Enhancing the Fan Experience with Data-Driven Insights - Affinio
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Enhancing the Fan Experience with Data-Driven Insights
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FOREWORD 2
W hile every sports franchise has the ultimate
goal of winning, their number one goal is
to win over the hearts and minds of fans and
build a devoted following.
The professional sports industry is growing, and
in North America alone is expected to reach a
worth of $73.5 billion in 2019, says Forbes. In
an industry of this size, sports franchises face
a couple of realities: fans have less time, more
choices, and high expectations. These harsh
realities are changing the game (pun intended).
Today, the success of a team relies on their
relationship with fans – not the scoreboard.
The modern sports fan expects and craves a
meaningful relationship with the teams they
choose to support. It is now more important than
ever for sports franchises to have a thorough
understanding of their audience and potential
fan base. Marketing must align with the lifestyle
of the fan, their consumption habits, and their
interests and passions.
In this eBook, powered by the Affinio platform,
we will take you on a journey from the very
basics of understanding fan culture, identifying
the right sports sponsorship and marketing
opportunities, to creating the ultimate fan
experience by leveraging behavioral data.
PART
TEXT ONE:
HERE 3
Fan Culture
If you’ve ever been to a professional sporting
event, you’ve likely witnessed some super
fans in the stands. You know, the individuals
donning their favorite jersey, face-painted,
noisemakers in tow, and cheering as loud as
they possibly can. While every franchise has
the ultimate goal of winning, their number
one goal is to win over the hearts and minds
of fans and build a devoted following.
But what makes a fan a fan? Why do
individuals love and support some teams over
others? For some, perhaps they remember
their Dad taking them to a ball game at a
young age. For others, maybe their team
of choice is from their hometown or a city
they love. Whatever the reason a fan feels
allegiance to a particular team, franchises
must understand their motivations and tap
into these emotional anchors. Here’s why:
“Performance on the scoreboard no
longer translates to seat sales.”
We live in an age where “performance on
the scoreboard no longer translates to
seat sales,” which means teams need to
build a more significant brand experience
that extends far beyond stadium walls.
The modern sports fan expects and craves
a meaningful relationship with the teams
they choose to support. Franchises must
understand the lifestyle of their fan, their
consumption habits, and their interests and
passions on an intimate level.
PART ONE 4
A s shared by MediaPost: Teams that put
customers first, value the customer
intelligence of their fans, and leverage fan
insight to influence business decisions are the
ones that will win (and not just games) in the
long run.
Affinio makes it possible to tap into the sports
fan culture and find out what makes fans tick.
By leveraging interest and behavioral data,
sports teams are armed with the insights to
not only speak to their fans (and potential
fans) using the right language, but also make
relevant sponsorship deals, content choices, ad
placements, and more. As an example of the
insights that teams can leverage using Affinio, New England Patriots
we analyzed the fan base of the New England @Patriots
Patriots. Platform: Twitter
Followers of: @Patriots
Affinio uses unsupervised segmentation to form Location: USA
clusters of individuals with shared interests Audience Size: 382,089 Unique Users
and affinities. In this analysis, we segmented
the Patriots’ audience into 14 interest-based
clusters. What’s important to note is that each
cluster has their motivation for supporting the
team. How a franchise connects to each of these
fan clusters should differ.
What you’ll see on the following pages is while
both fan clusters share a love of the New England
Patriots, their motivations for supporting
the team likely differ and the way the team
communicates with them should too. For the
Boston Sports fans, their proximity to the action
and appreciation of the “Beantown” is probably
the most significant tie. But for the Moms Who
Love Pop Culture fans, they have a devotion
to some of the most popular players and their
celebrity friends. Either way, for the Patriots (or
any sports franchise) to successfully hold onto
the attention of fans and cultivate a following of
super fans, they need to speak to them in the
most relevant way possible an understand their
motivations. These are just some of the insights
sports marketers must leverage to connect with
fans.
TEXT HERE PART ONE: Boston Sports Fans 5
TEXT HERE PART ONE: Moms Who Love Pop Culture 6
PART
TEXT TWO:
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Data-Driven Sponsorships & Partnerships
O ne way to authentically connect with fans is
to form relevant sponsorship agreements.
Today, the sports sponsorship industry is
booming. According to Darin White, Founding
Director of the Sports Marketing Program &
Professor at Samford University,
Sponsorship marketing is one of the fastest
growing forms of advertising around the
globe. It has exploded into a $60 billion
industry in North America.
It seems teams are jumping at every new
sponsorship opportunity to engage their fans
and appear relevant. But instead of jumping at
the latest ‘shiny’ topic, what if you had a data-
backed method to identify potential sponsorship
opportunities you know will resonate with your
fan base?
Numerous professional sports organizations
have used Affinio to tap into fan culture and
build data-driven sponsorship strategies to
reach and engage fans. As explained by Darrin
White, “utilizing social media and cutting-
edge analytics, marketing researchers have
discovered highly effective ways of fostering the
transference of fan passion from the team to
commercial brands.”
With Affinio’s intelligence, we can immediately
gain insight into audience preferences identify
the top 1000 contextually relevant brands,
organizations, media, and more that matter
most to your core fanbase. This type of “fan-first”
approach can be crafted to create sponsorships
that resonate with the fans.
PART TWO 8
Let’s take a look at potential sponsorship opportunities for the
@Patriots in our same Affinio analysis.
