Nowhere is the old cliche “business is about relationships” truer than sports. For many fans, their relationships with teams span decades and are animated by extreme emotions. They are electrified by wins and crushed by losses. But like any business, teams must cultivate these relationships, and first-party data has become a new playing field for sports franchises.
by Cooper Helfet
First-party data comes from many different places—ticket sales, digital experiences, merchandise, specialized ticket-holder interactions. The challenge is making sense of such a bounty of disparate data. How can franchises bring together, organize, and use first-party data to understand their fans at a deeper, more personal level? 
As a former NFL player, I’ve seen just how powerful the relationship between a team and its fans can be. And as a data junkie, I understand how artificial intelligence (AI) like machine learning can reshape fan relationships in a way that boosts loyalty and revenue by optimizing advertising and enhancing the fan experience.
The Seattle Mariners and the Seattle Sounders are great examples of franchises that have used machine learning to better understand their fans and how they engage with the team, their favorite players, and various touch points such as merchandise, game attendance, and digital content consumption. These strategies have made a significant difference for the teams and their engagement success.
This advanced technology and its ability to transform the fan experience is not only the future of fandom—it’s the future of marketing as well. It starts with unification — and leads to long-term loyalty and growth.
Unified Data for Strong Fan Experiences
Today, sports fans have many avenues for engaging with their teams. Whether it’s shopping for tickets online, liking or commenting on videos and posts on social media, or calling about season tickets, each of these interactions generates a set of first-party data. This data becomes the building blocks that franchises use to create an individualized, personal experience for fans.
But raw first-party data isn’t immediately useful. It must be cleaned, aggregated, and organized to provide teams with insights into different parts of their fanbase. Unifying first-party data takes time and resources that, for many years, few marketing teams had, which meant that this powerful data stayed fragmented and unusable.
Then came artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that can quickly and efficiently unify vast quantities of messy, raw data. Sports franchises like the Mariners and Sounders use a customer data cloud with advanced data stitching models to create a universal fan view from their first-party data. This view helps them build engaging fan experiences tailored to their fans’ preferences and interests. Using this data, teams can create specialized segments of fans based on common interests, behaviors, and levels of engagement.
Personalizing Engagement Means More Conversions
Once franchises understand the different parts of their fan base, the next step is to create tailored content that will specifically resonate with each segment at scale across their customer base. The preferences, interests, and behaviors of season ticket holders will vary widely from those fans who tend to buy last-minutes tickets for weekend games or those that only come out to the stadium when their old hometown team comes to their new city. AI enables teams to generate different, personalized content using descriptive prompts and algorithms to hit the sweet spots of each group.
In a similar way, AI can help teams understand when certain fans might be at risk for disengaging from the team, based on behaviors like declining attendance and merchandise purchases. Timely, tailored messages can help re-engage these fans, reminding them why they loved the team and sport in the first place. This kind of personalized content can boost fan engagement while also increasing conversion rates.
As an example, the Seattle Sounders franchise uses machine learning to build and organize previously unknown segments in its fan base that allow them to identify last-minute ticket buyers, fans who only attend when the Sounders play a specific opponent, and fans at risk of disengaging from the brand. With this granular view, the franchise’s marketing team are able to send customized emails that highlight these preferences and behaviors. The result? More relevant offers and information, which led to an 80-percent increase in conversions from the previous year.
Going Big on Game Day
Even before fans enter the stadium or arena, teams can use first-party data to help to personalize their experiences. Mobile apps can suggest optimal parking spots based on fan locations. Once they’re through the gates, fans can also receive recommendations on deals for food and beverages tailored to their previous purchases. Teams can also send push notifications throughout the game to select fans for exclusive experiences.
In addition, data doesn’t just enhance individual fan experiences, it optimizes stadium operations. Teams can use data to quickly identify crowd flow patterns to proactively address bottlenecks and congestion in high-traffic areas like entrances and concessions. Teams also use data to make sure that they’re stocking the right merchandise based on fan preferences for that game, reducing the risk of shortages or overstocking. These insights help ensure a smooth, enjoyable experience for all fans.
Enhancing Fan Loyalty and Revenue
Teams that make smart use of first-party data to boost fan engagement and loyalty ultimately translate this into revenue. Marketing teams are able to develop a sophisticated understanding of fan behaviors to more skillfully craft strategies to generate more sales and keep them coming back.
This enhancement isn’t limited to internal marketing. By aligning their marketing strategies with fan behaviors and preferences, franchises can optimize outside sponsorships and strategic partnerships. These kinds of advertising and relationships can be hyper-targeted to specific segments of fans, making them more relevant and actionable. Such precise alignment benefits both the franchise and its partners, creating more mutually beneficial relationships.
Future-Proofing Fan Engagement
By leveraging first-party data with a unified customer data platform, teams can unlock the full potential of their fans, from the hardcore season-ticket holders to the last-minute Friday night ticket buyers. Unified data uncovers new revenue opportunities for teams while creating unique, meaningful experiences for their fans.
This type of engagement not only creates more meaningful experiences for fans, it also enriches the fans’ relationships with their favorite teams and players. As fan behavior continues to evolve, teams need to ensure that they are meeting the ever-changing expectations of fans while also forging new relationships. First-party data is at the heart of this evolution.
Cooper Helfet is Vice President of Strategic Growth at Amperity, where he leads efforts to help brands manage and optimize their customer data. He is also the co-founder and executive director of The Nature Project, which connects underprivileged youth with nature and professional athlete mentors. Before transitioning into his current role, Helfet played professional football as a tight end for the Seattle Seahawks and Oakland Raiders.
Photo by Andrew Gearhart on Unsplash
