Data is everywhere. In every corner and aspect of today’s society and economy. And of course, sports and essentially the professional sports business, are no exception here. This diverse ecosystem entails tons of data about athletes, fans, teams, performances, media and merchandise value, sponsoring, marketing and so much more.
Especially football, one of the most followed sports on the planet, generates tremendous amounts of data on a daily basis. This creates a valuable data treasure, especially with regards to commercial aspects: hospitality expenses, the purchase behaviour of fans, responsiveness to sponsoring and activation measures – Every interaction of a fan with a club’s digital touchpoint produces data that can be used to better understand his or her behaviour and affinities.
And if clubs want to be commercially successful in the next decades, they truly need to put fans and their interests first and create the best digital experiences for them. The fans set the tone and expect individual and personalized treatment and offers from their clubs.
The unexploited potential
Many clubs have been collecting all sorts of fan data for years now and are therefore already sitting on an enormous data treasure, but most of the time do not have the expertise and resources to exploit this potential accordingly. Clubs currently often address this – by now – well-known challenge by implementing a technical solution (e.g. via the introduction of CRM, data platform or similar). However, the evaluation of specific use cases, their end-to-end implementation with the help of data and their systematic analysis is often neglected.
To further drive innovation in the sports industry, the global sports business agency SPORTFIVE introduces its extensive knowledge and experience in the fan data area into a project that will benefit its partner football club RC Lens.
The unexploited potential
As an innovation driver in the sports industry, the global sports business agency utilizes its network, digital resources and experience to optimize sales in retail, hospitality and sponsoring on behalf of RC Lens – whilst keeping the interests and experience of fans always at the center. Therefore SPORTFIVE utilized its data intelligence and built, together with digital service provider Data Talks, the technical basis to capitalize on this potential. This platform will integrate, visualize and make available for state-of-the-art data science data from the club’s most important data sources such as ticketing, retail shop, website tracking, mobile app, marketing and CRM.
This collaboration follows a certain structure:
The partners
- French football club RC Lens
- International sports business agency SPORTFIVE
- Digital data service provider Data Talks
The setup
- For the benefit of the French football club RC Lens, SPORTFIVE now launched a joint project with Data Talks, in which corresponding fan use cases were developed and monetarily evaluated
- This project is a great example of how the multi-national power of SPORTFIVE benefits rights-holders, fans and sponsors. While the rights-holder and local business expertise comes from SPORTFIVE France, the technology and data experience is brought in by the SPORTFIVE Germany Fan Data team, which is already conducting similar projects with German rights-holders. Moreover, In the Lens case, a specifically developed fan data platform from supplier Data Talks supports the successful implementation of these use cases
The objectives
- Overall increase of merchandise, sponsoring and hospitality revenues for RC Lens
- To identify the most suited sponsors on the basis of fan preferences (digital activities, ticketing expenses, stadium behaviour, buying intent, etc.) and vice versa
- To satisfy fans in offering them the most targeted and engaging contents with their club and its commercial partners
The process
- Collaboratively developing appropriate use cases and assessing their revenue potential
- The use cases were prioritised accordingly, and funds were allocated for technology and resources
- In addition, the need for skills for their end-to-end implementation - for instance in data analysis, campaign management and content creation - was determined and included in the project planning
The responsibilties
- The SPORTFIVE Fan Data Team provides the entire data preparation and analysis
- SPORTFIVE generates target customer lists and recommendations for action with regards to fan communication whilst also covering campaign management and content creation
- SPORTFIVE coordinates the service provider Data Talks
- The underlying technology and the integration of the data sources is being implemented by the Swedish data service provider company Data Talks
The unexploited potential
In the future, all merchandising campaigns at RC Lens will be designed and delivered in a target-group-specific manner, and fans will be addressed more personally and based on their previous behaviour along the club’s digital touch points. In sponsoring, fan data will be used to identify the most suited sponsors on the basis of fan preferences and vice versa and to satisfy fans in offering them the most targeted and engaging contents with their club and its commercial partners. Thus, an extensive 360° view of a fan can be created based on the collected and analyzed data:
The unexploited potential
Would you like to get more detailed insights on this specific fan data topic or discuss concrete opportunities for your club with us? Then feel free to enter your personal data below and we will contact you shortly. Or reach out directly via e-mail to de.fandata@sportfive.com or by phone to + 49 (0) 151 550 129 20.
