The World Football Summit (WFS) went virtual for the first ever time, but that didn’t dilute the content and insight from the game’s biggest stars and thought leaders. Cheetah Digital by Marigold was lucky enough to anchor a thought-provoking session with digital innovators Arsenal FC and La Liga on that elusive of all topics: how to acquire the golden fan profile? And once you realize it, how to action it?
Turning Unknown Fans into Knowns in the Club’s Database
The household names of the soccer world boast tens of millions of uber-engaged followers on their social media channels, but how many are actually known in the club’s database? Forward-thinking clubs like Arsenal FC are delivering engaging interactive experiences that turn unknown fans into marketable opt-ins in the team’s database.
These experiences can ask questions that help you enrich those fan profiles with self-reported preference and behavioral data. This is called zero-party data. Rather than merely having a name, email address, and past transactional data, you can understand each fan as an individual and personalize content and offers to them.
Arsenal FC discussed how there is little point offering tickets to a game that evening to fans on the other side of the globe, or replica shirts to fans who may not be able to afford them. Each fan is different and has differing expectations of the digital relationship they want with the club.
The experiences (things like score predictors, squad builders, favorite kit sweepstakes) can live on any digital channel, whether it be email, websites, or social channels, and collect invaluable information that helps tailor future offers and content.
A Single Source of Truth — The Golden Fan Profile
Soccer marketers traditionally have no way of seeing the fan in a unified, single view, which is necessary to fully understand each fan and provide them with a personalized experience. The opportunity to build relationships that goes beyond results on the pitch is lost forever.
Without a golden fan profile, complemented by real-time insights, soccer clubs will perpetually struggle to deliver the quality experiences that fans expect from the clubs they love. Unfortunately, many soccer clubs and brands are struggling with a litany of problems such as legacy systems, data residing in disparate silos, and huge martech stacks.
A golden fan profile acts as the single source of truth about your fans and gives you the ability to analyze past behavior as well as information they proactively tell you in order to better target and personalize future interactions.
You know your fan loves the club, but by gleaning information like their favorite player, strip, in-stadium music and whether they attend games you deepend that relationship and fan record.
For more information on how Cheetah Digital by Marigold ’s technology can help your soccer team or sports brand build a golden fan record check out this campaign book packed with client stories from the sporting world.
