Techno sports Fans – next generation marketing!
Fans paint their face and evangelize at every sports opp. It’ game on for a serious fan! This is of course is every CEO’s dream. But the emotional attachment to a product or brand is no where close to where it’s can be for a sport, a club or a player – lets face it!
But that’s not detracting sports marketeers and clubs overseas to find new & innovative ways to engage their fans. And what better way, than with technology and social media. After all, a game is a social experience and incredibly personal to many spectators and fans.
But technology is not just being used on fans! If you are a major league player and a professional team sports professional, then your performance might just be getting the once over by a host of tiny camera’s. The camera’s are used to extract intricate data, then used to decipher best players, best moves, the ball and crowd support. It’s literally a whole new ball game!
The 2013-2014 NBA season is the first for all teams to have Sport VU tracking, a system of six cameras in each arena that measures the movements of the ball and every player on the court, generating an entire database of performance information. More data had been generated this season than in the league’s previous 67-year history. The information is then used in helping management build a team of effective and compatible players, but will also build greater team insights for fans to bite in even harder.
Meanwhile, sports fans are integrating mobile phones into their sports experiences. 70% of fans bring a mobile device to stadiums to use it for sports back ups during a game. On account of this, stadiums are tapping in, extending the idea for check-ins, ushering to seats, shortest bathroom routes and concession lines, seat upgrade options (much like what has been done in the airline industry), cashless commerce, and in-seat wireless charging. Incredible customer (ah-hem, fan services). sports arena’s are acting like a techno lab, whilst sports marketeers see to testing the limits on how to engage their fans even harder.
“Much bigger than a sports team; is it’s a social network.” says Ranadivé of the Kings. This includes the team’s development of ways to connect with fans watching at home and engaging on their second screens, such as Google+ Hangouts during games. You Tube is also a favourite for watching repeats and highlights on demand & whilst at the game & at home. These types of social currency and expanse are accelerating global programs, generating interest in sports in countries otherwise not exposed.
I find all of this fascinating and incredibly useful to marketers everywhere.
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