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Welcome to Monday, folks. Today, I’m going to remind you how powerful curiosity is in marketing — with billions of dollars in evidence. Live sports tells the tale. Then, stay tuned for Monday’s Marketing News - lots of good insights.

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Demand for Live Sports Keeps Rising

The stats below show how media companies salivate over landing live sporting events.

• YouTube pays $2 billion per season for NFL Sunday Ticket

• MLB got $12 billion over 7 years with ESPN, Fox, and TNT

• Even NASCAR got a $2.4 billion 8-year deal with Fox 

TV contracts have always been huge paydays for major college sports and professional leagues. Athletes make the big bucks too. Yet, the past decade or so, sports paydays have hit an insane level. 

The greatest athlete and winner of all time, Michael Jordan, averaged only about 3 million dollars a year playing basketball until his final two years (endorsements aside). Now, the average NBA yearly salary is almost $10 million a year!

The Celtics just signed their top player a $314 million deal. Why…

Why are live sports so lucrative? 

Curiosity!

Games are unpredictable. Not knowing the outcome makes people curious. It gets them excited because something special could happen and often does.

Plus, if people don’t watch a game live, they miss out on the surprise. They also miss out on seeing the surprise with their family and friends - at the very least, joining in on a text thread about a pick-6 game-winner.

That’s different from most stuff on TV and the web now. You can guess what’s gonna happen. And you don’t have to watch live, you can watch it on demand, whenever you want. 

All that to say… 

Curiosity is a powerful driver of human action. More than ever, because so much information’s available instantly. Mystery is scarce in 2024.

And it’s a good bet you’re not maxing out the power of curiosity in your marketing. 

I should use it more myself in headlines, subject lines, offers, etc.

Thanks for reading and sharing Inbox Hacking. Want your non-profit to get a shout-out in this newsletter? Hit reply & let me know. Today’s shout-out goes to Off The Chain🐶.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

Bonus: Advanced tips for using curiosity to cover topics for your audience.