It’s that time of year again! Yep, just when you thought summer was here along comes the nation’s favourite winter sport, football. For newspapers this means one thing, Fantasy Football, and the chance to re-engage with young males who may have stopped buying the paper or stopped visiting the paper’s website during the long hot football-free summer.
Not only does Fantasy Football encourage young males who may otherwise pick up a free paper to buy a paper like The Telegraph or Sun on a weekly basis but it also incentivises them to visit the website to track their teams and make changes enabling the paper to commercial every visit. Many players in fact will never engage with a brand like the Telegraph unless it was through their fantasy games.
But it’s not for the fainthearted; The Times failed to relaunch their game last year in the face of fierce competition from the market leading Telegraph and Sun and have stuck with their more sophisticated Play the Game game this year. The Sun have a prize pool of £1m, The Star a measly £50k, The Telegraph £110k and the Mirror £150k and the Mail make a half hearted attempt with a platy £50k prize pool.
There are various gimmicks on board too, 2:1’s and free games versus paid for’s fuel the debate about how to make money from this loyalty driving interactive passion. May the best game win!
