“The point is, a video of five young lads messing about on a squash court received 8,000,000 hits in 2 months. The PSA’s most viewed video, Ramy Ashour playing the game of his life, received 2,000,000 hits in 8 years”
Ah yes, a ‘how can we stop the decline of squash’ article. ‘Another?’, I hear you saying. However, unlike the many that came before this one, I come bearing solutions (real, useful ones, I hope!). First though, a little bit of context.
Below is some information from Google Trends. This shows you the interest in squash over the past five years. I’ve circled the start of the first, second and third UK lockdowns. Ouch. Even though it’s exactly what you’d expect, it’s still a sobering view to see just how quickly interest dropped in squash throughout each lockdown.
So, how can squash recover? A modern problem requires a modern solution.
I’m not going to focus on the ‘long term growth’ of squash in this article – building the sport at a grassroots level is undeniably the way forward in that aspect. What I’m looking for, is a short term solution to generate immediate interest, therefore bring more footfall into squash clubs once lockdowns lift (which I’m sure clubs across the UK would be most thankful for). I’m talking of course, about advertising, and in this particular case, influencers.
Take one look at how brands, businesses and organisations run their advertising campaigns – it’s clear that partnering with influencers is now widely recognised as one of the ways to attract new customers. In the world of advertising, content creators are big business, and business is certainly booming. In fact, influencer ad spend has increased from $0.5b to $10b in the last five years alone.
Could this form of marketing be the key to rebuilding squash once lockdowns lift? We take a deep dive to see whether squash could (or more aptly should) look to this new generation of marketeers to help promote the sport.
What exactly is an influencer?
When I say ‘influencer’, the first thing that might come to mind might be ‘shiny white teeth, German cars, Love Island, fake tan and trips to Dubai’. You know the type. While that’s certainly an avenue squash could go down (more on that later on), there’s so much more potential.
Across the internet there’s a wide spectrum of influencers and content creators who have earned the trust of their loyal followers. These influencers often focus their content on specific subjects, across broader genres including health and fitness, lifestyle, comedy, entertainment and more. This trust from their followers often leads to significant levels of engagement in the things they feature across their channel.
For those asking ‘but why though?’
If someone asked me what squash is lacking now compared to thirty years ago, my answer would be simple: Relevance. In its heyday, squash was played by celebrities, public figures, even royalty (back when being royal didn’t involve questionable trips to Pizza Express). People played squash because it was the ‘in’ thing to do.
The problem is, the public perception of squash has stagnated since its peak. Things have moved on, and where squash used to find new players simply by being ‘cool’, nowadays there’s far less attraction to the sport.
In the mildly uneducated but well intentioned view of yours truly, squash has two problems, both of which can be resolved through well thought out advertising campaigns – perception (i.e how people see the sport), and visibility (i.e how many people see the sport).
Partnering with content creators to increase the visibility of squash
Squash needs to find its way onto the screens of the many, not the few. While various squash organisations have done brilliant jobs at building social platforms for those already interested in squash, it’s fair to say there’s far less out there to capture those less interested in the sport. Squash gets the very occasional feature in TV shows – though it’s often for comedic effect and doesn’t do much for promoting the sport.
Step in, content creators. A recent video from ‘Sidemen’ on YouTube featured squash in a calorie burning challenge. It showed 6 YouTube stars on a squash court messing about, having a laugh and generally enjoying themselves. Admittedly they were all a bit shit at squash and probably burned very few calories, but that’s not the point.
The point, is that the video received eight million views in two months. The PSA’s most viewed video – Ramy Ashour playing the best squash match of his life – received two million views in eight years.
You can’t deny those numbers. It’s also worth acknowledging that only a very small percentage of Sidemen’s viewers will already play squash, meaning they’ve inadvertently advertised the sport to an entirely new demographic of people.
Partnering with influencers to change the perception of squash – the different options
Fitness influencers and sportspeople
As squash players, we often cling to the fact that squash is the most intense sport for burning calories, yet I’ve never seenit appear on a fitness blog. There’s a few articles on the internet from pre-2010, but that’s as far as it goes.
Imagine Joe Wicks on a squash court, the uptake would likely be instantaneous. Things such as Crossfit have benefited sensationally from social media influencers, there’s no reason squash couldn’t do the same.
The fact is, there’s a huge potential demographic for squash that just aren’t at all engaged with the sport. Partnering with sports & fitness influencers could work wonders for the sport.
