Entertainment brands are in constant competition to attract and retain customers. Professional football clubs are a great example of the complex marketing challenges faced. Football fans tend to be very loyal and rarely change which team they support, so, rather than competing with other clubs, the club’s challenges lay in increasing their fanbase and the revenue opportunities both on matchday and in the rest of the week.
Casual fans are encouraged to attend games on a regular basis instead of choosing to participate in other types of leisure activities, regular fans are encouraged to buy season tickets, and season ticket holders are encouraged to move up the lifetime value tiers.
Once a fan is in the stadium, there are a number of challenges in encouraging them to spend. Perhaps the biggest is in engaging effectively with individual fans in the stadium. Stadiums hold thousands of fans, and in such crowded spaces, phone and data connectivity is notoriously difficult to achieve. Large scale Wi-Fi roll outs are often prohibitively expensive and would inevitably fall on to the costs of tickets for the fans.
A unique way to bring everyone together
One solution is to offer free Wi-Fi from one of the companies that offer it in urban areas in return for sign-ups through their gateway and whitelisting certain websites. However, this is often not cost effective and may actually be impossible to install within certain structures, particularly older stadiums.
However, there is a new, alternative solution. Some companies are now providing a smartphone application platform technology that overcomes the problem of intermittent data connectivity in crowded places. It does this by creating a network between users’ mobile phones when they are in a participating stadium location. The technology works by effectively sharing the data connections and then distributing the information via the app.
Apps developed using the software are then able to provide the customer with data such as live score updates, match stats and location information, as well as social media access, even if most of the users have little or no 3G or 4G signal.
Using stadium applications to upsell
Having an interactive app means that the club can keep a constant channel of communication with the fans, especially whilst they are most emotionally engaged with the club’s brand at the match. Through this channel, the club can upsell tickets for other matches and events, or advertise exclusive merchandise and deals that can be made available only for people using the app at the event.
Similarly, the app can be used to link with stadium food and drink vendors to distribute menus and incentives, and in the future we might see the technology used for advance half-time ordering to help fans beat the queues.
Another way that this supports the user experience is by allowing real-time updates. For example, if your concession stand on the East side of the stadium runs out of beer, you can alert visitors of this and guide them to the stand on the West side, where ice cold beer awaits them. These extra touches are what help the visitor to feel truly valued part of the club.
Wider engagement
The same apps can also be used by clubs to engage with fans even when they aren’t in the stadium. They can send notifications, updates and offers in order to encourage attendance at matches - keeping the club front of mind.
As this is an opt-in channel, the audience is open to conversation and willing to let the brand into their private space, making it a valuable marketing channel.
This technology is already being used by a number of football clubs in the UK but has enormous potential in other areas of the hospitality industry, including music venues, festivals and conferences and exhibitions. With the power to engage the key audience, it looks as though this method of mobile marketing could deliver a new and exciting channel for many marketing executives.
By Ian Wakeman, founder of TribeHive.
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