ESPN
Young Football Fans: How ESPN Scores with the Next Generation.
Case Information
ESPN aimed to reach young football fans with relevant content. Blauw researched how children experience football and which formats engage them. This provided concrete building blocks for content that better suits their viewing behaviour and preferences.
The Challenge
Why Young Football Fans Require a Different Approach.
How do you get young football fans excited about your brand today?
This question was central for ESPN. With the ‘Voetbalpraatjes’ (Football Chats) programme, ESPN took a first step towards children and families. At the same time, ESPN saw a greater opportunity: building a strong relationship with the next generation of football fans.
Therefore, ESPN wanted to better understand what engages, inspires, and brings children back for more. What content suits their viewing habits? Which stories feel relevant? And how can a children’s format contribute to long-term brand preference?
The Challenge
Retaining attention in a world full of stimuli.
Children are accustomed to fast, immediately rewarding content and effortlessly switch between screens. For ESPN, the challenge wasn’t just attracting attention, but remaining relevant. For them, football revolves around action, recognisable players, humour, and challenges, which demands a specific format.
The Approach
Mapping the world of young football fans.
Blauw delved into the lives of young football fans. Through duo interviews with children and their parents, we explored viewing habits and preferences. A unique assignment to draw their ideal football programme made their expectations concrete, offering direct insight into what truly engages them.
“The interviews with children yielded surprising and clear insights. We now understand much better which stories, formats, and content pace appeal to young football fans. That gives us confidence to develop content that truly resonates with children and connects them to ESPN.”
<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">The Result
Concrete Building Blocks for Successful Content.
The research provided ESPN with clear direction for developing football content for children. Interviews revealed the stories, formats, and pace that appeal to young football fans. This resulted in concrete building blocks for content that better connects with children and families.
Impact of the Result
How the insight led to action.
Developing content more targeted for young football fans.
Adapt stories, formats, and pace based on concrete insights to ensure content aligns with their lived experience.
Secure relevance for new generations.
Use insights not only for children’s programmes but also for the broader ambition to remain relevant to tomorrow’s demographic.
Building long-term brand preference.
Create content that is watched more often and aligns better with the brand by integrating elements like dynamism, visual action, and recognisable football heroes.
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TakeAway
How do you research what content appeals to young football fans?
You research this by letting children tell, choose, react, and create themselves. In this case, Blauw combined duo interviews with creative assignments, such as drawing an ideal football programme. This quickly reveals which ideas fit their world.
What does qualitative research with children yield?
Qualitative research with children shows how they think, talk, and make choices. It provides language, examples, and ideas often missed in figures. For content development, this is valuable because it shows which formats, stories, and moments resonate.
Why is content research important for brands like ESPN?
Content research helps brands understand how viewing behaviour changes. Young audiences grow up with short videos, streaming, and social media. Therefore, a brand needs to know what content grabs attention, what role the brand plays, and how a format can contribute to loyalty.
WHAT’S BEHIND YOUR NUMBERS?
Do you want to know what content resonates with your target audience and keeps them coming back? Contact us. We’ll show you how Blauw helps to make viewing behaviour, content preferences, and brand impact concrete.
