Smarter content.
Deeper engagement.
Better outcomes.

Last week, the Amondo team joined sports, media, and brand leaders at Leaders Week London. It was a busy few days of sharp ideas, honest debates, and one clear message for everyone in the industry: fandom is shifting.

Fans don’t just follow anymore. They expect to take part. They switch between platforms, creators, and moments that feel real. Athletes are becoming media brands themselves, and data only matters when it helps you connect.

In this post, we dive into four lessons we took away from Leaders Week and share what they mean for how sport can stay relevant in a world where culture moves faster than ever.

1. Your fans are the foundation

Across panels from World Netball to UEFA, one point kept coming up: growth depends on building genuine relationships with your fans. They’re no longer a passive audience. Knowing who they are, what they value, and how they engage is now your biggest competitive advantage because it underpins long-term commercial growth.

That’s why grassroots still matter. It’s where participation starts and lifelong fandom grows. The organisations leading the way stay close to their communities and encourage fans to create and share, and use those insights to guide global storytelling.

This came through especially strongly in conversations around women’s sport, which is reshaping fandom entirely. Research from Wasserman Collective found that 72% of women globally now identify as avid sports fans (up 10% in three years), and women drive 75% of household purchasing decisions.

For rights holders, that creates both an opportunity and a challenge. A growing audience with real spending power is emerging. But, they expect representation and relevance. The stories that resonate are grounded in real fan experiences: women attending matches, sharing their excitement, and showing what belonging looks like. When fans see people like themselves in the stands and on screen, they’re more likely to join in and invest their time, energy, and money.

When fans feel seen, they show up. They participate, spend, and bring new fans with them – growing the sport and its commercial value. Fan-generated content makes this connection tangible. It reminds people why they care, strengthens loyalty, and drives measurable revenue.

At Amondo, we see this every day. When rights holders and brands integrate fan-generated content into their storytelling, even simple CTAs (like linking to merch pages) perform better – with click-through rates far higher than on standard landing pages. That’s because people see themselves in the story, and they trust that investing in the sport is worth it.

2. Athlete storytelling is a growth engine

Our next takeaway from Leaders Week was that athletes are no longer part of the story – they are the story. 

The Women’s Rugby World Cup proved this. Players’ voices and narratives went beyond the matches, creating connection and engagement that no campaign could match. 

Fans connect with honesty and individuality. Seeing content directly from players brings them closer to the team and the sport. It breaks down barriers, showing athletes as people – relatable, driven and human. That relatability builds lasting loyalty. 

And the numbers back it up. Athlete-led social media posts from the tournament generated over 219 million views, amplifying reach far beyond traditional broadcast. 

These figures show that athlete storytelling isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a growth driver. Rights holders that bring player-led storytelling into their owned channels see real returns – from higher engagement and ticket sales to stronger sponsorship ROI and deeper fan relationships.

3. Sport is competing for attention

We also learned that sport isn’t just competing with other sports anymore. It’s competing with everything – music, fashion, film, gaming and social media. 

Holding someone’s full attention for 90 minutes is rare. People scroll, stream, and switch constantly. That’s not a threat; it’s an opportunity to rethink how sport shows up.

Panels from Manchester City, FIFA, and Unilever all made the same point: the smartest organisations treat sport as part of culture, not separate from it. They don’t expect fans to come to them. They meet fans where they already are. That means short-form stories, highlights, and behind-the-scenes content that feel natural on the platforms fans use every day.

When sport shows up in the same spaces as fashion and music, it becomes part of the cultural conversation. And when moments are shareable, they live far beyond match day.

At Amondo, we help our partners capture that energy – turning live moments and fan reactions into stories that keep the spotlight burning long after the final whistle.

4. From content to connection

The next big lesson from Leaders Week was that sport can’t rely on reach alone. It’s not just about getting fans to engage – it’s about owning where and how that engagement happens.

Too much of the fan relationship still lives on third-party platforms. Those platforms collect the data, control the interaction, and benefit from the insight that rights holders actually need. The result? They hold the value, while sports lose visibility over their own audiences.

The organisations leading the way are taking that relationship back. They’re building owned ecosystems where they control the fan journey (from discovery to conversion) and can see exactly what drives participation, purchase, and retention.

World Netball’s direct-to-consumer platform, NetballPass, was a standout example discussed at Leaders Week. It connects live content, storytelling and commerce all in one place – giving fans real reasons to subscribe and return. By owning that relationship, World Netball isn’t just generating revenue. It’s collecting insight that fuels better content, smarter partnerships, and sustainable growth.

Social platforms still matter for discovery. YouTube and TikTok are where fans often find the story. But the real value comes when you bring them into your own ecosystem – a space where you can personalise, reward loyalty, and build connection that lasts.

Sport’s next phase of growth isn’t about producing more content. It’s about creating spaces that fans choose to return to. And owning the data that makes those experiences smarter every time.

The future is human

Leaders Week made one thing clear: fandom is evolving fast. Fans don’t just want access. They want to participate, connect, and feel part of the story.

