The Utah Jazz has signed a five-year deal to install Sporting Innovations’ Fan360 platform, new mobile technology designed to improve the fan experience and provide a deeper understanding of customers’ spending and social media habits.
The team’s investment runs in the high six figures, keeping in mind the Jazz caught a price break by stepping forward as the first big league team to sign a deal, said Asim Pasha, managing partner of Sporting Innovations. The tech firm is owned by MLS’s Sporting Kansas City.
The Jazz bought the technology after seeing an earlier version at Sporting Park, the soccer team’s stadium, said Craig Sanders, Jazz senior vice president of marketing.
The Jazz has the ability to take the technology one step further with Fan360, which combines a mobile application, CRM and data collection tied to ticketing and concession point-of-sale systems at EnergySolutions Arena, said Andy Tretiak, Sporting Innovations’ vice president of marketing.
Sporting Innovations, whose competitors include Willow Tree, Yinzcam, MLB Advanced Media, Kore Software and Microsoft Dynamics, among others, labels its mobile application as Uphoria.
When the Jazz activates its free app in October for the regular season, it will be branded for the NBA club and replace the team’s current app, Sanders said.
Jazz fans can download the app and join the team’s loyalty program. The technology tracks fans’ purchases of tickets and concessions through their mobile devices or through scanning their membership cards.
After the game concludes, the technology has compiled multiple points of information based on fan behavior during the game and builds upon those individual profiles as they attend more events and make more purchases, Pasha said.
In addition to pushing mobile offers on food, retail and ticket upgrades, the technology, for example, can pinpoint the time a fan tweeted a photo and the number of followers retweeting the image. The Jazz can then pursue those followers as potential sales leads, according to a tutorial on Sporting Innovations’ website.
The platform also serves as a CRM system with tools for the Jazz to aggregate information and produce marketing programs targeting groups and individuals.
The technology gives the team the information necessary to send targeted messages to individuals rather than bombarding them with mass emails, Sanders said.
“What really excited me is the relevancy in understanding the needs and requirements of what is important to the fan, from start to finish,” he said. “It helps us change our approach a little bit with a customizable program. The more they are engaged with us, the more we know what they want.”
The Fan360 platform has a mobile video element that the Jazz plans to activate later, Pasha said.