Proof: A recent picture of Lewis Hamilton training by a squash court certainly caught people’s attention. He wasn’t even on the squash court, yet plenty of comments on his tweet mentioned it. Daryl Selby even offered Declan James’s services as a training partner. Kudos on the Prince racket as well, Lewis.
Lifestyle influencers
This is undoubtedly a controversial option which will split opinion. As a sport, squash has worked hard to shake off its ‘posh’ image. However, it’s fair to say the reputation lingers like fart in a hot car. Unpleasant, unwanted, and unavoidable. As the saying goes though, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Lifestyle influencers’ feeds often feature decent cars, expensive holidays and nice clothes, mixed in with lots of product endorsements.
Could squash fit in with the ‘upmarket’ aesthetic? It’s certainly a thought. Am I a fan of the idea? No, not particularly. However, could it help grow the sport? Undoubtedly. It’s not overly difficult to picture squash courts on lifestyle influencers’ feeds. Between the protein shakes, teeth whitening kits and gym workouts, there might just be a place for squash rackets.
Regardless of your views on lifestyle influencers (all of which I’m sure are justified!), the potential avenue for growth is hard to ignore. You might argue it’s not what squash wants, though for many struggling squash clubs, it might just be what they need.
Fun fact – Luke Mabbott from the latest series of Love Island is actually a county level squash player. The more you know!
Entertainers
Reflecting on the Sidemen video above, it’s clear that squash doesn’t have to be serious. If videos of people having fun on a squash court brings more people into local clubs, then I’m all for it.
Entertainers, by name and nature are fun to watch, so it’s very plausible that these content creators could help change the public perception of squash. Most non-squash players would sooner give squash a go after watching one video of people having fun, than ten videos explaining the health benefits of the game.
So, what’s clear is that to begin to attract more people, there needs to be an incentive to pick up the sport. Whether it’s to be healthier, whether it’s to fit a certain lifestyle, or whether it’s to have fun, given the impact of COVID on smaller clubs, any reason to play the sport is good enough in my books.
Why don’t we just go ahead and partner up?
Well, this is where things get…tricky. The problem is, it’s not abundantly clear who actually ‘owns’ squash. A recent article from Squash Mad asked some fantastic questions about the marketing of the sport – well worth a read if you’ve made it this far!
Whether it’s the WSF, the PSA, England Squash or any other governing body promoting squash, the unfortunate fact is they’d likely have to divert funding away from other areas of the sport (such as local club maintenance/support) to promote squash through advertising. I’m sure it’s an impossible balancing act and I don’t envy the people making these decisions.
Thinking outside the box, different brands involved in squash could also look to involve influencers in their marketing. That would be a win/win – they’d be getting more people involved in the sport and advertising their products such as rackets and shoes.
The painful truth is that, according to Google, the impacts of lockdown on squash have been severe. There’s also no doubt other indoor sports are feeling the same impact. While squash will likely recover (or at least partially), it’s only in a few years’ time that we’ll see the real impact. The difficult question now is how many ‘just for fun’ players picked up tennis, golf or any other outdoor sport and have since cancelled their club membership.
Ultimately, it’s not my place to suggest how governing bodies and brands spend their budgets. However, as someone in their 20s with a vested interested in both squash and social media, seeing more people my own age promote and take up the sport would be absolutely brilliant, and I think there’s genuine plausibility in looking towards influencers and content creators as a way to rebuild the sport.
Thanks for the article. Thought provoking and most certainly a modern solution that could prove very worthwhile. Ensuring clubs have the capacity to sustain and keep new footfall once in the door. Growth would be then be a real possibility
Even prior to the pandemic, participation figures had fallen by close to 40% over the last 5-10 years. The likelihood of that direction being reversed over the coming period is remote. The sport is is a worryingly precarious position that is has never faced before. All Squash stakeholders need to come together as a sporting industry, clubs, coaches, NGBs, county associations etc if we are to have any chance of coming out of this.
Hi Rob thanks for another interesting article. One barrier to the greater uptake of squash you don’t mention is the safety aspect – we’ve all been in court with someone swinging their racket around and generally threatening to take the head off their opponent. But that aside – great suggestions regarding influencers etc, but how do we promote your ideas to the powers that be and get some response?
That’s the one thing I couldn’t find an answer for – how this idea could actually come to fruition.
My best hope is someone from one of squash’s governing bodies or related brands reads this article and feels a certain sense of inspiration haha.
If I had the means to do it myself it would be the top of my to do list! 😂