The sports and brands leading that change aren’t chasing numbers. They’re building meaning. They understand that growth comes from depth – from giving fans, athletes, and partners space to contribute, not just consume.

From grassroots to global stages, the opportunity now is to connect every layer of the fan experience. To turn fleeting engagement into long-term loyalty. To make sport feel as alive off the pitch as it does on it.

At Amondo, that’s what drives us. We help rights holders and brands capture the moments, voices, and reactions that matter and turn them into stories that live on their own platforms. Stories that fans see themselves in. Stories that last and drive commercial impact.

Because fandom isn’t about more content. It’s about connection that means something, both for your audience and your business.

At Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball 2024, Global and Barclaycard set out to do more than create a moment – they wanted to activate fans in a way that made behaviour visible, measurable and actionable.

Attendees were invited to interact through live, interactive branded content experiences displayed on the on-stage screens at The O2 in London.

What could have remained a passive social interaction was transformed into a live, in-stadium experience, bringing fan content together and making attendees feel part of the moment by allowing them to see themselves on stage.

At the same time, Barclaycard became a natural part of the fan experience, with branding built into the activity so the focus stayed on fan participation while generating useful first-party data for future marketing.

The partnership was built around three clear pillars: activating audiences through interactive formats, capturing real behaviour, and being able to connect that behaviour to outcomes.

Using Amondo’s content intelligence platform, real-time interaction behaviour was captured at scale — creating clear behavioural signals that showed what resonated with fans.

A long-standing partnership with live music

One of the UK’s biggest live music events, Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball — organised by Global – brings together global artists and thousands of fans around a shared cultural moment.

As headline sponsor since 2020, Barclaycard has played a central role in enhancing the fan experience, from pre-sale ticket access to VIP benefits. 

With a newly extended five-year partnership with Global, Barclaycard sought to go further — moving from presence to participation and from visibility to behavioural insight.

Amondo’s content intelligence platform became central to that shift, enabling Barclaycard to activate fan interaction, capture how audiences actually behaved, and turn those signals into clarity on what worked – not just at Jingle Bell Ball 2024, but for future events to come.

Designing a real-time interaction layer for live audiences

With thousands of fans interacting live from The O2, Global and Barclaycard required a solution that could capture, structure and surface real-time audience behaviour.

Rather than relying on time-consuming manual processes, they needed a fast, dynamic platform that could:

• Capture audience interaction across multiple entry points
• Ensure brand-safe, moderated content appears on-screen instantly
• Integrate Barclaycard branding natively within interaction formats
• Deliver a high-energy, interactive experience that makes fans active participants and feel part of the experience

Amondo provided a fully integrated interaction layer that transformed distributed fan attention into a live, on-stage experience. 

Fans were invited to submit photos and videos of themselves enjoying the concert, which were then brought on stage in real time, placing the audience at the heart of the show rather than around it.

Turning live audience interaction into measurable behaviour

Amondo’s content intelligence platform pulled fan interactions – such as photos and videos – into one place through QR codes and easy-to-use web forms, to create a measurable, interactive experience:

• Unifying interaction - Amondo brought fan contributions together by letting attendees upload photos and videos directly using a QR code and a simple web form, making it easy for everyone to take part.
• Custom-designed on-stage screen solution - A tailor-made digital display experience, featuring a dynamic, visually engaging layout that brought fan content to life.
• Real-time moderation - A collaborative moderation process between Amondo, Global, and Barclaycard ensured that only high-quality, brand-safe content was featured on the audience engagement surface. 
• Sponsorship value and brand exposure - Capital, Barclaycard, and Disney branding were woven naturally into the display, reinforcing the sponsorship while keeping fan content front and centre.

A scalable, intelligence-led live deployment

Amondo’s solution was deployed in a phased approach to ensure coordinated execution on the night:

• Pre-event setup & testing - Amondo worked with Global and Barclaycard to design and test the event engagement interface, ensuring smooth integration of branded assets and a smooth workflow for real-time content moderation.
• Live aggregation & moderation - As fans shared content on social media and via the Submission Tile, Amondo’s platform automatically pulled that content in, while the moderation team (Amondo, Global, and Barclaycard) made sure only the best content made it onto the screens.
• In-venue fan engagement via QR code uploads - To maximise participation, fans could submit photos and videos via a QR code, making it easy for those who weren’t posting on social media to take part.
• Dynamic on-stage content display - Throughout the night, curated fan content was displayed on The O2’s massive stage screens, creating a high-energy, immersive experience that put the audience at the centre of the show while making sure Barclaycard’s sponsorship remained visible in a natural, engaging way.

Delivering real-time behavioural insight at scale

The Amondo Gallery created a highly engaging fan experience while giving Global and Barclaycard clear insight into how fans interacted during the concert.

• Hundreds of real-time photos and videos from attendees were captured and surfaced on stage, turning audience participation into an integral part of the show.
• Seamless brand integration ensured Barclaycard’s assets were embedded within the experience without feeling intrusive.
• An enhanced fan journey created an exciting, interactive moment that fans actively engaged with.
• Amondo gave Global and Barclaycard first-party behavioural insight into what resonated and what to scale going forward.
• The experience was a scalable solution that Global and Barclaycard will continue using at future events to enhance live audience participation.

