Increasingly More College Football Fans Watch the Game from their Tailgate

In order to analyze tailgating behavior during the 2017 College Football opening weekend, we put our Geo-Fencing with Event Targeting solution to work. We created event targeting fences around the main tailgating spots for five college games and analyzed the number of mobile users entering the fence during specific times.

Interestingly, the number of mobile users in the tailgating zones remained strong during game times, sometimes increasing in number. For the Sunday night game of WVU vs. Virginia Tech, the number of mobile users in pre-determined tailgating lots peaked the night before the game. For most of the other games, peak numbers were seen leading up to and during the game.

College football is extremely popular and some of the games we tracked were even sold out (such as Florida State vs Alabama). It became increasingly obvious that some fans who are not able to get tickets may still want to experience gameday with friends or family and stay in the area during the game. Not to mention, at schools that allow this behavior, it’s also common for fans to leave the stadium during halftime and continue tailgating – all increasing mobile usage in tailgating zones during, before and after the game.

As video content is easier to access than ever before, many college games are now live streamed online and fans in the tailgating lots during the game can watch it on their mobile device or tablet. More people are “cutting the cord,” moving away from cable TV and are comfortable with streaming content on connected devices, such as Apple TV, in order to watch the game right from their tailgate spot.

This concentration of highly engaged football fans presents a prime opportunity for marketers. Fans are likely surfing the web and checking their favorite mobile apps during the game and commercial breaks. In order for marketers and brands to multiply the ROI on their mobile campaigns and effectively reach football fans, there are two things they need to look for:

1. Ability to reach potential customers at precise locations.

2. Ability to achieve granularity with audiences by targeting specific date and time windows to capture relevant potential customers.

Simpli.fi’s Geo-Fencing with Conversion Zones and Event Targeting solutions allows marketers to target potential customers on their mobile device at specific locations at a grand, yet precise scale using unstructured data. Advertisers can gain an understanding about how their mobile ad campaigns drive incremental foot traffic into physical locations. They can also target potential customers during pre-determined time windows, serving them ads on their mobile devices while they are at a specific location and even up to 30 days after.

For more information about how to use Event Targeting in your next campaign, email us at hi@simpli.fi.

See the infographic below for all the findings of our college football opening weekend analysis.