Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images
By Robert Gray
The Los Angeles Rams can’t welcome fans to the team’s newly opened, $5 billion football mecca due to COVID-19 restrictions, so the team is virtually sharing some of SoFi Stadium’s state-of-the-art elements.
“Since we are unable to tour fans around this spectacular building, we need to find different ways to bring them ‘into’ SoFi Stadium in the meantime,” says Kevin Demoff, the team’s COO. “Transitioning over to a fully virtual game day and fan engagement strategy provided new opportunities.”
ST PRO DAY: Don’t Miss Reopening Sports Venue on Nov. 17
The Rams are engaging fans through the team’s mobile app and website, offering several free experiences that are designed to create community in a season of social distancing—and to help offset the missed opportunities of connecting with fans in person.
There are two new digital experiences this season, the interactive Gamedays at Home and the #RamsHouse Virtual Experience, while the Rams Pick’em prediction contest is in its second season.
Almost Like Being There
This is the first time the NFL has allowed teams to create second-screen experiences to complement live broadcasts. Gamedays at Home connects Ram fans with the team and each other using gamification, video access to the team and stadium, and an in-game chatroom.
Before and after kickoff on game days, the team incorporates in-stadium elements from the venue’s double-sided, 2.2-million-pound video scoreboard to make fans feel as if they’re part of the action—including pregame player introductions and shared highlights that are first shown on the stadium scoreboard.
The experience leads fans in the “Whose House? Rams House!” cheer, features a mariachi band playing festive tunes, and asks Rams trivia questions. The team’s digital reporter has joined fans in the chatroom, which remained robust during recent games. Rams officials say users are averaging 45 minutes on the second-screen experience.
Marissa Daly, the Rams’ VP/GM of media, notes that the chat functionality is an example of how all the experiences are works in progress. “We started without chat, then added chat, and now you can chat and see content at the same time,” she says. “The team is optimizing it week-over-week.”
Pick’em Power
The Rams have hit paydirt with their pick’em game, which centers on pregame predictions such as which team has the first long pass completion or which of four players will have the most tackles in the game.
Pechanga Resort Casino, a founding sponsor of SoFi Stadium, became title sponsor for the weekly contests this season. Team officials say engagement has doubled year-over-year. “We’re really pleased,” says Daly. “Anything up year-over-year in 2020 is exceeding my expectations. We all wish we had a stadium full of fans, but making custom content for it, staffing people, seeing positive results is awesome.”
Prizes include gift cards to Fanatics, a team sponsor, to buy Rams gear (which was redesigned this year along with the team’s new-look uniforms). The grand prize is an “ultimate game experience” at SoFi Stadium in 2021.
AR Experience: All-Access Pass for Fans
The Rams would love to be showcasing their new stadium, which is the centerpiece of a 300-acre development taking shape in Inglewood, just south of L.A. and a few miles from the city’s airport.
Since that is not an option, the team is offering the next best thing—an augmented reality experience offering virtual all-access tours.
The team’s quarterback, Jared Goff, makes a cameo inside the locker room and leads users out onto the field, where you can gaze up and through the massive, oval video scoreboard and the stadium’s clear ETFE roof to see SoCal blue skies. The AR experience also allows fans to wander around the concourse and season-ticket holders can check out the vantage point from their seats.
Says Daly: “Fans want to see more of SoFi Stadium, we’re making sure we’re delivering that—never-been-seen parts of the stadium and teaching them about things there.” The object is to make fans familiar with the venue now so it feels familiar when it reopens to the public.
Digital Pay Dirt?
Daly says more advertisers will have a digital presence and cites the weekly “Mic’d Up” feature (presented by YouTube TV) as an example. But the Rams media executive adds, “Our first priority is to feed the fan and second is to monetize it in the most organic way.”
This is all part of the team’s plans to further cement its relationship with local fans and of course, to boost future ticket sales in the age of COVID.
The Rams, of course, returned to Los Angeles in 2016 after spending 22 years in St. Louis. And with more than a dozen pro and major college sports teams in Southern California, there’s no shortage of competition for fan attention and dollars, including SoFi Stadium’s other tenant: the NFL’s Chargers, who returned to its hometown in 2017 after more than half a century in San Diego.
ST PRO DAY: Save the Date (Dec. 8) for the Future of Fan Engagement
Daly says success this year is not defined by ticket sales or the number of butts in seats, but rather digital and social engagement, retention rates, and growing the fanbase. “What could be ancillary avenues [before COVID-19] are now priority avenues for fan engagement.”
She notes the team’s expanding array of content includes new podcasts, video interviews, and special series, including “heartwarming stories” about several Rams players and coaches affected by cancer that will be part of the team’s Crucial Catch game against Chicago in the first Monday Night Football tilt at SoFi Stadium.
“Ever since we returned to Los Angeles, deepening our connection with fans, no matter where they are, has been a priority,” says Demoff. “We can’t wait to welcome fans to SoFi Stadium, when it is safe to do so, but even after we can, we will continue to find creative, digital ways to bring fans closer to SoFi Stadium and the Los Angeles Rams.”
Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at talkback@sporttechie.com
