Fan loyalty is at the forefront of every team’s objectives. Loyalty is defined as “having or showing complete and constant support of someone or something.” Teams build loyalty in many ways: social media, events, player appearances and, of course, winning. Season ticket holders are a prime example of fan loyalty. They are the super fans.
Building loyalty with corporate partners presents a bigger challenge. They aren’t the super fans. In fact, they may not live in your city, or state, and could be fans of another team. So the question is: How do you create fan loyalty with corporate partners?
Listen
Listening is important in all aspects of life: school, work, relationships (trust me on this one). When it comes to corporate development, both sales and activation, listening builds the foundation for loyalty. What are your partners telling you? What is important to them? What are they hoping to get out of the partnership? How do they measure ROI? Who is their target audience? At the same time it is equally important for you to ask the right questions to assist in uncovering these answers.
“Partnerships that stand out are with teams that take the time to understand our needs and the needs of our brands. We work together to create programs in and out of the game day experience and we make sure that our programs make sense for both parties. We are simply not filling a round hole with a square peg.” – Doug Mraw, Anheuser-Busch
Understand their business
In corporate development you are not only working for your team, you are working for your client. Your client’s goals are your goals. Understanding the client’s industry will help you to accomplish this.
Do research on the company and stay up-to-date on industry news. I have found that social media is one of the best ways to stay informed. Follow your client and others in the industry on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn about the client as well as be in the forefront of industry news. Is there a platform they are focusing on? For example, how can you build off of State Farm’s “assist” platform? Is there a new product they are pushing in the market? Anheuser-Busch’s big push of their new brand, Montejo is another great example. Understanding their business will help you bring new ideas to the table and make a huge impact on your client.
Creativity
Now for the fun part! Use the information you gathered to come up with creative and unique activations. Be creative and stand out from what other teams are doing to separate you from their other partners. Always be sure to keep their goals and objectives in mind.
“We created a monthly newsletter for one of my biggest clients. We wanted to keep both the client and us as an organization engaged together throughout the season. Recapping their involvement with SSE each month reinforces our commitment to each other’s goals. The newsletter also makes it easy for their company as a whole to be looped in on what they’re doing with us throughout the season.” – Ashley DelValle, Partnership Activation, San Antonio Spurs
Relate
It is easier to sell and retain clients with whom you have a close relationship. Meet with your clients face to face on a consistent basis. Find out what is important to them personally. Do they have kids? Pets? When are their birthdays? Surprise them by remembering this information. If a birthday is coming up, send gift. Stop by the office with breakfast, cupcakes, or team gear on game days. It will make them feel important and make a big impact! If they aren’t local, call them on their birthdays or mail them gifts. Get creative! Go above and beyond!
ROI
At the end of the day, what your client is looking for is a return on investment. How this is measured will vary on the client. It could be growth in sales, brand awareness, capturing leads, driving traffic to their website, and much more. Customer surveys are a great way to capture this information. Do fans recognize the partner as a sponsor of the team? Are your team’s fans more likely than non-fans to be aware of, consider, buy from, or visit the website of the partner?How does that make the fan feel towards the partner? Are they more likely to recommend to a family member or friend? If you can give your client the return on investment, you’re going to have a good shot at increasing loyalty and building a successful partnership.
My experience with successful sponsorship activation has been lukewarm: Like having one foot in a bucket of cold water and the other in boiling hot. Sometimes we hit it out of the park and other times, well, you get the idea.
Thankfully, I had the opportunity to ask my friends on the All-Star Sponsorship panel and discussion at the Baylor Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) annual board meeting what has worked well for them. Thanks to Travis Dillon (The Marketing Arm) for moderating the panel!