Looking ahead: expanding real-time fan engagement and understanding data

Following the success of Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball 2024, Global and Barclaycard will continue to use Amondo's content intelligence platform across future events to activate live audiences, power sponsorship engagement, and capture first-party behavioural data that goes beyond what third-party platforms and social media expose.

For brands delivering live events, Amondo provides a scalable content intelligence layer that transforms live audience interaction into measurable behavioural insight. 

See how other brands are bringing this to life with Amondo.

Entertainment fan engagement has shifted from passive consumption to active participation, with fans increasingly engaging through creation, interaction and shared cultural behaviour across digital platforms.

According to Carat, 87% of fans participate in activities surrounding their interests – whether that's creating memes, fan art, videos, and more.

These moments are now driven by a "fandom-first" movement, where 75% of fans find engaging in the culture surrounding an event just as, or more, entertaining than the event itself.

While this participatory shift creates scale and momentum, it also fragments fan relationships across walled gardens. Entertainment brands are left dependent on third-party platforms that only expose surface-level metrics, such as views, likes, and impressions.

What's missing is visibility into real fan behaviour, such as how audiences actually interact with content, what captures attention, and which experiences drive action before, during and after key moments.

Without first-party behavioural data for entertainment brands, teams are left struggling to understand who their fans really are, what content works, and how to sustain engagement and outcomes beyond the event itself.

This is why many teams are now questioning why owned fan experiences outperform social media in terms of insight, control, and long-term value.

Why this problem matters now

This creates increasing pressure on entertainment teams to prove ROI from engagement as budgets tighten. The industry is moving away from vanity metrics toward outcome-driven performance insight, where likes and impressions are no longer sufficient to justify spend.

Fans are adding to that pressure, with growing expectations for seamless, connected experiences that span social, web and live environments. These interactions generate meaningful behavioural signals, not just engagement noise.

At the same time, while social platforms deliver scale, they are structurally poor at supporting long-term fan relationships. Attention is fragmented, competition is relentless, and behavioural insight remains trapped, and brands have little control over who they reach or retain.

As a result, first-party behavioural data is becoming a serious advantage. By capturing how fans actually interact with content, what they tap, explore, skip or return to, entertainment brands gain the clarity needed to personalise experiences, foster loyalty and understand which content drives sustained engagement over time.

Eurovision's challenge

The Eurovision Song Contest generates vast volumes of content across social platforms from artists, fans and partners. While this creates global attention, the content is distributed across multiple platforms, disjointing fan engagement and limiting Eurovision's ability to activate that content in a structured, owned way.

The majority of fan interaction takes place on third-party platforms, restricting visibility into real behavioural signals, including how fans actually interact with content, what captures attention, and which specific moments drive action.

As a result, high levels of excitement and engagement were not consistently connected to measurable commercial outcomes such as merchandise sales.

And without an owned activation layer capturing first-party behaviour, much of the value created during Eurovision remained outside Eurovision's control, limiting both insight and long-term commercial impact.

Centralising content to capture insight

One example of this approach is how Eurovision worked with Amondo to centralise content into a single, owned experience directly within the official Eurovision app and website.

Using the Amondo Gallery to pull content in from Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, the Eurovision brought together fan reactions, artist moments, partner content and official coverage into a live feed, enabling Eurovision to retain audience engagement while capturing first-party behavioural data.

This activation kept fans inside Eurovision's owned environment, which retained the energy of social, while providing the team with actionable insight into audience interactions and highlighted which content actually drove engagement.

Turning engagement into measurable revenue

Of course, excitement doesn't always correlate directly to sales and revenue.

Eurovision realised this and used its content hub to connect hype to merchandise sales with interactive Click-Through Tiles, which allowed fans to move seamlessly from content engagement to merchandise purchases – turning the buzz into revenue.

This approach gave Eurovision direct visibility into how fan and artist content drove commercial outcomes.

Over 10 million impressions were combined into a single owned experience, with 11% of interactions showing fans taking meaningful actions, providing behavioural insight that other platforms don't show.

Eurovision could finally see what works, why, and what to scale, turning audience engagement into measurable revenue.

Key takeaways for entertainment brands

• The Eurovision team captured first-party behavioural data unavailable through third-party platforms, revealing how fans truly engage with content
• This meant they gained clarity on which content resonated most, enabling data-driven decisions to boost engagement and loyalty
• They built a repeatable model for future Eurovision events, laying the foundation for predictive content intelligence
• Strengthened partner value and personalisation strategies by linking fan behaviour to measurable outcomes
• Demonstrated how content can drive long-term fan value and higher lifetime value (LTV), moving from guesswork to knowing what works

Summary

Moving forward, entertainment brands need to consider more than traditional social reach and surface-level metrics and choose to shift towards owned engagement. Simply relying on third-party platforms is becoming unsustainable and less effective.

With owned media platforms, brands can access valuable, first-party data that outperforms social media and provides visibility into real behavioural signals, including how fans actually interact with content, what captures attention, and which moments drive action.

See how more brands are doing this here.