Why physical media still matters when digital traffic is becoming harder to read
If 57% of the audience in one of our clubhouses was robots, it would be pretty obvious.
You would notice.
You would walk into the bar after training and think something had gone badly wrong.
The players would notice.
The coaches would notice.
The parents would notice.
The visiting team would notice.
The people behind the bar would definitely notice.
That was the thought behind the visual we created above (the irony of A.I. being used to make it isn’t lost on me).
It was prompted by recent reporting around Cloudflare data, which suggested that bots now account for more web traffic than humans in some measured online environments.
Whether the exact number is 57%, 50%, 40% or something else depending on the definition, the wider point is hard to ignore.
The internet is becoming a much messier place to measure.
More automation.
More scraping.
More AI agents.
More non human activity.
More traffic that looks impressive in a report but may not represent a real person paying real attention to a real campaign.
That does not mean digital advertising is bad.
There is a lot of brilliant digital advertising.
There are brilliant planners, brilliant platforms, brilliant creative teams and brilliant campaigns.
But it does mean advertisers should keep asking a simple question.
Who is actually seeing this?
Not all impressions are equal
An impression is only useful if it represents a meaningful opportunity to be seen.
That sounds obvious, but it is easy to forget when everything is reduced to dashboards, ratios, reach curves, completion rates and campaign reports.
A campaign can look neat on a spreadsheet.
It can show reach.
It can show clicks.
It can show traffic.
It can show views.
But behind those numbers, the reality can be harder to prove.
Was it a person?
Was it a bot?
Was it a page load?
Was it a meaningful glance?
Was it attention?
Was it remembered?
That is where real world media still has a very simple strength.
It happens in real places.
With real people.
Doing real things.
Why real places matter
At Grassroot Media, we place advertising inside grassroots sports clubs.
Football clubs.
Rugby clubs.
Cricket clubs.
Bowls clubs.
Places where people play, train, watch, volunteer, socialise and spend time together.
These are not abstract audiences.
They are people in clubhouses, bars, lounges, corridors and changing rooms.
They are players getting ready for a match.
They are parents waiting after training.
They are volunteers keeping the club running.
They are committee members planning the next fundraiser.
They are older members spending time with friends.
They are visiting teams having a drink after a game.
They are people who come back week after week, often for years.
That matters.
Because when you advertise in that environment, the audience is not just a segment or a data point.
They are physically there.
The advantage of visible audiences
One of the most valuable things about place-based media is that the audience can be understod in human terms.
In a grassroots sports club, you can see the context.
You can see the dwell time.
You can see the social behaviour.
You can see the repeat visits.
You can see the relationship people have with the space.
That does not mean every impression is perfect.
No media channel can claim that.
But it does give advertisers something very valuable.
Confidence that the environment is real.
Confidence that the audience is human.
Confidence that the message is appearing in a place people care about.
And confidence that the advertising is part of a wider social setting, not just another item in a feed.
Dwell time, context and trust
The strongest media environments do more than deliver visibility.
They create context.
A poster in a football changing room is not the same as a banner ad on a website.
A screen in a rugby clubhouse is not the same as an ad appearing between scrolls.
A message in a bowls club lounge is not the same as an impression served somewhere online.
The difference is not just the format.
It is the environment.
Grassroots sports clubs offer something digital channels often struggle to replicate.
Dwell time.
Routine.
Social interaction.
Community trust.
Repeat exposure.
A sense of belonging.
That is why we keep coming back to one simple line.
Dwell time gives an ad the chance to be seen.
Belonging gives it the chance to mean something.
Real people talk to each other
Another thing that often gets lost in media planning is conversation.
People do not just see advertising in clubhouses.
They talk.
They point things out.
They ask questions.
They tell each other about offers.
They mention brands.
They ask who is supporting the club.
They see the same messages repeatedly, in the same trusted environment, around the same people.
That does not happen with a bot.
A bot does not nudge someone at the bar and say, “Have you seen that?”
A bot does not mention a campaign in the changing room.
A bot does not tell a teammate about an offer.
A bot does not help a message become part of a social environment.
People do.
That is why real world attention is different.
This is not online versus offline
The point is not that brands should stop using digital.
That would be ridiculous.
Digital advertising remains a huge and important part of the media mix.
The point is that advertisers should be more thoughtful about what different channels are actually doing.
Online media can be brilliant for targeting, response, retargeting, ecommerce and scale.
Broadcast media can be brilliant for fame and reach.
OOH can be brilliant for public visibility, presence and shared context.
Place-based media like ours can be brilliant for dwell, relevance and repeated human attention.
The best media plans use channels for the jobs they are best suited to.
But in an age where more online activity is automated, and where AI agents are changing how the web behaves, the value of real human environments should not be underestimated.
Grassroots clubs are human environments
Grassroots sports clubs are not passive spaces.
They are active social environments.
They are full of people who care about the club, the team, the sport and each other.
That makes them powerful places for brands that want to reach active adults, sports participants, families, volunteers, older social audiences and local communities.
And because Grassroot Media works directly with clubs, advertising also helps support the places where it appears.
That matters too.
The best advertising does not just take attention from an environment.
It contributes something back to it.
In our case, club advertising helps fund grassroots sport, supports free digital screens for clubs, gives clubs space for their own notices and creates new income opportunities for volunteer run organisations.
That is a better exchange.
For the advertiser.
For the club.
And for the audience.
Real audiences. Real clubs. Real impact.
The rise of bots should make everyone in marketing think harder about measurement, attention and audience quality.
Not in a panicked way.
In a practical way.
If the numbers in a campaign report look good, we should still ask what is behind them.
If an impression is counted, we should still ask whether it created a real opportunity to be seen.
If a campaign reaches an audience, we should still ask whether that audience is human, relevant and paying attention.
That is why physical, social, high dwell media still matters.
Because some audiences are not hidden inside a dashboard.
They are standing at the bar.
Sitting in the clubhouse.
Watching the screen.
Reading the poster.
Talking to teammates.
Waiting for training.
Celebrating a win.
Comiserating after a loss.
Coming back next week.
They are real people, in real places, spending real time together.
And that is still one of the most valuable things advertising can reach.
Speak to Grassroot Media
Grassroot Media helps brands reach active, social audiences inside grassroots sports clubs across the UK.
We work across football, rugby, cricket and bowls, using posters and digital screens in the places where people play, watch, volunteer, socialise and belong.