Written by Tom Huggins, Co-founder and COO at Greenroom Digital

This past week has been an absolute rollercoaster, so thought I would build on a post my business partner, Nick, put up recently to add my views from the Northern Hemisphere – things are changing every day.

I’ve been in the US since last Monday (9th March), travelling for work and meeting people from CSM’s New York office, along with a number of clients.

What started as a normal week, could not have taken a more massive turn within 3 days where we saw COVID19 take hold, Wall Street has crumbled, offices shut down and turned into a ghost town by the weekend.

We’re in extremely testing times for our industry, almost every sporting and major event has been postponed or cancelled for now (check out this incredible list) and there are stresses on all types of businesses – including ours.

With no sport, or at best it being played behind closed doors, my genuine concern is how many sporting organisations will sustain themselves if this drags on.

Mark Cuban (owner of Dallas Mavericks) is already looking into the financial costs of “financially supporting people who can’t come to work”. Not just the players, but stadium staff, back office employees and team admin.

There are not many sporting organisations who have the support of the likes of Mark Cuban, so I can only imagine what is going through the minds of lesser financially backed sporting organisations.

Projected impacts:

• Fans: there is already a general fear of going outside without a bucket of hand sanitiser and a hazmat suit, but to add salt in the wound we’re going through a recession. Disposable income to spend in and around sporting organisations and major events will become harder to obtain for months.
• Partners: will definitely tighten the purse strings, unless there’s a clear value proposition provided to them. There will be impact to activations at live events, there may be delays in new partnerships being signed off given the economic turmoil – one thing is sure, cutbacks will be felt.
• Sporting organisations: the obvious flow-on effect of the above, with no gate receipts, expenses rising and ongoing staff / players to pay.
• Major events: the list of major events being cancelled is monstrous, and we’re seeing cultural staples like the West End, Broadway, museums, galleries and concerts being closed – in addition to things like SXSW / Geneva International Motorshow and various other events all feeling the impact of losing their audiences.

As much as there is huge uncertainly in this market, as we’ve never seen this combination of factors before – we all need to accept the situation and the importance of keeping healthy, while trying to outthink some of these challenges.

Greenroom is not a big business, and we’re already impacted due to events potentially being postponed or cancelled and brands not willing to invest in new methods in a time of uncertainty. BUT all we know we can do is to keep thinking creatively to solve our problems – because we don’t have the luxury of throwing resources at this until it goes away.

Sporting organisations have to think the same way. They need to do approach things differently, and by doing so could help them become more sustainable and ride this wave of uncertainty and come out the other end stronger than ever.

While we work through our own scenarios, I believe there are some actions that can be taken by the industry to make sure we progress during this time.

Sporting Organisation / Events / Sponsorship Rights Holders: an unprecedented scenario highlights the importance of really understanding your audience. With events delayed / cancelled or played behind closed doors the importance of owning rather than renting your audiences is so critical. Those that do (and we’re not counting social as an owned audience), will have future-proofed their business and give them the ability to thrive after the market returns and use technical innovations to drive fan engagement and understanding.

• Short term – this could look like innovative AI driven communication platforms to keep supporters informed, like Satisfi Labs to help take the burden off your staff.
• Longer term – there needs to be a greater focus on taking your audience from social, and into your control to provide them with more valuable experiences, from you and your partners.

Brands & Partners: now might not be the best time to launch a sales offensive through partnerships, but it is a great time to use partnerships to connect with your audience and nurture until we are resume normal programming. You have access to incredible IP, ability to tell a story and ability to generate insights on what is important to your audience – all through your existing rights available via partnerships. Now is the time to pivot.

Agencies (big, small, old or new): we have to use this time to reassess our value proposition and look to build in efficiencies to keep the head above water. Be it refined offerings, technological efficiencies in delivering work or just ensuring we continue delivering results – market challenges like this need us and our employees to be adapt.

Most importantly, this is a health issue and keeping all our team members safe is of paramount importance. The majority of us will be working from remotely as a precaution, but this is a chance to take the time to think creatively to find solutions to a new set of problems, as inaction will be more damaging for the industry.

Stay safe, take care of others and look forward to the industry coming out the other side stronger than ever