Why U.S. sports teams like the Chicago Bulls are betting on international audiences for growth

“Basketball is such a global game, a quarter of the NBA players are actually born outside the U.S. now,” said Luka Dukich, vp of content for the Chicago Bulls. “The Bulls are uniquely positioned for international fan bases. Across all social media followers, we have 45 million fans. That’s more than the other Chicago professional sports teams have combined. The difference is the international fan base.” (On Instagram specifically, the Bulls have 10.1 million followers. Chicago’s eight other professional teams have a combined following of 7.3 million.)

The Bulls aren’t alone in looking to foster this kind of growth — and eventually monetize it — with international fanbases. Social accounts in other languages represents just one approach to achieve this, according to brand consultants. Other approaches that could help teams grow their international audiences include partnering with popular international players in addition to U.S. stars (think Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi playing for MLS team Inter Miami) and regularly playing games abroad (one example of this is the National Hockey League’s Global Series).

Roughly 70% of the 45 million social media users who follow the Bulls come from outside the U.S., noted Dukich, who added that “a huge percentage” are Spanish speaking fans and that the team is looking to build a “deeper connection” with those fans now. The team is leaning on Instagram to grow its international audience because the platform is “consistent across marketers whereas TikTok was a bit less consistent country to country,” explained Dukich, adding that the team may explore TikTok more in the future.

Growing international audiences online is a potential gateway for the Bulls to score international brand deals. “We think there’s a huge opportunity for brand partnerships [with] international brands,” said Dukich. “That’s definitely part of the long-term strategy. You want to build connections with audiences, give them experiences, build that fan funnel. That’s a huge part of our strategic priority as a club. Finding brand partners activating in the space, actually showing up in some of these communities physically, especially with kind of brand partners is a big goal of ours.”

While the Bulls haven’t yet inked any official international brand partnerships, the expectation is that such partnerships eventually will pay dividends for the team. That line of thinking has become more commonplace among U.S. sports teams, according to brand consultants, who say they have worked with or consulted for U.S. teams in recent years as they seek to grow their audiences abroad. Overall, there’s a recognition from U.S. teams and leagues that, specifically, the growth of soccer and F1 fanbases in the U.S. in recent years has helped those sports broaden their revenue streams, the brand consultants said. Following in the footsteps of soccer and F1, U.S. teams and leagues in other sports can potentially do the same outside of the U.S. by fostering growth of those same global audience, they said.

“You might have a small percentage of fans in each country or region interested but when you amplify that or multiply that by every country in the world, you have big groups of people who are coming together to support,” said Malcolm Buick, chief creative officer and partner at Athletics NYC, a brand studio that has worked with Major League Soccer in the U.S. “For leagues and teams in the States, I think what they’re starting to see is [the opportunity with audiences abroad].”

This push has been a slow-burning trend that’s continuing to gain steam. “We participated in a [request for proposals] in 2018 for one of the top three U.S. leagues; it was a global research program to help craft the vision for the next gen digital fan experience,” said Chris Mele, managing partner at innovation consultancy Siberia. “[They were] thinking about it through the lens of international markets, how those fans consume the product — the on-court product — and then interact with athletes, teams, all the different things that are involved. [This trend] seems to be growing exponentially the last few years.”

“You have to go market by market,” explained Seb Tomich, chief commercial officer of The Athletic, when asked about the approach and the potential for brand partners for teams and leagues looking to grow global audiences. “The more that the leagues can create one unified approach to bring all those fans together vis a vis a live broadcast from an outside market or a social media channel that is now reaching fans across the globe when before it was prominent in the U.S. then for marketers it becomes a much easier way to tap into one growing fan base all at once.”

The changing nature of viewership habits has also helped sports leagues and teams in their push to become more global brands. “The rise of digital, especially connected TV, is a powerful catalyst for sports organizations to act as truly global brands,” Jim Misener, CEO of 50,000feet, wrote in an email. “The future of sports globally will be capitalizing on the star power of individual athletes’ personal brands with the strength of an organization’s global reach and recognition.”

Aside from the potential revenue opportunities that come with global brand partners, the Bulls’ Spanish language account is also an example of brands recognizing more multicultural audiences, which are more common with younger generations.

“If you look at the U.S. from a generational point of view, if you look at millennials and Gen Z today, 50% of those are multicultural and then of those, the majority are Hispanic,” said Renee Lavecchia, executive director at VML Miami, adding that the addition of Spanish-language social accounts as well as campaigns and planning are a reflection of brands’ need to speak to these audiences who are bilingual and bicultural. “Clients want to start to future-proof their brands for these audiences.”