MINNEAPOLIS, MN – DECEMBER 18: Fans arrive outside of US Bank Stadium before Minnesota Vikings play the Indianapolis Colts on December 18, 2016 at in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The temperature in Minneapolis is -12 degrees fahrenheit. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
It’s a bit of an understatement to say professional sports teams have a lot of data to manage. Without the right system to house the data, teams fall behind in terms of connecting the analytical dots. SSB works with sports leagues and franchises to create a so-called data warehouse, making numbers usable from an analytics perspective.
“The easiest way to explain it is we take different data sets, which exist in all businesses, but especially in sports,” said Bill Bailey, SSB’s VP of Sports & Entertainment.
As the ticket holder downloads the team app, buys concessions and merchandise, logs on to WiFi, data is being created. All of it is then pulled together by SSB into one foundational layer, Bailey explained. The problem with this process in the past was being left with silos of different data — none of it being compiled together.
The old way of compiling data left teams with multiple versions of the same fan. This would mean somebody going on a wild goose chase just to find a cleaned-up version of one person.
Bailey experienced this issue first-hand during his time as SVP of Sales for the New Orleans Hornets. “I had different versions of people around and to get all that into a space that I can really understand the fan — or a segment of fans — and communicate with them properly is hard.”
This clean version, or as SSB titles it, “The Golden Record,” is created by the platform. From here, conclusions can be made based off fans’ actions. “Juxtaposing data together is where insight happens,” Bailey said. “You go, ‘wow, people who download the app are more likely to renew their season tickets. Maybe I should stop asking them so overtly to renew their season tickets, maybe I should get them just to download the app.'”
A platform like SSB’s becomes even more valuable as a team moves into a new venue. New location means new data sets and a virtual reset on a lot of things. The majority professional teams with new buildings have signed on with SSB.
One of those is the Minnesota Vikings, who moved into U.S. Bank Stadium in 2016 following 31 years at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. The decision to go with SSB was an easy one, according to Vikings Director of Analytics & Fan Engagement, Rich Wang. “Ultimately, SSB pitched us with our own data and what I mean by that is SSB has a deal with the NFL and they already were consuming Vikings’ ticket holder data.”
Wang, who aims to build a rich, deep consumer fan profile for communications and promotions, described SSB as industry leaders for all data sources.
SSB’s platform has allowed the Vikings to complete customer profiles, among other things.
“Our day-to-day is not to, you know, be data scientists and engineers, we are working silos,” Wang said.
That means SSB can allow the Vikings to connect the dots regarding fans who performed certain actions at a game like buying a hat, consuming Coca-Cola, etc. “That’s the execution to tie the dots there to say that okay, this person used their CR code to earn points by buying two hot dogs. Now we know that ‘Rich’ is a rewards member that came to this game, scanned though the digital ticketing, used his mobile app to earn points that he’s actually here.”
Wang also explained that they also used the platform as a sort of “consulting quarterback” when on-boarding new vendors at the stadium.
Bailey summed the platform up best, saying, “Like we say, let’s let smart people do smart work, right? You guys all know how to run your business, why don’t you go run it. Stop working inside the data, work on the data, work on the business.”