Activation Insights
1. Integrate the sponsor into the field of play. Matt Brand, Vice President of Partnerships, Houston Astros, explained, “When a hit ball strikes the ‘fowl (foul) poles’ everyone in the stands gets a FREE Chick-fil-A sandwich. This drives traffic and fan excitement!” Another similar example are the foul poles at the Padres’ Petco Park that look like TaylorMade golf drivers. You might even want to hang a Kia automobile over the center of the court like the Texas Legends.
[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”125px” height=”125px” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ][slideshow_deploy id=’3336′][/dropshadowbox]2. Activate via single channels for impact. Greg Grissom, Vice President of Partnerships, Houston Texans: “We ran a promotion for Sonic through a single social media channel (e.g., Facebook) to drive traffic. Fans following the Texans’ Facebook were aware that if the Texans win on Sunday, Tuesday is “Free Slushy Day” at Sonic. The promotion drives secondary sales through increased traffic.”
I’ve found promotions tied to wins and high scores seems to help motivate the team to play better. So, maybe the teams should pay the sponsor for agreeing to do this!
3. Drive retail with the use of the team’s marks. George Killebrew, Vice President of Partnerships, Dallas Mavericks: “Connecting Dr Pepper, Budweiser or Gatorade to case sales in grocery stores to register to win tickets ties two brands together and drives purchases for both!” Using the team’s logo and likenesses always attracts attention in crowded retail spaces.
4. Leverage community support. Jeanne Garza, Director of Corporate Partnerships, San Antonio Spurs: “One of my favorite activation strategies is actually by Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut leveraged their media buys and the goal of giving back to the community. Each January when customers purchase a pizza a portion goes to support the Spurs Youth Basketball League. Both the team and Pizza Hut promote this and everyone wins!”
And we got one more good example from the floor from Steve Flynn.
5. Test-drive. Steve Flynn, Regional Marketing Manager, General Motors: “We integrate marketing and activation at the World Series, Texas State Fair, and other events to do one thing: Get people to take a seat in a Chevrolet and take a test-drive.” Having a singular activation focus that you know results in converting prospects into customers promises a good return on the investment.
Bonus Activation Idea
So, those five are pretty good. Here’s my favorite activation promotion we run at Pizza Hut.
Borrow and build fan passion. We create excitement and gain tremendous fan engagement with the Pizza Hut, “Delivery of the Game” for football and basketball. We deliver pizzas into the stands and the fans go crazy. It aligns with our delivery service and sampling our great pizza. The more that can be given to a variety of sections the better, not just students or the same section each game!
What other ideas do you have? Click the Twitter button below and let us know @BaylorS3, @PizzaHut, #activation.
When the NHL announced in May that they will be expanding their highly successful outdoor game concept showcased by their New Year’s day Winter Classic, many critics asked how much is too much? I’d like to think of it as stepping outside the box, since so much of what we do is focused on what goes on inside a big box we call our arena.
With the announcement of the Stadium Series presented by Coors Light, the NHL will be adding 5 additional games to the lineup. Gary Bettman was noted as saying,
“The reason we’re doing more outdoor games is really what it’s now doing locally,” Bettman said. “This is an incomparable event and what happens is fans get connected to the game in ways they never imagined, we get new fans who, for the first time, will come and be a part of this. This is a fan-oriented, fan-driven event, and that’s why we’re doing so many games so we can bring it to more fans.” (Thursday, 08.08.2013 / 4:55 PM / The Canadian Press)
Outdoor Hockey in LA
If you were in LA looking for an outdoor venue for hockey, where would you look? What about Dodger Stadium?
Opened April 10, 1962; the third-oldest continually used park in Major League Baseball.
Hosted more than 147 million fans since it opened
Hosted eight World Series and close to 4,000 regular-season games.
Zero hockey games.
With a remarkable view of Chavez Ravine overlooking downtown Los Angeles and the San Gabriel mountains, Dodger Stadium has been called one of the treasured cathedrals of baseball with one of the most unique and picturesque settings in sports. Of course, critics ask how a hockey game is possible in a “warm weather city”? Doesn’t it need to be freezing cold?
