In your July 16-22 edition, I read with great interest both Patrick Heffernan’s opinion — in which he highlighted the importance for sponsors to demonstrate a real connection to fans through a proper alignment and effective activation — and Robb Heineman’s opinion, in which he focused on the importance of building a custom, personal and emotional connection via the digital channels that fans are living in, as well as the need to collect data in order to enable and enhance this connection. Both authors, of course, understand well how difficult it is to cut through the clutter and engage with fans in a world in which they are bombarded with advertisements at every turn.
Teams and brands can heed both Heffernan’s and Heineman’s advice by moving from a 1-to-many communication approach to a 1-to-1 strategy. Rather than just sending out mass emails or social media posts, which end up being ignored and/or not seen, a specialized platform can allow teams to have custom, lead generating and engaging conversations through the social channels fans prefer to be on, such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Alexa, etc. The St. Louis Blues, for example, have engaged 1-to-1 with thousands of their fans and have click-through rates north of 30 percent, six times greater than any method of communication can provide. As we continue to move to a more sophisticated marketing world, teams and brands need to continue to innovate in order to prosper. As Heffernan pointed out, impressions are no longer enough of a success metric. For not that much of an investment, marketers have the ability to truly connect and provide value to their customer base.
Joshua Jacoby
New York
joshua.jacoby@picogp.com
