Whether it be on or off the field in sports, we’re all trying to out do one another. Let’s face it, we wouldn’t be in business if we weren’t, we’re here to compete and to win.

One of the most competitive parts of sports is the marketing behind the teams. How can fans be reached, without feeling like they’re being put under a full court press of advertising? “Selling your ideas, not your tickets” is a blog post that tries to encourage those in the business of sports, and in particular ticket sales, to focus on events or trends in the greater community, and less on the ticket you are selling. In the article Josh talks about how we can sell ideas first, and then tickets. I’m going to take it one step further, I’m going to try and tell you can we can sell trends first, and then tickets.

Ask around the general populous of the web, and what do people want? Multimedia. Whether it’s a podcast, a video or a flickr stream, people want to interact with things, they’re done with words. Aside from Google, YouTube is the world’s largest search engine and data taken from March of this year shows that there is now 24 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.

The tribe has spoken, they want video.

So, getting back to sports, can we now sell our tickets via video? The video below is about Australian rugby player James O’Connor. James is an up and coming star in the game of rugby, so much so I highlighted him as Rugby’s player to watch this decade. The video is essentially a two minute profile video, but whenever you interact with the video and click within it you are able to choose from either A) A bio of James or B) Purchase tickets to an upcoming series of games the Australian team is playing in.

To start, click the video below. Some ad blocking services such as AdBlock Plus will block the following video, you may need to open Internet Explorer to view it

We’ve long tried to figure out the most effective way to sell tickets to fans. In the early 2000’s, StubHub completely changed the way the US sports fan purchased tickets, as it gave them the power to fans to sell their own tickets to other fans. StubHub were so popular, eBay quickly swooped in and snapped up the company. With their success, StubHub quickly saw copy-cats enter the industry and now the fan has a wide variety of options where they can buy their tickets from.

For James O’Connor and rugby fans alike, this video could certainly go viral, leading to further sales. I wrote an earlier post on viral video as this seems to be another trend for businesses in raising awareness of their brand, whilst allowing consumers not feel like they’re constantly being pitched.

As we look to new ways to innovate the industry, and try and outdo one another, could in-video ticket sales be the new answer?