The Kings actually have some history with outdoor hockey events. The NHL’s first outdoor game was an exhibition in the parking lot of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Sept. 27, 1991. That game took place in 85-degree weather. But, further evidence as to the possibility of this game is simple science. The average high in January in Los Angeles is 68 and the average nighttime low is 48 degrees. Translation? If we play the averages, we are slated to have one of the best settings for a hockey game imaginable. In fact, with a little luck, we’ll have temperatures more pleasurable than a full NHL venue on a game night.
With all of this in mind, when the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks were asked to participate in an outdoor game in our market in one of the most iconic and historical venues in the history of our country, Gary Bettman’s words “incomparable”, “innovative”, “fan driven” all came to mind.
Since the arrival of the Kings in Los Angeles in 1967 many stepping stones have been passed to spur the growth of the game on the West Coast:
The Gretzky trade in 1988,
The arrival of the San Jose Sharks in 1991,
The Kings 1993 Stanley Cup Finals participation,
The arrival of the Anaheim Ducks (also 1993), and
The marquee moments of Stanley Cup Championships for the Ducks in 2006 and Kings in 2012.
All have lead us to this moment where the Kings and Ducks can showcase the game on one of the most unique stages during the Grammy Awards’ weekend in Los Angeles.
Measures of success
As we plan ahead for this moment in January we often ask ourselves what will be the measuring stick of success for this game? Will it be a sold out venue? Big NBC national ratings?
“This is a credit to our fans and the amazing support they have shown to us and the NHL these past few years. This will be a sporting event like no other that has ever been seen in Southern California and we are proud to be a part of it.” [/dropshadowbox]With this platform these two outcomes are almost certainties. A sell out and a big national rating are almost a given. Broadcast partners indicate an excitement for this game and ticket sales trends are ahead of all historical trends of other outdoor games.
But for us, the growth of the game on the west coast is the most important measuring stick. Big local ratings, attention to the Ducks and Kings Freeway Faceoff rivalry, and the ability for as many hockey and sports fans in Los Angeles to be touched by this game will create the sustainable impact we are looking for short and long term. Plans are still in the works to capitalize on this moment, but these are the objectives we are focused on. We welcome any constructive comments or creative ideas below!
In a game slated to be one of the most historical hockey events ever, the NHL has a chance to garner the attention of the local and national media like never before. As, the host and participating home club, we have a platform to grow the game in a way never available to a market like Southern California.
Why your digital marketing manager should be all over Pinterest
The majority of Pinterest users are women (about 2/3rds). What should this tell teams?
A great way to reach women is through Pinterest. Last time I checked, women are an important audience for any sports team. The fact that teams aren’t effectively using Pinterest likely says more about the makeup of the digital marketing team than it does the potential benefits of building out the team’s Pinterest boards with the same intensity as we have our other social media.
What should stand out to you from these Pinteresting facts is that 28% of users are moms with household incomes above $100,000 and that the referral rate from Pinterest dominates other social media.
In addition to directly building and reinforcing fan passion among women, teams should effectively communicate with women because of their influence on joint family decisions, like buying season tickets and influencing media viewing habits.
How can we do a better job?
What teams are doing a good job with Pinterest? Comment below or send an email to suggest follow-up articles on the S3 Report.
A couple of suggestions
Given what’s of most interest on Pinterest now (below), how could teams capitalize on the millions of followers? I’ll start with two ideas: First, partner with a brand who does well in targeting women. Second, start a board on Weddings at the Ballpark.
Most popular brand boards on Pinterest (click to go to source article)
“The reason we’re doing more outdoor games is really what it’s now doing locally,” Bettman said. “This is an incomparable event and what happens is fans get connected to the game in ways they never imagined, we get new fans who, for the first time, will come and be a part of this. This is a fan-oriented, fan-driven event, and that’s why we’re doing so many games so we can bring it to more fans.”