The Analysis of the most contextually-relevant to the Moms
Who Love Pop Culture cluster. Here’s a couple
Through the use of machine learning and social of examples of how the Patriots could reach this
media analysis, Affinio’s algorithm analyzes the cluster and strengthen their loyalty by leveraging
connections between audience members, the interest data.
content they share, and the interests of the
audience. One of the outputs of Affinio analyses Sponsorship deals aren’t going away, and with
is a list of contextually-relevant accounts to an more and more competition for fan attention,
audience including the top celebrities, media, ensuring the right partner selection is vital. By
organizations, and brands. This list is found leveraging Affinio’s quantifiable data, sports
under the Interests section of every Affinio franchises, as well as brands, are armed with
report. actionable insights to use in structuring winning
sponsorship deals that increase exposure,
Affinio identified the following brands as some revenue, and fan loyalty.
Actioning Media Insights
Affinio identified E! Network as a top network for the Moms Who Love
Pop Culture as well as shows like The Real Housewives and reality TV
celebrities. Perhaps the E! Network could create a show “The Wives
Behind the Patriots” that caters to this audience and strengthens
their affinity to the team.
Actioning Brand Insights
Affinio identifed Victoria’s Secret as a top retail/fashion brand to the
Moms Who Love Pop Culture segment. Perhaps The Patriots could
collaborate with the Victoria’s Secret sports apparel department
(VSX) to create a Pats-branded line that this segment could wear to
games and seamlessly fits into their lifestyle.
Actioning Demographic Insights
Affinio identified that the majority of individuals inside the Moms
Who Love Pop Culture segment live outside of New England in
the eastern US. Affinio also identified that JetBlue Airways is their
airline of choice. Perhaps there is a package deal when flying into
Massachusetts you can receive complimentary game tickets.
PART
TEXT THREE:
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Enhancing the In-Stadium Experience
D espite the fact the sports industry is growing,
teams have been struggling in recent years
to keep sports fans in stadium seats. With ticket
only is the at-home fan experience the most
amazing it’s ever been, reliable wifi and data
allow sports fans to engage with other fans
sales dwindling, stadiums have had to start online, watch (and rewatch) instant replays,
making big moves and big investments to get look up player and team stats, check in on other
fans coming to the games. games, etc. during game down times. The at-
home experience is more interactive than ever
No wonder this is an issue, have you seen what before and truly gives the in-stadium experience
fans are building in their basements? People a run for its money. There are no bathroom
are building personalized “fan caves” that are or concession lineups, no loud drunken fans
equipped with extreme comfort, concession (or maybe there are?), and the snacks are well
stands, personalized decor, multiple screens, within budget. The at-home experience is truly a
and the latest in sports-viewing technology. Not personalized one.TEXT THREE
PART HERE 10
T o compete with this, high-tech stadiums are
being constructed all around the world with
fan experience at the center of their strategy.
• Find parking spots
• Purchase premium seat upgrades
Sports venues are incorporating state of the art • Order food + beverages to their seats
technology to ensure that the fan experience
in-stadium is better than ever before. Levi’s • Find the closest restroom with the shortest line
Stadium, reportedly the ‘most high-tech’ stadium
• Watch high-def replays and close-up videos
in the world, allows it’s 70,000+ fan capacity to
connect seamlessly to wifi and 4G. Along with • View exclusive content
powerful connectivity, stadium technology
upgrades include apps and beacons that help • Receive promotions and coupons
fans:
• Get home faster with traffic information
While all of this is wonderful and truly enhances an audience-first - or - “fan-first” approach to
the fan experience, it still doesn’t offer the same enhancing the fan experience. To clarify, let’s take
personalization that the at-home experience a look at our Patriots audience again. By using
can. Fans will get used to these upgrades as a Affinio to run an interest-based segmentation
standard of service and the in-home experience analysis, we are able to understand all of the
will continue to get better and better. In a recent different types of fans that exist and what would
journey to get to know the fan experience and enhance each of their experiences, help engage
marketing world a little better, we connected them, and keep them coming back for more.
with a few sports marketing experts. A
common theme seemed to emerge from our As you can see, this is an extremely varied
conversations. When strategizing fan experience audience. While it’s the Patriots that gets them
implementation, whether it’s related to the to come together, there are a lot of unique
stadium or sponsorship opportunities, the fans communities. With this data, we can learn a lot
seem to be considered as one, the fans. more about the interests, passions, and culture
of each community.
Stadiums, teams, and sponsors need to takePART THREE 11
To enhance the fan experience, this affinity data can be used to identify:
Favourite player of each What other sports teams they What food these fans love
community are interested in
What music should be played The top celebrity affinities for What giveaways would
during game downtime potential appearances resonate with these fans
Which communities are Where these fans go to get What types of team-related
adopting sponsor and team news about the team content each community
hashtags engages with
These are just a few examples. By taking a fan-first approach, stadiums and teams can make their
fans feel like they are receiving a truly personalized experience that resonates with them and keeps
them coming out to the game.TEXT HERE
CONCLUSION 12
T he professional sports industry will continue
to evolve and with it, so must marketers.
In order to grow ticket sales and keep fans in
their seats, sports marketers will need to adapt
and invest in understanding their fanbase. The
lifestyle, motivations, and consumption habits
of fans cannot be ignored and must be taken
into account when building strategies, both on
and off the field.
To learn more about how Affinio supports
professional sports teams, request a demo.
affinio.com | @Affinio | info@affinio.comYou can also read
