commercials generated the most buzz, word-of-mouth (WOM), or purchase consideration. And Tubular Labs also waits at least 3 days before reporting which Super Bowl ads that were unveiled during the Big Game got the most views or highest engagement rates. So, what should I write about today?
Well, I told my editor in chief, that I’d be willing to spend hours and hours of my valuable time reviewing all of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit properties on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Vine. (I even double-checked the audience demographics of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit channel on YouTube and was shocked, shocked to find that 89% are male and 76.5% are 18-34 years old. Now, that may be their target audience, but it’s not really ours.) Fortunately, she had a better idea for a story. She asked me to tackle the question, “What will the NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB do now Vine is gone?” Good question. And I’ll bet that a lot of video marketers at media companies, brands and agencies, as well as MCNs are asking themselves, “What should we do now that Vine is gone?” (Now, that’s our target audience, which is why she’s the editor in chief.)
What Should Sports Brands Do Now Vine Has Gone?
So, let’s begin at the ending. On Oct. 27, 2016, Team Vine and Twitter shared the news that “in the coming months we’ll be discontinuing the mobile app.” Now, if I were a typical journalist, then I would have spent hours and hours of my valuable time poking around the online newsrooms of four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada looking for an official response. (Hey, this isn’t an alternative fact. According to a recent media survey by Business Wire, 75% of journalists refer to an online newsroom when researching an organization.)
So, I double-checked and here’s what those journalists would have found:
- On Oct. 27, 2016, Kris Koivisto, the managing editor for the Portland Trail Blazers’ award-winning digital content, wrote, “RIP Vine: Our Favorite Vines over the Years.” Koivisto said, “While it’s never been at the top of anyone’s marketing strategy, Vine has carved out a corner of the market that is loyally dedicated to their craft.” He added, “In the sports world, Vine represented a vehicle to seamlessly consume highlights on Twitter.” Then, he embedded a dozen of his favorite Vine memories.
- On Oct. 29, 2016, Nicole Grazioli of sjsharks.com wrote, “#RIPVine – Paying Tribute to the Expiring Art.” Grazioli said, “Sadly, it’s time to say farewell to the art form. From light saber battles with the Oilers to Brent Burns having a live penguin hop up onto his lap, we shared some good times together, Vine.” Then, she took a look back at some of the best Sharks Vines over time.
- On Nov. 21, 2016, Kevin Patra, an Around the NFL writer, called Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins the “Vine King of the East” after one six-second long looping video featured him saying, “You Like that!,” another featured him saying, “Oooooooh-weeeeeee,” and a third featured him asking, “How you like me now!?” The story goes on the quarterback’s uncertain future, not the video platform’s demise.
- On Jan. 17, 2017, the MLB verified account on Twitter tweeted “We’ll never forget #JoeyFlip. #RIPVine https://vine.co/v/eEdvmvFOj5A.”
The net-net: three out of four of the sports writers may have felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. But, after a single post or tweet, they all went right back to work as if nothing very significant had happened. Heck, they still had a job to do and YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other video platforms were still available to promote their respective sports brands. So, why go into mourning for an extended period of time?
Meanwhile, after spending a couple of hours poking around the online newsrooms of the four major professional sports leagues in the US and Canada, I still couldn’t find an official announcement about what the NBA, NFL, NHL, or MLB plans to do now that Vine is dead. It reminds me of Kenneth Fearing’s poem “Dirge,” which observes sardonically that an “executive type” who’d died would be “Very much missed by the circulation staff of the New York Evening Post; deeply, deeply mourned by the B.M.T.”
In other words, if I were a typical journalist, I would have hit a dead end. But, luckily for you,…
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