1. The Tigers’ Twitter had no specifically sponsored tweets, but it had three posts where it mentioned sponsors or a partnership it had. The Tigers’ Instagram had zero sponsored posts or other content that mentioned its sponsors. Finally, the Tigers’ Facebook had four specifically sponsored posts.
I was very surprised Instagram did not have any sponsored content. Instagram is usually a place where it is easy to monetize content, and the Tigers seem to be missing out on a large opportunity by not monetizing Instagram.
2. On Twitter, there were two posts that mentioned partners during the Coronavirus. The first post thanked fans for supporting Tigers sponsors during this time and featured six Tigers sponsors from the area. The next post thanked McLaren health for their action during the pandemic and said that the Tigers stand with their partner. While the third post was not specifically sponsored, it promoted a sweepstakes for MLB The Show video game, a partner of the MLB and the Tigers.
On Facebook, Camping World sponsored an interview with Matthew Boyd for MLB Network’s 30 teams in 30 days campaign. DTE Energy sponsored a Home Opener sweepstakes, making it a “Save at Home and at the Home Opener” type of campaign. More recently, Comerica Bank sponsored one of the “Tigerflix” throwback posts, and Miller Lite sponsored an insight with Brandon Dixon on one of his walk-off homeruns from last season.
3. Engagement on these posts were typically lower. Facebook posts for the Tigers get around 500 likes on each post and about 40-50 comments. The sponsored posts got a maximum of 343 likes and 46 comments. The Brandon Dixon interview only had 180 likes and 6 comments. On Twitter, the two posts relating to partners and the Coronavirus did not have that much engagement, as the McLaren post only had 99 likes and 18 retweets and the other post had 32 retweets and 214 likes. The MLB The Show post had much more engagement (415 likes, 1,000 retweets) because to enter, participants needed to retweet the tweet.
4. I think the Tigers’ biggest asset is Miguel Cabrera. Across all platforms, content with Miggy (Miggy Mondays, game highlights, etc.) performs better than content without. If I were the Tigers’ sponsors, I would try to place my sponsorship on content with Miggy. For example, the Tigers could have “Miggy Mondays presented by DTE Energy” or something similar. If I were in charge of the Tigers’ social media, I would definitely create more content around Miguel Cabrera as it is the most engaging and has the potential to be the most profitable.
5. Monetizing content with Miguel Cabrera would be the best way for the Tigers to add more monetization opportunities to their social media feed because of the high engagement levels content with his name already has. Again, the Miggy Monday posts are typically pretty successful on Instagram, and that might be a good place to start. Highlights of games also did well from an engagement perspective, and attaching a sponsor onto the game highlights would be another way to easily monetize content.