The Masters at Augusta looks very different to other big sporting occasions. Fans at one of golf’s most prestigious events queue at payphones to contact the outside world. And last month, spectators actually watched Rory McIlroy’s dramatic winning putt without the aid of smartphone cameras.
To digital obsessives used to capturing every moment, it seems anachronistic. But Augusta’s ban on devices excites crowds and players alike.
2024 runner-up Ludvig Aberg says it makes it feel like fans are “so much more engaged”. And the Wall Street Journal describes one banker overcoming his initial anxiety and sensations of phantom vibrations to immerse himself in the day even as the outside world grappled with Trump’s tariff announcements.
Augusta offers a unique proposition in today’s attention economy. How do you engage consumers when content is ubiquitous? You make them active participants in a live experience.
Compare those ticket-holders to commuters scrolling on public transport. Passive expressions giving just a few seconds attention to a Tiktok video before moving onto the next.
The Power of Live Sport
It’s why the power of live sport endures. It’s about feeling part of something unfolding in real time. And it stirs emotion, even at a distance.
I saw that in Liverpool’s recent title-winning celebrations, which I couldn’t escape even in Singapore. The club’s large fan base here is about more than just success. It’s the ideas and feelings Anfield evokes. The Kop and renditions of You’ll Never Walk Alone inspire people 7,000 miles away, however much this Chelsea fan maintains the atmosphere is overrated.
Live performance builds the kind of loyalty brands and politicians alike crave. Most Liverpool fans will never visit Anfield. But they feel a connection because of famous matches in front of a crowd.
And it’s a connection that defies transactionalism. In football “glory supporter” is a term of ridicule, reserved for those who chase success rather than loyalty. Growing up supporting Chelsea before the Russian billions arrived, we’d sing ‘You only live round the corner’ at visiting Manchester United fans. The implication? They were from London too, with no real ties to the club they claimed to love.
Branding: experience over rationalism
Logic-defying loyalty isn’t confined to football. It’s the same fealty Trump brags about when he says he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose voters. The dynamic plays out in professional life too. Think how differently you interpret the actions of someone you like. He or she gets the benefit of the doubt. Mistakes are easily forgiven.
Political campaigning
This preference for in-the-moment engagement got me thinking about the UK council elections. Nigel Farage’s surging Reform party were the big winners in an important barometer of national sentiment.
Significantly, Reform also won the Runcorn by-election by just six votes, overturning a massive Labour majority in a traditional stronghold.
Speaking after the win, Farage called PM Keir Starmer a “coward” for failing to show up and campaign in Runcorn. It was reminiscent of Wisconsin in the 2016 US election, where Hillary Clinton was a no-show, assuming her victory was a foregone conclusion.
The triumph of old-fashioned door knocking should give digital campaign gurus pause for thought. Reform’s relative lack of digital advertising did the party little harm. It challenges a consensus formed since Barack Obama’s campaign was praised for its digital sophistication in 2008.
The Brexit vote and Trump’s victory in 2016 were also attributed to digital means. But manipulation was the term bandied around then. Algorithms and the like weren’t so cool when winners weren’t media darlings.
Spray and Pray?
Dentsu estimates that US$772 billion was spent on digital advertising in 2024 and expects this to grow further. Yet so much of this is driven by the mistaken belief that visibility equals impact.
Politics is a major contributor to this sum. Almost US$3.5bn was spent on digital advertising during the 2024 US election. The Democrats spent over three times more than the Republicans.
But it was the Republicans that cut through. Whatever your views on Trump’s erratic policy-making, he is impossible to ignore. Compare Kamala Harris’ saccharine interview with Drew Barrymore to Trump dancing with the Village People at his victory party. Getting shot at a rally also helps.
It vindicates Peter Thiel’s thesis on content in the GenAI era. He argues decisive views and humour are the only ways to stand out in a sea of artificially generated guff.
Because you can’t spam people into submission. Loyalty can’t be achieved through volume. How many cold emails do you reply to?
Yet so much digital marketing relies on the spray and pray approach. Blast out enough content and hope something sticks. But in a saturated world, prioritise doing fewer things better.
Experiences make the difference
Of course, digital matters. Most fans watched McIlroy’s winning putt or Liverpool’s title triumph on TV or through social media. But digital amplifies a relationship rather than manufacturing one from scratch. Productivity isn’t synonymous with volume: reach more people, produce more content. One great meeting is more valuable than firing off a hundred emails.
Political and business discourse is obsessed with new methods and platforms. But the fundamentals of human connection don’t change. In 2025, door-knocking and rallies go further than a crack squad of digital analysts. Loyalty is still earned in person.
