The foundation of a successful online program for any team marketer is based upon three key principles.
First, integrate and merge offline and online initiatives. Simply put, start promotions in stadium and finish them on the Web, or vice versa.
Second, provide enough incentive and added value that even the most casual fan is compelled to visit the Web site and interact with the promotion.
Third, pick the right technology and have a plan in place to support the concept. Many teams still are guilty of the “If you build it, they will come” philosophy with their Web site, but it does require a dedicated strategy to achieve success.
The Class AAA Sacramento River Cats deserve an A+ grade. Not only does the club understand this lesson, but it also provides a template for teams looking to breathe life into their own fan loyalty and frequency programs via the power of the Internet.
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| The River Cats’ site is heavy on interactivity. |
The River Cats’ program uses technology produced by San Francisco-based SeaBridge. The company’s software allows the team to create a destination page on its Web site (rivercats.com).
Launched this week, the page features myriad promotions in which fans can participate. The choices range from receiving Little League tips to concepts that will be launched in-season.
For example, one idea will tease fans with phrases that are announced at a River Cats game. The fans will be provided incentives to enter the phrase into the Web site when they return home. Upon visiting the section, fans will be asked to give their e-mail address and create a password for their account.
“It’s all about making it a seamless experience for our fans that starts at the ballpark and continues when they get home,” said Joe Wagoner, director of marketing for the River Cats. “Selfishly, it allows us a very unique and efficient way to collect data and learn more and more about our fans that we expect will transfer into significant ticket sales opportunities.”
How the team will transfer those leads into ticket sales opportunities is based in the genius of the software. The system can read into the preferences of the fans by understanding the games they attended and the specific variables for those games.
For example, if Joe Fan attended a Tuesday night game that featured a bobblehead giveaway and a postgame fireworks show, the system would sort it accordingly. That information would be accessible to the team.
Wagoner and his staff would then contact the fans on that list via phone calls and e-mail campaigns for future fireworks or bobblehead games. Wagoner said the team conservatively is projecting that the campaign will help the River Cats generate between 50,000 and 75,000 new e-mail addresses.
“Sales is all about opening doors and maintaining relationships, and we only have so many dollars that we can spend on advertising, so we have to get creative and aggressive in our messages,” Wagoner said.
“This allows us a very non-intrusive way to reach ticket buyers, and it is all based on their position of interacting with us online. It is just our job then to follow up with them.”
This step is where a lot of initiatives tend to fail. Many teams admit they are guilty of putting all their efforts, online and offline, into data collection, without any emphasis on what to do with the information.
“Technology and strategy are not two distinct processes,” said Brett Zingler, vice president of SeaBridge. “An initiative of this size requires us and the team to look at this whole program from a holistic view. It’s really imperative to the success.”
While the River Cats are SeaBridge’s first sports clients, Zingler did confirm that his company is completing a deal with an NBA team.n
Dan Migala (dmigala@sportsbusinessjournal.com) is publisher of The Migala Report.
