Already playing a significant role in how we spend our time online, 2020 provided those in the Sports industry with even more attention from fans looking to distract themselves with digital content. As consumption trends have accelerated, more time is invested in approaching fan engagement online – and the long term opportunities it may provide.
Today leading sports marketers are re-evaluating which content resonates best with an increasingly expectant generation of fans. They can also adopt smarter tactics with fan data, building out a broader view, and creating a golden fan record.
As part of our Signals 2020 Practitioner Panel series, we hosted the 100% unofficial North London Derby, featuring guests from English Premier League giants Arsenal F.C. and Tottenham Hotspur F.C. The topic of Enhancing Digital Fan Engagement.
Adam Rutzler and his Campaign & Insight group at Arsenal F.C. have a genuinely rounded perspective of the many different digital marketing needs across the entire club. Hear how the Gunners intelligently use data to enhance digital engagement amongst one of the largest and most passionate fan bases in the world.
Matt Hudspeth-Lamb and his CRM team at Tottenham Hotspurs F.C. fully understand the numerous ways why digital fan engagement is crucial to sports teams and associations. Hear how Spurs create a variety of interactive experiences online, reacting to ever-changing situations, and how they measure success.
For some real sporting, highlights continue scrolling through the below.
First half: Thoughts of GOLD from Adam
Adam here discusses what he considers the most crucial aspect of his team’s work – ensuring that fans received the best content that’s most relevant to them. They achieve this by trying to understand their fans and by adopting an omni-channel strategy.
Adam discusses his team’s most significant challenge – creating one unified way to understand their fan base – an accurate fan segmentation model. Hear how Arsenal ran a cluster analysis, which led to their current persona-led approach.
What’s the next big project for Adam and the Campaign and Insight team – looking for ways to add more psychographic data into the broader understanding of an individual fan. What motivates them?
Full Uncaged Wisdom podcast
Second half: Thoughts of GOLD from Matt
What is Tottenham trying out to increase online fan engagement? Matt discusses several initiatives, including some examples that use Marigold Grow.
With partners and sponsors being so crucial to sporting organizations, Matt discusses how these groups work closely with Spurs to develop and launch online initiatives. He also discusses how any campaign data collected is handled in the post GDPR world – clear and distinct opt-ins being key.
Hear how the Spurs CRM team has started to identify different fan types and personas. The key to Matt’s approach is looking at source acquisition – a better understanding of where fans are coming from and getting them onto these digital journeys.
Hear Matt’s Golden Rules for fan engagement! Don’t forget the experience itself, and always keep fan sentiment top of mind.
Full Uncaged Wisdom podcast
Find the full panel discussion here, and find all of the
Signals 20 content in our on-demand hub below.
