We Surveyed 50,674 Americans. This Is What Brings Them Together
By Jim Caruso
"We Surveyed 50,674 Americans. This Is What Brings Them Together." (The New York Times)
Midterms are less than four weeks away, with Thanksgiving three weeks after. After the 2016 election, a study tracking 10 million Americans found that people who spent Thanksgiving with family from the opposite party cut their visits short by 30 to 50 minutes. Researchers from Harvard Kennedy School and Fox Sports asked a different question: what if a football game could keep the family together a little longer? After surveying 50,674 Americans, they found that every fan base they looked at in MLB, the NFL, and even top college football teams was politically mixed. Among Titans and Jaguars fans, the NFL's most conservative fan bases, Republicans outnumber Democrats only two to one, and the split flips for the Chargers and Giants, its most progressive. In their experiments, when people learned that someone from the other party cheered for the same team, they felt warmer toward them, about as much as if they shared a religion.
The next eight weeks bring the World Series, the prime stretch of the NFL season, and college football rivalry and playoff positioning, all competing with campaign ads and holiday campaigns for the same screens. For brands, this is a jarring, sometimes fraught, and certainly expensive time frame to juggle these competing messages at once and vie for consumer attention.
Inside EPIC
Football fans don't sort neatly by party, but they do stand out in other ways. Using EPIC's consumer insights platform, I compared football fans to the general US 18+ population to see where they over-index on who they are, what they buy, what they watch, and what they follow.
A few things stood out:
1 Football fans are 24% more likely than US adults to own stocks and bonds.
2 About 1 in 8 football fans bought a new vehicle, compared with 1 in 10 US adults.
3 Football fans are 35% more likely than US adults to be interested in the ESPN TV network.
4 1 in 5 football fans have an affinity for ESPN Sports' YouTube channel, compared with 1 in 10 US adults.
5 Football fans are 81% more likely than US adults to have a social media affinity for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
6 More than 1 in 3 football fans have a social media affinity for baseball, compared with fewer than 1 in 4 US adults.
Football remains one of the few places brands can reach both sides of the aisle at once, and it's a valuable audience. These fans invest, buy new cars, and follow sports well beyond Sunday and the TV screen.
Consumer Corner: What I'm Into This Week
Listening: Out Of The Blue: A Michigan Sports Podcast
After a second straight loss, the Out of the Blue crew say what every Michigan fan is thinking.
Watching: Football, Football, and more Football
Michigan has a bye this weekend, so I'm gearing up for Penn State in Ann Arbor on October 17. Despite recent losses, it is always Go Blue in our household. I'm keeping an eye on the NFL slate and rooting for Elevate client, Manchester United, in person this week in the UK.
Eating: Pasta all'Amatriciana
One of the four classic Roman pastas, Pasta all'Amatriciana is made with guanciale, tomato, and pecorino Romano. I cook Italian at home a lot, and this is the one I make for family and guests. It has only a handful of ingredients, so it is simple, delicious, and works for everyone at the table. When I'm in London this week, I'll be trading pasta for pizza at Napoli on the Road, recently named the world's best pizzeria.
